The people had no sympathy for Niobe, whom they re-
garded as entirely to blame.
garded as entirely to blame.
Ovid - 1934 - Metamorphoses in European Culture - v2
Originally this was made by running
strings across a hollow shell. The musician held the shell in his lap and
touched the strings with a small implement made of horn called a plec-
trum. The Homeric Hymn to Mercury spoke of that god as making the
first lyre from the shell of a tortoise. Apollo obtained the instrument
from him and became famous for his skill in playing it. During histor-
ical times the lyre appears to have been made either of ivory or of wood.
It had the advantage of allowing the musician to sing as well as play.
* During modern times the ancient vertical flute has been supplanted by the
transverse flute. On this instrument the mouthpiece is adjusted to the side, and the
performer holds the tube horizontally.
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? MARSYAS
Probably for this reason it became a favorite instrument wjth the courtly
and urbane, and in the tales both of Marsyas and of Pan the lyre ob-
tained the victory over the flute.
The woodland god Pan was reputed to be an excellent flute player.
Similar ability was attributed to other male divinities of the country-
side. These the Greeks designated either as sileni or as satyrs. Both
were supernatural beings, long-lived but not immortal. They were human
in form but shaggy, with pointed ears and coarse features. The sileni
were bearded in appearance, the satyrs smooth-faced and youthful. The
Romans tended to identify satyrs with fauns and to represent them as
half animal -- with the hoofs, tails, and shaggy lower limbs of goats.
In Greek tradition Marsyas appeared ordinarily as a silenus. But Ovid
always referred to him as a satyr.
In the earliest form of the story, Marsyas himself was inventor of
the flute. This idea Plato seems to have recalled in his dialogue, The
Laws. But the invention usually was attributed to Athena. Pindar gave
the following account. When Perseus killed Medusa, the other Gorgons
broke into shrill cries of lament. The strange new sounds attracted
Athena so much that she devised an instrument which would allow her
to imitate them at will, and so she began the art of flute playing. Greek
tradition did not follow Pindar's account of the Gorgon lament, but
ordinarily it agreed in making Athena inventress of the flute. Marsyas
had profited by her discovery.
Beginning towards the middle of the fifth century B. C. , Greek
painters and sculptors often dealt with the myth of Marsyas. The
story implied was as follows. Athena observed that flute playing dis-
torted her features, and she threw down the instrument in disgust. Mar-
syas immediately picked it up. Angry at his wishing to preserve it, she
struck him. But Marsyas kept the flute and became celebrated among
the country folk of Lydia. Grown presumptuous, he challenged Apollo
to a contest. The Muses were appointed to judge and gave Apollo the
victory. Then the god punished the silenus with a terrible death. He
bound Marsyas to a pine tree and caused a Scythian to flay him alive.
Actual cases of flaying have occurred in many parts of the world,
but fortunately this extreme form of cruelty seems never to have been
common. The Greeks and Romans preferred torture of other sorts. Yet
in late Roman times at least one Christian martyr was flayed alive.
Michelangelo pictured him in the Last Judgment wearing a new skin
but holding up the other as evidence which would send the murderers to
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SIX
Hell. In the Middle Ages flaying sometimes was resorted to, notably in
the case of Bertrand de Gourdon, who caused the death of Richard
Coeur de Lion. And in 1587 the Turks inflicted this cruel torture on
Marcantonio Bragadino, last Venetian governor of Cyprus. Occasionally
such ferocity may have been sanctioned by law and public opinion, for a
medieval Lay of Havelok records it with satisfaction as the fate of a
tyrant who caused the hero's misfortunes. But in general it seems to
have been thought an excess, which was to be condoned only in the case
of an extraordinary offender. It seems to have entered rarely into myth-
ology and in Greek tradition to have been recorded only of Marsyas.
Greek art treated all the chief incidents of the myth. The sculptor
Myron in a very famous work showed Athena striking Marsyas. Other
sculptors copied his work, sometimes altering details. Their statues often
adorned the market place of some Greek city, and a copy at Rome was
mentioned by Horace, Martial, and Juvenal. Other artists showed Mar-
syas playing his newly discovered flute. Still others dealt with the con-
test between Marsyas and Apollo. In a temple at Mantinea, Praxiteles
made this event the theme of beautiful sculptured reliefs. He contrasted
the effort of Marsyas with the ease and grace of Apollo. In the back-
ground he showed a slave holding the ominous knife. But the event most
frequently treated was the vengeance of Apollo. In general, Greek
artists were content to show the grim preparations. Painter and sculp-
tor represented Marsyas with his back against the pine tree and his arms
stretched above his head. Ropes about his ankles and wrists held him
fast, while the Scythian whetted the knife.
Greek artists had not associated the tale of Marsyas with any par-
ticular place. Towards the middle of the fifth century B. C. , oral tradi-
tion localized it in Celaenae, a Lydian town already famous for two
palaces erected by Persian kings. One of these, built at a little distance
from the town, marked the source of the Maeander River; the other stood
on a hill occupied by the citadel. From a cavern underneath issued the
Catarrhactes River, which formed a small lake in the market place and
then coursed through the town on its way to join the Maeander. The
reeds growing in this lake were suitable for the making of flutes and
gave the lake itself the name of Aulocrene (Fluter's Pool). Here Apollo
was said to have vanquished Marsyas and hung the skin. Referring to
this account, Herodotus declared that Apollo himself had done the flay-
ing, an idea repeated in most later versions of the tale. According to
Herodotus, the skin still was to be seen in the market place. Xenophon
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? MARSYAS
added in his Anabasis that originally Apollo hung the skin in the cavern
which was the source of the river and for this reason the river itself was
called the Marsyas. The same tradition was mentioned later by the
Roman historians, Livy and Curtius.
The Manual, telling the story in full, differed from previous au-
thorities at many points. It said nothing of Athena's displeasure at
Marsyas and did not give the contest a definite locality. It identified
Marsyas as the son of a famous musician named Olympus. Before con-
testing, the rivals agreed to let the victor do as he pleased with the van-
quished. In previous accounts Apollo had won because he was the better
musician. The Manual showed him winning by a trick. After playing
the instrument in the ordinary position, he turned it upside down and
continued playing. He bade Marsyas do likewise. But, after reversing
the flute, Marsyas found it impossible to play at all.
Nicander retold the tale. For the most part he agreed with the
Manual, but he introduced the following changes. When Athena in-
vented the flute, she played it at a banquet of the gods. They ridiculed
her. She withdrew to a quiet pool, where the reflection was clear, and
learned that flute playing distorted her face. Then she threw down the
instrument in the grass, with a curse on anyone who should take it up.
Marsyas later discovered the flute and taught the art of playing it, not
only to himself but to others. Plato in the Symposium had spoken of
Marsyas as teaching Olympus. Following this idea, Nicander described
Olympus, not as the father of Marsyas, but as a favorite pupil. In the
contest there were two trials. After the first, the judges voted for Mar-
syas. In the second, Apollo reversed his lyre and won. For the conclu-
sion of the tale Nicander introduced the idea mentioned by Xenophon,
that Marsyas gave his name to the Lydian river. But he offered a dif-
ferent explanation. Blood of the dying Marsyas sank into the ground
and emerged as the clear stream which bears his name.
Among Roman authors the version of Nicander appears to have
been well known. Propertius referred to Athena's displeasure at the
flute. In the Art of Love Ovid followed his example, and in a Pontic
Epistle he referred to Olympus, the favorite pupil of Marsyas. In the
Fasti Ovid retold briefly the first part of the tale. He followed Nicander's
history of the flute but omitted the idea of a curse. Then, as briefly as
possible, he indicated the nature of the contest and the satyr's death.
In the Metamorphoses Ovid merely alluded to the history of the
flute by calling the instrument Athena's reed. He did not describe the
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SIX
contest. He planned later to recount a similar rivalry between Apollo
and Pan, in order to show the stupidity of Midas. And so he said only
that Marsyas was defeated. But he dwelt on the vengeance of Apollo.
In vain the tortured satyr offered to renounce the flute. Apollo per-
sisted without mercy. Ovid pictured the result, with appalling details.
The satyr's whole body became nothing but a wound. Ovid rejected the
transformation of the satyr's blood. Apollonius had told how nymphs
mourned for the death of Clite until their tears became a spring.
Ovid imagined a similar lamentation for Marsyas, and he probably re-
membered how Theocritus had described the grief of pastoral folk for
Daphnis. The rural deities, he said, the herdsmen and peasants, and the
beloved Olympus wept for Marsyas, their musician, and their tears be-
came the river which bears his name.
Ovid's account influenced almost all writers who afterwards re-
ferred to the myth. In the Ibis, Ovid himself named Marsyas and re-
called a few of the circumstances. Lucan, remembering both Ovid and
the historians, declared that Marsyas was defeated and was mourned
at Celaenae. Lewis Morris retold the entire story, in idealized form. In
his version Marsyas was a young poet who did not attain perfection in
his art yet died gladly after hearing the supreme achievement of Apollo.
Regarding the nature of his death, Morris spoke vaguely of cruel stripes.
Ovid had said nothing of the lyre and had spoken of Marsyas as
being defeated in a contest with the flute. Readers unacquainted with
Greek versions of the myth would imagine that both Apollo and Marsyas
were flute players. Statius appears to have been misled by the passage,
for he gave the same impression. Dante supposed that Apollo was an
unrivalled player on the flute. At the beginning of his Paradiso he prayed
Apollo to enter his breast and breathe music as wonderful as that which
brought destruction to Marsyas. Chaucer in the House of Fame not
only repeated this error but added another. Ovid, naming the satyr only
once, had used an unfamiliar Greek accusative, Marsya. Dante had
given the Italian form, which happened to be essentially the same. And
so Chaucer declared that Apollo had vanquished a certain presumptuous
woman called Marcia!
Ovid had spoken of the satyr's entire body as becoming a single
wound. This description often was remembered. In the Ibis Ovid re-
ferred to Marsyas and used it again. He associated it with the dying
Hippolytus (Bk. 15), and in a final Pontic Epistle he declared that it
was true of himself. Lucan observed that, when Tullus fell victim to a
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? MARSYAS
serpent called the haemorrhosis, he bled at every pore and his whole
body became a wound. Tasso in his Aminta applied the description
metaphorically to a satyr, and in the Jerusalem Delivered he applied it
literally to the brave Svenn, who fell overwhelmed by the swords of
countless Moslems.
Ovid's final incident, the lament for the satyr and the transforma-
tion, attracted still other poets. Matthew Arnold, retelling the story in
his drama Empedocles, followed chiefly Greek versions; but Ovid sug-
gested his beautiful account of the grief experienced by young Olympus.
And Camoens told how nymphs, mourning for lovely Inez, created a
river of tears which still courses through her gardens and bears the name
Amouro.
Painters of the Renaissance and later times took great interest in
Ovid's myth. Following his suggestion, they pictured Marsyas as a satyr
and were inclined to give him a half animal form -- with hoofs, shaggy
legs, and strangely brute-like expression. Both Rubens and Jordaens
depicted Marsyas playing the flute. Perugino and Correggio showed the
contest, and Raphael treated it in an unfinished design. Other painters
dealt with the vengeance of Apollo. The ancients had thought of Mar-
syas as bound to a tree, but in the Metamorphoses Ovid had not men-
tioned the circumstance. Modern painters did not indicate it, and fre-
quently they pictured the satyr as lying on the ground, fastened to
stakes. Like Ovid, they showed the progress of the torture, with ap-
palling realism. This theme attracted Biliverti, Domenichino, Guido
Reni, Barbiere, and Ribera. The myth was treated also by Giordano,
Langhetti, and Guercino. But the only great painting is that of Claude
Lorrain.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SIX
Pelops
After hearing the fate of the Lycians and of Marsyas, Ovid tells
us, the Thebans continued mourning the death of King Amphion and
his children.
The people had no sympathy for Niobe, whom they re-
garded as entirely to blame. Yet there was present one person who still
wept for her, and this was Niobe's illustrious brother Pelops.
The Iliad had mentioned him as a king of the Greeks and ancestor
of Agamemnon. Many subsequent authors declared him to be a son of
Tantalus and made him the theme of numerous tales.
Some related that Tantalus conceived the idea of insulting the gods
by inviting them to a banquet and serving human flesh. For this purpose
he secretly killed his own child, Pelops, and boiled his flesh. Most of the
gods discovered the nature of the banquet and refused it. But Ceres,
inadvertent because of her grief at the loss of Proserpina (cf. Bk. 5),
ate the flesh of the left shoulder. Indignant at the fiendish trick, the
gods condemned Tantalus to torture in Hades and restored the life of
Pelops, replacing the lost shoulder with a new one made of ivory. Pindar
denied this tale; but the Manual and others accepted it, and Vergil de-
clared in the Georgics that it had become familiar to everyone.
Pindar and Sophocles recorded that, when Pelops became a man,
he departed from his native Lydia to Pisa in Elis. This idea won gen-
eral acceptance, and various reasons were given for his leaving Asia.
Pindar and many others agreed that he went to Pisa as a suitor of the
princess Hippodamia. Although a number of youths had courted her,
all had failed, because her father had required them to engage with him
in a chariot race and had defeated them and put them to death. Pelops
won the race, and the father himself was destroyed. The victor then be-
came ruler not only of Pisa but also of all southern Greece, which took
from him the name Peloponnesus. Both Pindar and the Manual told the
tale at some length, and Vergil mentioned it as universally known.
Ovid assumed that his readers were familiar with Pelops as a ruler
of southern Greece. If Pelops was son of Tantalus, he must be brother
of Niobe. It might be reasonable to imagine him at the time of her de-
struction as still ruling south of the Isthmus of Corinth, and it would
be natural for him to visit Thebes and lament for Niobe's untimely death.
Ovid stated that he did this and that in the course of his grief he drew
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? PELOPS
aside the clothing to beat his breast and revealed the famous ivory
shoulder. Ovid had told already of Lycaon's offering Jupiter human
flesh, so he did not repeat the similar myth of Tantalus. And he was
careful to avoid associating the contemporary Pelops with the ancient
quest of Proserpina. But he reminded his readers briefly of the prin-
cipal circumstances. Later he again mentioned the eating of Pelops in
his Ibis.
Up to the end of the account of Pelops, Ovid pursued a theme be-
gun in his Fifth Book and recorded examples of mortals punished for
their impiety to the gods. Pelops himself had not shown impiety, but his
ivory shoulder would remind Ovid's readers of the malefactor Tantalus
and the famous punishment in Hades (cf. Athamas, Bk. 4). With this
tale Ovid ended the series. In the story which followed he turned to the
mythical history of Athens.
The medieval French poet, Chretien de Troyes, elaborated Ovid's
account of Pelops in a narrative called Death of the Shoulder. Marlowe
spoke of the white shoulder of Pelops as rivalled by the whiteness of
Leander's neck.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SIX
Tekeus and Philomela
After the transformation of Daphne (Bk. 1) Ovid had imagined
that many river deities assembled to condole with Daphne's father, but
the river Inachus was absent. Ovid had explained his absence by the
story of Io. After the death of King Amphion and his family, Ovid
imagined that a number of cities despatched envoys to condole with
Pelops. Ovid recorded the names of eleven cities, often enlivening the
catalogue by a descriptive epithet or an allusion to a well known mytho-
logical event. Most of them were located in the Peloponnesus; a few
were situated north of the Isthmus of Corinth, among them Calydon,
later famed for the Calydonian boar (Bk. 8). Athens was not repre-
sented. Ovid explained the absence of her envoys by peril of imminent
war. Athens was relieved only by aid of Tereus, king of Thrace. By
this means Ovid passed to the famous myth of Tereus and Philomela.
In several parts of the world men have tried to account for what
they regarded as the melancholy notes of some bird. In Africa they ex-
plained the notes of the honeyeater by a tradition that she was a mother
lamenting the death of her son. In Greece the nightingale was thought
to warble sadly among dense leaves. And, although only the male bird
sings, the nightingale too was thought to be a mother grief-stricken at
the loss of her offspring. Sophocles in his Electra and Vergil in the
Georgics described her as lamenting because she had lost her family of
nestling birds. But usually the Greeks offered a different explanation.
The nightingale seemed often to repeat the sounds "Ity, Ity. " Many
Greeks interpreted them as a boy's name and declared that she once had
been a human mother who lost her only son.
The tale had several versions. According to the earliest account,
Aedon (Nightingale) was daughter of King Pandareos of Crete, an ally
of Tantalus. She married Zethus, a prince of Thebes and brother of
King Amphion. That made her a sister-in-law of Niobe. Aedon had one
child, Itylus, but Niobe had many children and so acquired far more
honor and prestige. Aedon became so envious that she attempted to kill
Niobe's oldest child. By mistake she killed her own. In order to ban-
ish her intense grief, Jupiter changed Aedon into a nightingale, which
mourns but is immune to sorrow. To this version the Odyssey referred
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? TEREUS AND PHILOMELA
at considerable length. The story was recorded by Pherecydes and was
repeated by Euripides in his drama I no.
Other birds have attracted the attention of primitive men by red
markings on the plumage of their breasts, and these markings have been
thought to be stains of blood. In the Yukon valley this idea was associ-
ated with the martin, in Rumania with the bullfinch and with one variety
of swallow, and in Greece it was associated with a kind of swallow which
nested under roofs, twittering plaintively, and which was welcomed as
the harbinger of spring. Often the swallow's ruddy breast and the night-
ingale's mournful song were attributed to the same tragic events.
This version of the tale differed much from the first. Aedon now
had a sister named Chelidona (Swallow). Aedon married an artist named
Polytechnus, and their son had the briefer name of Itys. Husband and
wife lived together in harmony until they impiously declared themselves
happier than Jupiter and Juno. The divinities were displeased and in-
volved them in a quarrel. Polytechnus, impelled chiefly by spite, rav-
ished Chelidona. Then Aedon and Chelidona obtained a terrible revenge.
They secretly killed Itys and served him as food to his father. Jupiter,
anxious to prevent further atrocity, transformed all three into birds:
Aedon became a nightingale, Chelidona a swallow, and Polytechnus a
woodpecker. This account circulated orally until Alexandrian times and
then was recorded with some further details by Boeus.
A third version of the tale agreed on the whole with the second but
added a number of circumstances. It mentioned localities. Aedon and
Chelidona were natives of Ephesus. Polytechnus, after marrying Aedon,
departed with her across the bay to live in Colophon. After husband and
wife had quarreled, the third version added a number of circumstances
about the crime of Polytechnus. Aedon bade him fetch her a slave girl.
Proceeding to Ephesus, he pretended that his wife was anxious to have
her sister visit her and so persuaded Chelidona's father to let him take
her away. After ravishing Chelidona, he warned her on pain of death to
be silent. Then he required her to put on the dress of a slave girl and
presented her in mockery to his wife. Later Aedon, overhearing Cheli-
dona's lament, learned of the crime. The new version added further cir-
cumstances to the account of the transformations. After serving the
gruesome meal, the sisters fled to Ephesus and were metamorphosed
there. Polytechnus, following them, was transformed into a pelican.
This form of the tale attracted little notice, but it may have influenced
another version which became the most famous of all.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SIX
The fourth version introduced many further changes. The two sis-
ters now were called Procne and Philomela and were daughters of the
Athenian king, Pandion. Procne married a Tracian king, Tereus, son
of Mars. Their child was Itys. In the new story the idea of impious
boasting disappeared, and nothing was said about a quarrel between
husband and wife. The tragedy was due wholly to violent lust of Tereus
for Philomela. For this cause he ravished her and the sisters planned
their terrible revenge. Procne became the nightingale. Philomela be-
came the swallow, which according to some authorities continues to re-
peat the name Tereu, Tereu in a voice of plaintive reproach.
Hesiod, alluding to the tale, observed that late in February Pan-
dion's daughter, the swallow, appears with her plaint at dawn. Sappho
spoke of the swallow as Philomela, Pandion's daughter. Aeschylus in his
Agamemnon likened Cassandra to the tawny nightingale lamenting Itys.
In the Suppliants he noted that Tereus became a hawk, which continu-
ally pursues the nightingale, -- an idea repeated much later by Hyginus.
In the Electra of Sophocles the heroine compared her grief to the sor-
row both of Niobe and of the bird always wailing for Itys. The same
twofold comparison was borrowed afterwards by Propertius.
Sophocles told the whole story in his Tereus, a tragedy which now
is lost. He recorded the tale as follows. Tereus married Procne and de-
parted with her to Thrace. At some time after the birth of Itys, Procne
asked her husband to bring Philomela there for a visit. Sailing to
Athens, he obtained Pandion's consent and brought Philomela to the
Thracian shores. But, yielding to sudden and violent lust, he conveyed
her to a residence in the country and ravished her. To prevent her
divulging the crime, he cut out her tongue. Then, arranging to have
Philomela's presence kept secret, he departed to his home and told
Procne that, when he arrived in Athens, Philomela was dead. Procne
supposed this to be true. But Philomela recorded her story by weaving
letters in a cloak, and sent it covertly to Procne. The news arrived at
the time of a biennial festival in honor of Bacchus, a period when Thra-
cian women were expected to leave their husbands and perform secret
rites in the forest (cf. Pentheus, Bk. 3). Taking advantage of the occa-
sion, Procne brought Philomela secretly to the palace. They served
Tereus the horrible feast and fled to Daulia, a Tracian colony at the
foot of Mt. Parnassus. Too late Tereus discovered the crime. He pur-
sued and overtook the sisters, and they prayed for escape in the form
of the well known birds. Tradition had made Tereus a hawk. Sophocles
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? TEREUS AND PHILOMELA
declared that he was a hawk only in the earlier months of the year. In
the autumn, he said, Tereus became a fierce-looking, crested bird called
the hoopoe.
This drama of Sophocles won great success and influenced nearly
all later treatments of the theme. Accius adapted it for the Roman
stage and also borrowed for his Philoctetes a passage in which Tereus
plotted against the unsuspecting Philomela.
Subsequent authors rejected the idea that Tereus became a hawk.
They spoke of him as changing permanently to hoopoe. At first they
were content with more or less lengthy allusion to the myth. Euripides
mentioned it both in his Rhesus and in his Hercules Furens and Aristotle
alluded to the version of Sophocles in his treatise called Rhetoric. Aris-
tophanes too alluded in the Birds to the play of Sophocles and invented
a sequel. Going in quest of the hoopoe, two Athenian adventurers found
this bird arrayed as a caricature of the one described in the tragedy.
The hoopoe spoke of himself as reconciled with his wife, the nightingale,
and as living harmoniously with her, while both mourned for their lost
Itys. He summoned his wife in a beautiful song, which Euripides after-
wards echoed in a chorus of his tragedy Helen. * The nightingale replied
and later appeared and played an overture to the chorus of birds.
The Manual recounted the story briefly, agreeing in the main with
Sophocles, but it added that Tereus won the hand of Procne because he
helped Athens in a war against Thebes. The Manual said nothing of
Procne's asking that Tereus bring Philomela to Thrace and nothing of
her taking advantage of a Bacchic festival. f
Earlier Roman poets often alluded to the story. In general they
followed Sophocles and the Manual. Catullus, mourning the death of
his brother, compared himself to the Daulian bird mourning Itylus.
Vergil told in his Culex how the gnat found in Hades the ghosts of
Pandion's daughters lamenting Itys. In his Ciris Scylla claimed kinship
with the birds, because her aunt was Procne. In the Aeneid Dido thought
of punishing the desertion of Aeneas by serving to him the flesh of his
son. Horace observed in his Art of Poetry that a metamorphosis of
Procne was an event unsuitable for representation on the stage.
Vergil thought it incongruous, for the swallow to be Philomela
* This was the only recorded instance, where a Greek tragic poet imitated an
author of comedy.
t The tale of Philomela as recorded by Sophocles and the Manual may have af-
fected a similar myth of Harpalyce, which was told in Alexandrian times by Eupho-
Tion and was repeated by Parthenius.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SIX
(Lover of Song). It was true, as Greek mythographers pointed out,
that Philomela lost her tongue and so might be able to utter nothing but
unmusical twitterings. Nevertheless Vergil felt that she ought to be-
come the nightingale, and frequently he indicated that she did. Procne,
mother of Itys, then became the swallow.
strings across a hollow shell. The musician held the shell in his lap and
touched the strings with a small implement made of horn called a plec-
trum. The Homeric Hymn to Mercury spoke of that god as making the
first lyre from the shell of a tortoise. Apollo obtained the instrument
from him and became famous for his skill in playing it. During histor-
ical times the lyre appears to have been made either of ivory or of wood.
It had the advantage of allowing the musician to sing as well as play.
* During modern times the ancient vertical flute has been supplanted by the
transverse flute. On this instrument the mouthpiece is adjusted to the side, and the
performer holds the tube horizontally.
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? MARSYAS
Probably for this reason it became a favorite instrument wjth the courtly
and urbane, and in the tales both of Marsyas and of Pan the lyre ob-
tained the victory over the flute.
The woodland god Pan was reputed to be an excellent flute player.
Similar ability was attributed to other male divinities of the country-
side. These the Greeks designated either as sileni or as satyrs. Both
were supernatural beings, long-lived but not immortal. They were human
in form but shaggy, with pointed ears and coarse features. The sileni
were bearded in appearance, the satyrs smooth-faced and youthful. The
Romans tended to identify satyrs with fauns and to represent them as
half animal -- with the hoofs, tails, and shaggy lower limbs of goats.
In Greek tradition Marsyas appeared ordinarily as a silenus. But Ovid
always referred to him as a satyr.
In the earliest form of the story, Marsyas himself was inventor of
the flute. This idea Plato seems to have recalled in his dialogue, The
Laws. But the invention usually was attributed to Athena. Pindar gave
the following account. When Perseus killed Medusa, the other Gorgons
broke into shrill cries of lament. The strange new sounds attracted
Athena so much that she devised an instrument which would allow her
to imitate them at will, and so she began the art of flute playing. Greek
tradition did not follow Pindar's account of the Gorgon lament, but
ordinarily it agreed in making Athena inventress of the flute. Marsyas
had profited by her discovery.
Beginning towards the middle of the fifth century B. C. , Greek
painters and sculptors often dealt with the myth of Marsyas. The
story implied was as follows. Athena observed that flute playing dis-
torted her features, and she threw down the instrument in disgust. Mar-
syas immediately picked it up. Angry at his wishing to preserve it, she
struck him. But Marsyas kept the flute and became celebrated among
the country folk of Lydia. Grown presumptuous, he challenged Apollo
to a contest. The Muses were appointed to judge and gave Apollo the
victory. Then the god punished the silenus with a terrible death. He
bound Marsyas to a pine tree and caused a Scythian to flay him alive.
Actual cases of flaying have occurred in many parts of the world,
but fortunately this extreme form of cruelty seems never to have been
common. The Greeks and Romans preferred torture of other sorts. Yet
in late Roman times at least one Christian martyr was flayed alive.
Michelangelo pictured him in the Last Judgment wearing a new skin
but holding up the other as evidence which would send the murderers to
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SIX
Hell. In the Middle Ages flaying sometimes was resorted to, notably in
the case of Bertrand de Gourdon, who caused the death of Richard
Coeur de Lion. And in 1587 the Turks inflicted this cruel torture on
Marcantonio Bragadino, last Venetian governor of Cyprus. Occasionally
such ferocity may have been sanctioned by law and public opinion, for a
medieval Lay of Havelok records it with satisfaction as the fate of a
tyrant who caused the hero's misfortunes. But in general it seems to
have been thought an excess, which was to be condoned only in the case
of an extraordinary offender. It seems to have entered rarely into myth-
ology and in Greek tradition to have been recorded only of Marsyas.
Greek art treated all the chief incidents of the myth. The sculptor
Myron in a very famous work showed Athena striking Marsyas. Other
sculptors copied his work, sometimes altering details. Their statues often
adorned the market place of some Greek city, and a copy at Rome was
mentioned by Horace, Martial, and Juvenal. Other artists showed Mar-
syas playing his newly discovered flute. Still others dealt with the con-
test between Marsyas and Apollo. In a temple at Mantinea, Praxiteles
made this event the theme of beautiful sculptured reliefs. He contrasted
the effort of Marsyas with the ease and grace of Apollo. In the back-
ground he showed a slave holding the ominous knife. But the event most
frequently treated was the vengeance of Apollo. In general, Greek
artists were content to show the grim preparations. Painter and sculp-
tor represented Marsyas with his back against the pine tree and his arms
stretched above his head. Ropes about his ankles and wrists held him
fast, while the Scythian whetted the knife.
Greek artists had not associated the tale of Marsyas with any par-
ticular place. Towards the middle of the fifth century B. C. , oral tradi-
tion localized it in Celaenae, a Lydian town already famous for two
palaces erected by Persian kings. One of these, built at a little distance
from the town, marked the source of the Maeander River; the other stood
on a hill occupied by the citadel. From a cavern underneath issued the
Catarrhactes River, which formed a small lake in the market place and
then coursed through the town on its way to join the Maeander. The
reeds growing in this lake were suitable for the making of flutes and
gave the lake itself the name of Aulocrene (Fluter's Pool). Here Apollo
was said to have vanquished Marsyas and hung the skin. Referring to
this account, Herodotus declared that Apollo himself had done the flay-
ing, an idea repeated in most later versions of the tale. According to
Herodotus, the skin still was to be seen in the market place. Xenophon
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? MARSYAS
added in his Anabasis that originally Apollo hung the skin in the cavern
which was the source of the river and for this reason the river itself was
called the Marsyas. The same tradition was mentioned later by the
Roman historians, Livy and Curtius.
The Manual, telling the story in full, differed from previous au-
thorities at many points. It said nothing of Athena's displeasure at
Marsyas and did not give the contest a definite locality. It identified
Marsyas as the son of a famous musician named Olympus. Before con-
testing, the rivals agreed to let the victor do as he pleased with the van-
quished. In previous accounts Apollo had won because he was the better
musician. The Manual showed him winning by a trick. After playing
the instrument in the ordinary position, he turned it upside down and
continued playing. He bade Marsyas do likewise. But, after reversing
the flute, Marsyas found it impossible to play at all.
Nicander retold the tale. For the most part he agreed with the
Manual, but he introduced the following changes. When Athena in-
vented the flute, she played it at a banquet of the gods. They ridiculed
her. She withdrew to a quiet pool, where the reflection was clear, and
learned that flute playing distorted her face. Then she threw down the
instrument in the grass, with a curse on anyone who should take it up.
Marsyas later discovered the flute and taught the art of playing it, not
only to himself but to others. Plato in the Symposium had spoken of
Marsyas as teaching Olympus. Following this idea, Nicander described
Olympus, not as the father of Marsyas, but as a favorite pupil. In the
contest there were two trials. After the first, the judges voted for Mar-
syas. In the second, Apollo reversed his lyre and won. For the conclu-
sion of the tale Nicander introduced the idea mentioned by Xenophon,
that Marsyas gave his name to the Lydian river. But he offered a dif-
ferent explanation. Blood of the dying Marsyas sank into the ground
and emerged as the clear stream which bears his name.
Among Roman authors the version of Nicander appears to have
been well known. Propertius referred to Athena's displeasure at the
flute. In the Art of Love Ovid followed his example, and in a Pontic
Epistle he referred to Olympus, the favorite pupil of Marsyas. In the
Fasti Ovid retold briefly the first part of the tale. He followed Nicander's
history of the flute but omitted the idea of a curse. Then, as briefly as
possible, he indicated the nature of the contest and the satyr's death.
In the Metamorphoses Ovid merely alluded to the history of the
flute by calling the instrument Athena's reed. He did not describe the
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SIX
contest. He planned later to recount a similar rivalry between Apollo
and Pan, in order to show the stupidity of Midas. And so he said only
that Marsyas was defeated. But he dwelt on the vengeance of Apollo.
In vain the tortured satyr offered to renounce the flute. Apollo per-
sisted without mercy. Ovid pictured the result, with appalling details.
The satyr's whole body became nothing but a wound. Ovid rejected the
transformation of the satyr's blood. Apollonius had told how nymphs
mourned for the death of Clite until their tears became a spring.
Ovid imagined a similar lamentation for Marsyas, and he probably re-
membered how Theocritus had described the grief of pastoral folk for
Daphnis. The rural deities, he said, the herdsmen and peasants, and the
beloved Olympus wept for Marsyas, their musician, and their tears be-
came the river which bears his name.
Ovid's account influenced almost all writers who afterwards re-
ferred to the myth. In the Ibis, Ovid himself named Marsyas and re-
called a few of the circumstances. Lucan, remembering both Ovid and
the historians, declared that Marsyas was defeated and was mourned
at Celaenae. Lewis Morris retold the entire story, in idealized form. In
his version Marsyas was a young poet who did not attain perfection in
his art yet died gladly after hearing the supreme achievement of Apollo.
Regarding the nature of his death, Morris spoke vaguely of cruel stripes.
Ovid had said nothing of the lyre and had spoken of Marsyas as
being defeated in a contest with the flute. Readers unacquainted with
Greek versions of the myth would imagine that both Apollo and Marsyas
were flute players. Statius appears to have been misled by the passage,
for he gave the same impression. Dante supposed that Apollo was an
unrivalled player on the flute. At the beginning of his Paradiso he prayed
Apollo to enter his breast and breathe music as wonderful as that which
brought destruction to Marsyas. Chaucer in the House of Fame not
only repeated this error but added another. Ovid, naming the satyr only
once, had used an unfamiliar Greek accusative, Marsya. Dante had
given the Italian form, which happened to be essentially the same. And
so Chaucer declared that Apollo had vanquished a certain presumptuous
woman called Marcia!
Ovid had spoken of the satyr's entire body as becoming a single
wound. This description often was remembered. In the Ibis Ovid re-
ferred to Marsyas and used it again. He associated it with the dying
Hippolytus (Bk. 15), and in a final Pontic Epistle he declared that it
was true of himself. Lucan observed that, when Tullus fell victim to a
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? MARSYAS
serpent called the haemorrhosis, he bled at every pore and his whole
body became a wound. Tasso in his Aminta applied the description
metaphorically to a satyr, and in the Jerusalem Delivered he applied it
literally to the brave Svenn, who fell overwhelmed by the swords of
countless Moslems.
Ovid's final incident, the lament for the satyr and the transforma-
tion, attracted still other poets. Matthew Arnold, retelling the story in
his drama Empedocles, followed chiefly Greek versions; but Ovid sug-
gested his beautiful account of the grief experienced by young Olympus.
And Camoens told how nymphs, mourning for lovely Inez, created a
river of tears which still courses through her gardens and bears the name
Amouro.
Painters of the Renaissance and later times took great interest in
Ovid's myth. Following his suggestion, they pictured Marsyas as a satyr
and were inclined to give him a half animal form -- with hoofs, shaggy
legs, and strangely brute-like expression. Both Rubens and Jordaens
depicted Marsyas playing the flute. Perugino and Correggio showed the
contest, and Raphael treated it in an unfinished design. Other painters
dealt with the vengeance of Apollo. The ancients had thought of Mar-
syas as bound to a tree, but in the Metamorphoses Ovid had not men-
tioned the circumstance. Modern painters did not indicate it, and fre-
quently they pictured the satyr as lying on the ground, fastened to
stakes. Like Ovid, they showed the progress of the torture, with ap-
palling realism. This theme attracted Biliverti, Domenichino, Guido
Reni, Barbiere, and Ribera. The myth was treated also by Giordano,
Langhetti, and Guercino. But the only great painting is that of Claude
Lorrain.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SIX
Pelops
After hearing the fate of the Lycians and of Marsyas, Ovid tells
us, the Thebans continued mourning the death of King Amphion and
his children.
The people had no sympathy for Niobe, whom they re-
garded as entirely to blame. Yet there was present one person who still
wept for her, and this was Niobe's illustrious brother Pelops.
The Iliad had mentioned him as a king of the Greeks and ancestor
of Agamemnon. Many subsequent authors declared him to be a son of
Tantalus and made him the theme of numerous tales.
Some related that Tantalus conceived the idea of insulting the gods
by inviting them to a banquet and serving human flesh. For this purpose
he secretly killed his own child, Pelops, and boiled his flesh. Most of the
gods discovered the nature of the banquet and refused it. But Ceres,
inadvertent because of her grief at the loss of Proserpina (cf. Bk. 5),
ate the flesh of the left shoulder. Indignant at the fiendish trick, the
gods condemned Tantalus to torture in Hades and restored the life of
Pelops, replacing the lost shoulder with a new one made of ivory. Pindar
denied this tale; but the Manual and others accepted it, and Vergil de-
clared in the Georgics that it had become familiar to everyone.
Pindar and Sophocles recorded that, when Pelops became a man,
he departed from his native Lydia to Pisa in Elis. This idea won gen-
eral acceptance, and various reasons were given for his leaving Asia.
Pindar and many others agreed that he went to Pisa as a suitor of the
princess Hippodamia. Although a number of youths had courted her,
all had failed, because her father had required them to engage with him
in a chariot race and had defeated them and put them to death. Pelops
won the race, and the father himself was destroyed. The victor then be-
came ruler not only of Pisa but also of all southern Greece, which took
from him the name Peloponnesus. Both Pindar and the Manual told the
tale at some length, and Vergil mentioned it as universally known.
Ovid assumed that his readers were familiar with Pelops as a ruler
of southern Greece. If Pelops was son of Tantalus, he must be brother
of Niobe. It might be reasonable to imagine him at the time of her de-
struction as still ruling south of the Isthmus of Corinth, and it would
be natural for him to visit Thebes and lament for Niobe's untimely death.
Ovid stated that he did this and that in the course of his grief he drew
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? PELOPS
aside the clothing to beat his breast and revealed the famous ivory
shoulder. Ovid had told already of Lycaon's offering Jupiter human
flesh, so he did not repeat the similar myth of Tantalus. And he was
careful to avoid associating the contemporary Pelops with the ancient
quest of Proserpina. But he reminded his readers briefly of the prin-
cipal circumstances. Later he again mentioned the eating of Pelops in
his Ibis.
Up to the end of the account of Pelops, Ovid pursued a theme be-
gun in his Fifth Book and recorded examples of mortals punished for
their impiety to the gods. Pelops himself had not shown impiety, but his
ivory shoulder would remind Ovid's readers of the malefactor Tantalus
and the famous punishment in Hades (cf. Athamas, Bk. 4). With this
tale Ovid ended the series. In the story which followed he turned to the
mythical history of Athens.
The medieval French poet, Chretien de Troyes, elaborated Ovid's
account of Pelops in a narrative called Death of the Shoulder. Marlowe
spoke of the white shoulder of Pelops as rivalled by the whiteness of
Leander's neck.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SIX
Tekeus and Philomela
After the transformation of Daphne (Bk. 1) Ovid had imagined
that many river deities assembled to condole with Daphne's father, but
the river Inachus was absent. Ovid had explained his absence by the
story of Io. After the death of King Amphion and his family, Ovid
imagined that a number of cities despatched envoys to condole with
Pelops. Ovid recorded the names of eleven cities, often enlivening the
catalogue by a descriptive epithet or an allusion to a well known mytho-
logical event. Most of them were located in the Peloponnesus; a few
were situated north of the Isthmus of Corinth, among them Calydon,
later famed for the Calydonian boar (Bk. 8). Athens was not repre-
sented. Ovid explained the absence of her envoys by peril of imminent
war. Athens was relieved only by aid of Tereus, king of Thrace. By
this means Ovid passed to the famous myth of Tereus and Philomela.
In several parts of the world men have tried to account for what
they regarded as the melancholy notes of some bird. In Africa they ex-
plained the notes of the honeyeater by a tradition that she was a mother
lamenting the death of her son. In Greece the nightingale was thought
to warble sadly among dense leaves. And, although only the male bird
sings, the nightingale too was thought to be a mother grief-stricken at
the loss of her offspring. Sophocles in his Electra and Vergil in the
Georgics described her as lamenting because she had lost her family of
nestling birds. But usually the Greeks offered a different explanation.
The nightingale seemed often to repeat the sounds "Ity, Ity. " Many
Greeks interpreted them as a boy's name and declared that she once had
been a human mother who lost her only son.
The tale had several versions. According to the earliest account,
Aedon (Nightingale) was daughter of King Pandareos of Crete, an ally
of Tantalus. She married Zethus, a prince of Thebes and brother of
King Amphion. That made her a sister-in-law of Niobe. Aedon had one
child, Itylus, but Niobe had many children and so acquired far more
honor and prestige. Aedon became so envious that she attempted to kill
Niobe's oldest child. By mistake she killed her own. In order to ban-
ish her intense grief, Jupiter changed Aedon into a nightingale, which
mourns but is immune to sorrow. To this version the Odyssey referred
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? TEREUS AND PHILOMELA
at considerable length. The story was recorded by Pherecydes and was
repeated by Euripides in his drama I no.
Other birds have attracted the attention of primitive men by red
markings on the plumage of their breasts, and these markings have been
thought to be stains of blood. In the Yukon valley this idea was associ-
ated with the martin, in Rumania with the bullfinch and with one variety
of swallow, and in Greece it was associated with a kind of swallow which
nested under roofs, twittering plaintively, and which was welcomed as
the harbinger of spring. Often the swallow's ruddy breast and the night-
ingale's mournful song were attributed to the same tragic events.
This version of the tale differed much from the first. Aedon now
had a sister named Chelidona (Swallow). Aedon married an artist named
Polytechnus, and their son had the briefer name of Itys. Husband and
wife lived together in harmony until they impiously declared themselves
happier than Jupiter and Juno. The divinities were displeased and in-
volved them in a quarrel. Polytechnus, impelled chiefly by spite, rav-
ished Chelidona. Then Aedon and Chelidona obtained a terrible revenge.
They secretly killed Itys and served him as food to his father. Jupiter,
anxious to prevent further atrocity, transformed all three into birds:
Aedon became a nightingale, Chelidona a swallow, and Polytechnus a
woodpecker. This account circulated orally until Alexandrian times and
then was recorded with some further details by Boeus.
A third version of the tale agreed on the whole with the second but
added a number of circumstances. It mentioned localities. Aedon and
Chelidona were natives of Ephesus. Polytechnus, after marrying Aedon,
departed with her across the bay to live in Colophon. After husband and
wife had quarreled, the third version added a number of circumstances
about the crime of Polytechnus. Aedon bade him fetch her a slave girl.
Proceeding to Ephesus, he pretended that his wife was anxious to have
her sister visit her and so persuaded Chelidona's father to let him take
her away. After ravishing Chelidona, he warned her on pain of death to
be silent. Then he required her to put on the dress of a slave girl and
presented her in mockery to his wife. Later Aedon, overhearing Cheli-
dona's lament, learned of the crime. The new version added further cir-
cumstances to the account of the transformations. After serving the
gruesome meal, the sisters fled to Ephesus and were metamorphosed
there. Polytechnus, following them, was transformed into a pelican.
This form of the tale attracted little notice, but it may have influenced
another version which became the most famous of all.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SIX
The fourth version introduced many further changes. The two sis-
ters now were called Procne and Philomela and were daughters of the
Athenian king, Pandion. Procne married a Tracian king, Tereus, son
of Mars. Their child was Itys. In the new story the idea of impious
boasting disappeared, and nothing was said about a quarrel between
husband and wife. The tragedy was due wholly to violent lust of Tereus
for Philomela. For this cause he ravished her and the sisters planned
their terrible revenge. Procne became the nightingale. Philomela be-
came the swallow, which according to some authorities continues to re-
peat the name Tereu, Tereu in a voice of plaintive reproach.
Hesiod, alluding to the tale, observed that late in February Pan-
dion's daughter, the swallow, appears with her plaint at dawn. Sappho
spoke of the swallow as Philomela, Pandion's daughter. Aeschylus in his
Agamemnon likened Cassandra to the tawny nightingale lamenting Itys.
In the Suppliants he noted that Tereus became a hawk, which continu-
ally pursues the nightingale, -- an idea repeated much later by Hyginus.
In the Electra of Sophocles the heroine compared her grief to the sor-
row both of Niobe and of the bird always wailing for Itys. The same
twofold comparison was borrowed afterwards by Propertius.
Sophocles told the whole story in his Tereus, a tragedy which now
is lost. He recorded the tale as follows. Tereus married Procne and de-
parted with her to Thrace. At some time after the birth of Itys, Procne
asked her husband to bring Philomela there for a visit. Sailing to
Athens, he obtained Pandion's consent and brought Philomela to the
Thracian shores. But, yielding to sudden and violent lust, he conveyed
her to a residence in the country and ravished her. To prevent her
divulging the crime, he cut out her tongue. Then, arranging to have
Philomela's presence kept secret, he departed to his home and told
Procne that, when he arrived in Athens, Philomela was dead. Procne
supposed this to be true. But Philomela recorded her story by weaving
letters in a cloak, and sent it covertly to Procne. The news arrived at
the time of a biennial festival in honor of Bacchus, a period when Thra-
cian women were expected to leave their husbands and perform secret
rites in the forest (cf. Pentheus, Bk. 3). Taking advantage of the occa-
sion, Procne brought Philomela secretly to the palace. They served
Tereus the horrible feast and fled to Daulia, a Tracian colony at the
foot of Mt. Parnassus. Too late Tereus discovered the crime. He pur-
sued and overtook the sisters, and they prayed for escape in the form
of the well known birds. Tradition had made Tereus a hawk. Sophocles
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? TEREUS AND PHILOMELA
declared that he was a hawk only in the earlier months of the year. In
the autumn, he said, Tereus became a fierce-looking, crested bird called
the hoopoe.
This drama of Sophocles won great success and influenced nearly
all later treatments of the theme. Accius adapted it for the Roman
stage and also borrowed for his Philoctetes a passage in which Tereus
plotted against the unsuspecting Philomela.
Subsequent authors rejected the idea that Tereus became a hawk.
They spoke of him as changing permanently to hoopoe. At first they
were content with more or less lengthy allusion to the myth. Euripides
mentioned it both in his Rhesus and in his Hercules Furens and Aristotle
alluded to the version of Sophocles in his treatise called Rhetoric. Aris-
tophanes too alluded in the Birds to the play of Sophocles and invented
a sequel. Going in quest of the hoopoe, two Athenian adventurers found
this bird arrayed as a caricature of the one described in the tragedy.
The hoopoe spoke of himself as reconciled with his wife, the nightingale,
and as living harmoniously with her, while both mourned for their lost
Itys. He summoned his wife in a beautiful song, which Euripides after-
wards echoed in a chorus of his tragedy Helen. * The nightingale replied
and later appeared and played an overture to the chorus of birds.
The Manual recounted the story briefly, agreeing in the main with
Sophocles, but it added that Tereus won the hand of Procne because he
helped Athens in a war against Thebes. The Manual said nothing of
Procne's asking that Tereus bring Philomela to Thrace and nothing of
her taking advantage of a Bacchic festival. f
Earlier Roman poets often alluded to the story. In general they
followed Sophocles and the Manual. Catullus, mourning the death of
his brother, compared himself to the Daulian bird mourning Itylus.
Vergil told in his Culex how the gnat found in Hades the ghosts of
Pandion's daughters lamenting Itys. In his Ciris Scylla claimed kinship
with the birds, because her aunt was Procne. In the Aeneid Dido thought
of punishing the desertion of Aeneas by serving to him the flesh of his
son. Horace observed in his Art of Poetry that a metamorphosis of
Procne was an event unsuitable for representation on the stage.
Vergil thought it incongruous, for the swallow to be Philomela
* This was the only recorded instance, where a Greek tragic poet imitated an
author of comedy.
t The tale of Philomela as recorded by Sophocles and the Manual may have af-
fected a similar myth of Harpalyce, which was told in Alexandrian times by Eupho-
Tion and was repeated by Parthenius.
51
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SIX
(Lover of Song). It was true, as Greek mythographers pointed out,
that Philomela lost her tongue and so might be able to utter nothing but
unmusical twitterings. Nevertheless Vergil felt that she ought to be-
come the nightingale, and frequently he indicated that she did. Procne,
mother of Itys, then became the swallow.
