Accordingly, this
Alexandrian
poet altered the conclusion of the myth
by making Phaethon the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga).
by making Phaethon the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga).
Ovid - 1934 - Metamorphoses in European Culture - v1
He agreed with Aeschylus that
Juno transformed Io; but he added, near the end of the tale, that
Jupiter compelled her to restore Io's human shape. Mercury, he said,
did not kill Argus with a stone. Taking the form of a shepherd, the
god lulled his victim with the music of a reed pipe and recounted to him
the myth of Syrinx. Then he beheaded the sleeping Argus with the
curved sword, which tradition had told of his lending to Perseus (cf.
Bk. 4). Nicander did not retain the creation of the peacock from the
watchman's blood. Juno, he said, merely transferred the eyes of
Argus to the peacock's tail. The new metamorphosis, like that of
the mulberry darkening with Pyramus' blood (Bk. 4), was peculiar
in effecting only a local change of color.
Ovid was fond of the myth of Io and mentioned it often in his poetry.
For the Metamorphoses he took much from Nicander; but he improved
the story by inserting ideas from many other poets and by changes in
harmony with his general plan. Thus he introduced from Vergil's
Aeneid the meeting of the heifer Io with her father Inachus. And he
improved the incident by adding the recognition of father and daugh-
ter, with many pathetic details. For the terror and hardships of Io
in her animal form, Ovid owed much to an earlier version of Calvus.
This part of the tale he had treated already in his Amores and his
Epistle of Hypermnestra.
In the description of Mercury as a shepherd, Ovid recalled a well
known painting of the Athenian artist, Nicias. Following the picture,
he said that Mercury carried only a wand. But later, returning to
Nicander, he showed the god killing Argus with the curving sword.
Aware of the similarity between his narratives of both Daphne and
Io and Nicander's myth of Syrinx, Ovid soon interrupted the tale as
told by Mercury and merely summarized the rest. The music alone,
Ovid thought, might hardly suffice to overcome so many watchful eyes.
He remembered that both the Odyssey and the Aeneid had given Mer-
cury a sleep inspiring rod. And, since he had already called attention
to the wand, he added that Mercury used it to complete, the effect of his
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? JUPITER AND 10
piping. In the tale of Ceyx (Bk. 11) Ovid followed a different tra-
dition which attributed slumber to the deity Sleep.
Thinking the traditional gadfly a little undignified, Ovid remem-
bered that in another myth Nicander had shown Juno maddening her
enemy Ino with a Fury (Bk. 4). He showed her using a similar agent
for maddening her earlier enemy Io. Wisely omitting an account of
Io's wandering, Ovid passed immediately to an effective description
of her despair in Egypt. At the close of the Aeneid, Vergil had pre-
pared the way for the triumph of his hero by a famous reconciliation
of Jupiter and Juno. The idea harmonized well with Augustan con-
ceptions of the dignity of women. Accordingly, Ovid imitated it
briefly before showing the delivery of Io. It would have been appro-
priate to add, as Nicander had done, that Juno restored Io's human
shape. But Ovid omitted the incident. In the tale of Callisto (Bk.
2) he intended to have Juno complain that it was the work of Jupiter.
Earlier in the story Ovid had avoided a description of Io's altera-
tion to a cow, so that without repeating he might include a detailed
description of her recovery. From some predecessor, Ovid knew that,
when Io was restored, the image of the cow entered heaven as the con-
stellation usually called the Bull (Taurus). This further transforma-
tion Ovid reserved for the Fasti. He merely alluded to the Egyptian
worship of Io. But in the later tale of Ianthe (Bk. 9) he identified
her with Isis.
For nobility and grandeur of conception, no version of Io has ap-
proached that of Aeschylus in Prometheus Bound. Yet Ovid's narra-
tive was certainly easier to follow. Compared with other predeces-
sors, it was more full and interesting. And over all other versions it
had the advantage of being more accessible. Ovid's work suggested
nearly all later allusion to the myth.
Valerius Flaccus used the tale of Io in his Argonauts. Shakespeare
referred to it prominently in The Taming of the Shrew. Milton's
treatise Of Reformation recalled both Aeschylus and Ovid for a de-
nunciation of the prelates. "As Juno in the fable of Io," said Milton,
"they deliver up the poor transformed heifer of the Commonwealth
to be stung and vexed with the breese (gadfly) and goad of oppression
under the custody of some Argus with a hundred eyes of jealousy. "
For later authors Ovid's adventure of Mercury and Argus had par-
ticular interest. Dante declared that the wings of the four beasts
which he saw in the Apocalyptic Procession were covered with eyes
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK I
like those of Argus and that he himself drowsed under the Tree of Life
as Argus lulled by the tale of Syrinx. In Arcite's dream Chaucer
showed Mercury appearing in the same guise as he did to Juno's
watchman. Spenser in the Shepherd's Calendar alluded to Argus re-
peatedly. Marlowe profited by the incident for his adventure of Mer-
cury and the rustic maid. Shakespeare alluded to it briefly in the
Second Part of Henry Fourth and in Henry Fifth. And in Paradise
Lost Milton pictured the cherubim as
Spangled with eyes more numerous than those
Of Argus, and more wakeful than to drowse,
Charmed with Arcadian Pipe, the pastoral reed
Of Hermes, or his opiate rod.
Calderon in the Fable of Perseus showed that hero using Mercury's
wand for putting the vigilant Gorgons to sleep.
Statius used the tale of Syrinx in the Silva and Pope imitated it for
his myth of Lodona in Windsor Forest.
As introduction for his myth, Ovid had recorded the Thessalian
rivers which came to share the grief of Peneus for the loss of Daphne,
adding that there gathered also the other rivers of the world. To
Spenser this account probably suggested a remarkable passage where
he enumerated the many streams of England, Ireland, and more dis-
tant countries which assembled to honor the wedding of the Thames
and the Medway.
Various parts of Ovid's myth attracted a number of modern artists.
Corregio and Schiavone both painted Jupiter and Io. Juno delivering
Io to Argus inspired a great work of Rubens and a later work of
Claude Lorraine. Mercury and Argus were painted by Elsheimer,
Fabritius, Strozzi, Velasquez, Jordasns, and Debay, and three times by
Rubens. Thorwaldsen treated the same theme in sculpture. Modern
artists, like the ancient, appear to have avoided picturing the hundred
eyes. The myth of Syrinx attracted Jordasns, Van Mieris, Bocklin,
and Arthur Hacker.
Phaethon and Phoebus: See Book Two
In the First Book Ovid chose for the most part myths which had
long interested the ancients. He relied, however, on Alexandrian and
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? PHAETHON AND PHOEBUS
Roman versions. For the earlier stories of the book, Varro and
Aratus supplied most of the material. Nicander became important
with the tale of the Giants and continued so until the end. The
Manual was Ovid's chief source for the Deluge but elsewhere was
less useful than in many of the subsequent books. In these predeces-
sors Ovid found most of his raw material. He improved it in many
ways. He added appropriate ideas from Euripides, Catullus, and
Horace. Vergil helped him in almost every story. He omitted what
was inharmonious with his design; he improved many details; and he
introduced valuable inventions of his own. Although not gifted in
planning a great sustained work, Ovid did much to make his stories
consistent with one another and to make them progress effectively
from the Creation through the Deluge. And to all his tales he gave the
charm and brilliance of his style.
To the later Romans the First Book was unusually welcome. Ovid
dealt with ideas that already had proved congenial to their
philosophy and poetry; yet he introduced them in tales that were
comparatively new. He reminded them of other famous poets; yet his
work seemed always original and fascinating. Almost every impor-
tant Roman poet after Ovid's time recalled this book, and Seneca used
it in prose.
With the earlier Medieval authors, the opening tales were popular.
The entire book became a favorite with the chief authors of modern
times. Poets, who appeared to be in other respects utterly different
from one another, had here an interest in common. The First Book
attracted many who ordinarily used Ovid but little. Among them were
Regnier, Heywood, Pope, and Lowell. It contributed much to the
work of Petrarch, Camoens, Lope de Vega, and Browning. Jean de
Meun and Chaucer borrowed repeatedly. Dante, Spenser, and Shake-
speare showed interest in almost every tale. Milton turned to this
book continually at almost every period of his career and profited
by it in much of his greatest poetry. Dryden translated the entire
book.
In painting and sculpture, several of the tales were popular, and
they inspired a few masterpieces. The tale 6f Daphne was of signal
importance in the history of music. And that of Python contributed
interestingly to science.
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? BOOK TWO
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? BOOK TWO
Phaethon and Phoebus
The idea that the Sun had at one time left its proper course and
threatened the whole order of nature has inspired similar myths in
ancient Greece and among the Indian tribes of British Columbia. In
both stories the Sun had a child, who was mortal and grew up with his
mother. When someone doubted his being the child of the great
luminary, the youth tried to confirm his belief by visiting his father.
He then persuaded his father to let him drive the Sun's car for a day.
Unable to obey instructions, the boy left the proper course. To save
the world it was necessary that the Sun should resume the reins.
According to the Indians, the Sun god himself threw the boy from
the car and guided it back. But the Greeks imagined that the youth
was hurled from the car by a bolt of Jupiter.
In the tradition of prehistoric Greece the Sun may have been an
independent god, as we find him in the Odyssey. But later he was
identified with Apollo, the offspring of Jupiter and the goddess
Latona. In either case, the Sun god was the child of divine parents
and thus immortal by birth. But he married a sea nymph, who was
regarded as a being of a much humbler order and destined at length to
die. Tradition required ordinarily that the children of such an un-
equal marriage should have the rank of their lesser parent: Phaethon,
therefore, was mortal. The earliest tradition imagined that he grew
up in the bright region of Ethiopia and that he was struck down not
far from his home. Hence it was not difficult for his mother and sisters
to find and inter his body.
Before the myth entered literature, it coalesced with two others.
One of these tried to explain the origin of the fossil resin, amber. Dur-
ing prehistoric times amber was discovered in several rivers flowing
into the Baltic sea and was transported by land to the mouths of the
Rhone and the Po. From there Phoenician ships conveyed it to the
wealthy towns of Etruria and Greece. From the stories of the
Phoenicians, the Greeks came to believe that amber was the gum of a
contemporary tree, which they usually identified with the poplar, and
that it hardened in the sun while floating down some river in the north-
west, called the Eridanus. They imagined that Phaethon had devi-
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK II
ated from his course far enough to plunge into this river and that his
sisters wandered thither and lamented until they became poplar trees
on the bank. With the new localization of Phaethon's fall, the jour-
neying of his mother and sisters became much longer and more diffi-
cult and their loyalty more impressive. The transformation of
Phaethon's sisters was thought ordinarily to have relieved tlieiri
anguish; but they continued to drop tears of liquid amber in the
stream.
A second myth dealt with the origin of the swan. According to
the earlier form of the story, Phaethon had a somewhat older kinsman
named Cycnus, who lived near him in Ethiopia and regarded him with
special affection. After Phaethon's death his kinsman fell into incon-
solable grief and at length became the swan, a bird with a mournful
cry.
The combined myth entered literature in a lost poem ascribed to
Hesiod. Misunderstanding the Greek epithet for "mourning" (ligus)
the poet made Cycnus a prince of Liguria, in the northwestern part of
Italy. This brought him nearer to the fabulous river Eridanus and
the mourning sisters, but it made any unusual affection for Phaethon
improbable. The poet added that Phaethon became the Morning
Star and thus his father was consoled for his tragic death.
Aeschylus treated the myth in a tragedy called The Sun's Daugh-
ters (Heliades). He identified the Eridanus with an imaginary river
which united the Rhone with the Po--an idea that was repeated much
later in the Argonauts of Apollonius. But Pherecydes identified it ex-
clusively with the Po, and this became the usual tradition. Euripides
retold the myth in his Phaethon, a play which Goethe afterwards tried
to reconstruct. He said that Phaethon's mother was Clymene, a sea
nymph who became the wife of the Ethiopian king Merops. In another
tragedy, the Hippolytus, Euripides retold briefly the tale of Cycnus.
About a century after the death of Euripides, an unknown Alex-
andrian poet repeated the story of Phaethon with many alterations.
By this time educated Greeks had accepted a Babylonian tradition
that the Morning and the Evening Star was the goddess of Love.
Accordingly, this Alexandrian poet altered the conclusion of the myth
by making Phaethon the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga).
He added that the sisters became the Hyades, Cycnus became the con-
stellation of the Swan, and the river into which Phaethon dropped
became the constellation Fluvius Eridanus. In his mad career, said
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? PHAETHON AND PHOEBUS
the Alexandrian, Phaethon at first drove too high, scorching the
heavens and forming the Milky Way; then he drove top low and set
the earth afire. This conflagration was put out by the Deluge. The
tradition that Phaethon caused the Milky Way became popular with
later mythographers and passed from them to Dante, Chaucer, and
Spenser. Phaethon's association with the Deluge proved less interest-
ing than the older myth of Lycaon (Bk. 1), but it was mentioned
again by Lucretius.
Phanocles told at greater length of Cycnus and Phaethon, describ-
ing the former as a suitor of his kinsman. Apollonius recorded that
the Argonauts voyaging up the Po were troubled by the stench of
Phaethon's body still burning under the water and by the shrill lament
of the sisters. And Alexandrian sculptors often carved the tale of
Phaethon on sarcophagi to suggest the transitory nature of human
life.
Nicander retold the entire story. He repeated the idea that Phae-
thon caused the Milky Way and probably added that by driving too
low he occasioned the Cyclad Isles, the Sahara Desert, and the dark
skin of the Ethiopians. And he seems to have related the story to
a problem which had begun to interest the ancients, the mysterious
origin of the Nile. Dismayed by the excessive heat, he said, the Nile
took refuge in unknown regions far to the south, where he still has
his source. Nicander retained the metamorphosis of Phaethon into
the constellation of the Charioteer; but he rejected all other trans-
formation to stars. Many centuries after this, Nicander's version
inspired the late Greek poet Nonnus.
For Ovid the myth of Phaethon had great interest. He mentioned
it frequently and in the Tristia compared the fall of Phaethon to
his own exile by the Emperor Augustus.
In the Metamorphoses Ovid passed from the myth of Io to that of
Phaethon by declaring that Io's child, Epaphus, had been the one who
questioned the divine parentage of Phaethon. Ovid then proceeded to
elaborate and improve on the version of Nicander. With him he
showed Phaethon appealing to his mother and by her advice making on
foot a rather short journey eastward from Ethiopia, across the adjoin-
ing country of India, to the palace of the Sun. For the majority of
Romans this strange idea of geography in the east would have seemed
entirely credible. Although the ancient Egyptians and Persians knew
something of an Indian Ocean lying between Africa and India, such
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK II
knowledge had passed very slowly to the Greeks. For Aeschylus and
his audience the mainland of Asia was an almost inaccessible region
inhabited by fabulous peoples and extending southwards to the Nile
in its upper course. More than a century later, the victorious
Alexander, arriving at a branch of the Indus, believed that he
was close to the source of the Nile. And, although subsequent war
and commerce dispelled many illusions, the East was even in
Augustan times a distant, marvellous region rarely visited and little
known.
The Sun's palace Ovid described brilliantly, perhaps with some
recollection of the actual mansions in Roman times. It was built, he
said, by Vulcan, the great artificer of the gods. Following the exam-
ple of the Iliad and the Aeneid, he imagined elaborate sculpture on the
palace doors. But he seems also to have recalled an actual work of
art, for he pictured the world as the Mediterranean Sea enclosed by a
circle of land and both encircled by Ocean--an archaic conception
quite unlike the geography elsewhere in his poem. In portraying the
appearance of the Sun god on his throne, Ovid followed the rather
common epic practice of having a god attended by various personified
abstractions of an appropriate nature. This epic practice suggested
Ovid's personification of the Hours, Days, and Months. But for the
Seasons he again used a work of art. His description here was vague,
probably because the work was familiar to his contemporaries. In
the lore of Pythagoras (Bk. 15) he again treated the same idea, imply-
ing that the Seasons were represented by male figures of appropriately
varied age.
Following Nicander, Ovid recorded Phaethon's request for proof
of his origin and Apollo's rash promise to give whatever proof he
might wish, confirmed with an oath by the river Styx. This famous
oath had begun with a custom followed by many savage peoples of con-
firming an oath with a draught of water believed to have magic powers.
In ancient Greece the very cold waters of the Arcadian river Styx were
regarded as poisonous to any man who was not protected by the gods
--an idea which Ovid was to mention in the lore of Pythagoras. Ac-
cordingly, men wishing to give a solemn pledge would sometimes drink
water of the Styx, in order to show that their intentions were honor-
able and had divine approval. A similar custom was attributed to the
deities themselves. But this oath was associated with the Styx of
the Lower World, which the gods hoped never to visit, so for them
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? PHAETHON AND PHOEBUS
the draught of water was omitted. Both the Iliad and the Odyssey
recorded a pledge by the river Styx as the strongest oath that
could be taken by the gods. The Theogony added that any violation
was to be punished by nine years of suffering and exile from Olympus.
And other ancient authors in general made the Styx the most power-
ful sanction which a god could invoke. Following tradition, Ovid
made it clear that, when Phaethon asked unexpectedly for a chance to
drive the Sun's car, Apollo could not withdraw the pledge; but he
imagined that it would have been possible for Phaethon to free him
by withdrawing the request. Therefore, he showed Apollo trying
vainly to dissuade his son in two long and dramatic speeches of
warning.
After the first of these speeches, Ovid showed Apollo leading Phae-
thon to the car, which now was harnessed and ready for the beginning
of day. A description of Juno's chariot in the Iliad may have sug-
gested Ovid's brilliant account of the Sun's car made by Vulcan. But
Ovid described with a different purpose and more opulent effect. He
added also a splendid and beautiful account of the dawn. In these
two descriptions Ovid found unusual opportunity to profit by his
vivid imagination and his eager feeling for color.
According to the mythology of Egypt and many other partly
civilized countries, the sun rose from the east in the morning; tra-
versed the heavens to the west during the day; and returned during
the night through the Lower World to his rising in the east. On the
assumption that the world was flat, this theory explained his move-
ments quite plausibly. But it does not seem to have affected the myth-
ology of the Greeks. They imagined that the sun rose from the ocean
in the east and set in the ocean to the west; but at first they did not
trouble themselves about his method for returning They implied
clearly, however, that he did not pass through Hades, which they re-
garded as a region of gloom never visited by the sun. And later the
more thoughtful Greeks gave up their mythological ideas for the scien-
tific theory that the earth was a sphere and the sun a luminary moving
round it daily with the motion of the heavens. Greek mythology re-
mained illogical regarding the motion of the sun. It felt an incongru-
ity, however, in the conception of the sun's having contact with the
sea and invented the picturesque idea that Tethys, goddess of Ocean,
allowed him to rise from her boat in the east and met him again with
her boat as he came down to the western waves. This idea Ovid
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK II
accepted for his tale of Phaethon, and he did full justice to the meet-
ing in the west. But in order to describe the Sun's palace, he imag-
ined that the chariot rose in the morning from high ground. Under
these circumstances he could give Tethys only the incongruous duty of
lowering the stable bars.
To the speeches of Apollo and the narrative of Phaethon's ride,
Ovid gave added interest by drawing on the astronomy of his own time.
Such material was of later origin than the myth and not easy to recon-
cile with it. Moreover, Ovid did not understand the scientific prin-
ciples of the astronomy which he was using. Yet he realized that
there were many chances for picturesque detail and on the whole he
gained much by the attempt. His educated readers have been willing
to ignore his mistakes and all his readers have enjoyed the spirited
narrative and graphic detail.
Ovid's use of astronomy is a matter of extraordinary interest. It
showed his desire to enliven ancient myth by relating it unexpectedly
with advanced scientific ideas. For this reason alone it would be inter-
esting to observe his methods. But the conception of the universe
which Ovid was trying to suggest was not peculiar to his own age.
With minor changes, it was accepted by the, majority of well informed
men until the sixteenth century. And much of its doctrine reappeared
even a century later in Milton's Paradise Lost. It is worth while to
explain briefly a system which prevailed so widely and so long and to
show how Ovid applied and misapplied it in his myth.
The system of astronomy which was to become orthodox in Augustan
times had originated in ancient Chaldea. From there it passed to the
Greeks. It was improved by a number of Alexandrian scientists; and,
about a century and a half before Ovid's time, the great astronomer
Hipparchus had brought the science forward to a point where it
agreed in the main with the system later made famous by Ptolemy.
According to this view, an unmoving, spherical Earth was the center of
the universe. Enveloping the Earth closely on all sides was a hollow,
transparent sphere. The Earth resembled, in shape and position, the
yolk of an uncooked egg, and the hollow, transparent sphere resembled
the enveloping white. But in this transparent sphere there floated
a luminous body, the Moon, and from this body the sphere took its
name. Inclosing the sphere of the Moon, was another transparent
sphere, containing the planet Mercury. And this was inclosed suc-
cessively by the spheres of Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,
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? PHAETHON AND PHOEBUS
and the stars. 1 Thus, as Ovid pointed out, the proper route for the
Sun would lie in a middle distance, about equally removed from the
stars above and the Earth below, and it should be much higher than the
route of the Moon. But Ovid was wrong in declaring that this course
would take Phaethon among fear inspiring constellations.
Hipparchus believed further that all the successive spheres which
inclosed the Earth moved continually from east to west, carrying
with them the stars, planets, Sun, and Moon. This caused the appar-
ent westward movement of all heavenly bodies during every day and
night. But the Sun, Moon, and planets did not merely revolve in a
westerly direction with their spheres. Each of them at the same time
was moving slowly in a contrary direction through the yielding ma-
terial of the sphere and progressing from west to east. This independ-
ent motion altered their positions with respect to the fixed stars
above and in a year it allowed the Sun to make a complete circuit of
the heavens. Ovid said, therefore, that the Sun must move counter
to the rushing sky. For the year this would be true. But in a single
day his independent movement would be so slight that he would ap-
pear merely to be swept westward with the heavens.
Ancient astronomers had observed that in the course of a year the
Sun would pass through twelve successive regions of the sky called the
zodiac. In each region he would spend a month. This would cause
him to pass successively in front of the constellations occupying each
region. According to the Babylonians and the earlier Alexandrian
astronomers, these constellations were eleven in number and they were
identified in a rather arbitrary manner with eleven mythological crea-
tures. One of the eleven constellations, the Scorpion, extended over
two regions of the zodiac. The later Alexandrians restricted it to one
region and designated the stars remaining in the other as a twelfth
constellation, the Scales. But in early Augustan times the older view
still prevailed. Hence Vergil could inform the young Emperor
graciously that the Scorpion then occupied two regions but in time
would retire and leave room for the constellation of the deified
Augustus. Accepting the newer system, Ovid declared that Vulcan
had carved on the doors ot the Sun's Palace the twelve constellations
of the zodiac. But later he reverted inconsistently to the older sys-
1 The same idea of a central Earth enveloped by successive spheres was implied
in Dante's ParadUo. Dante, too, showed the Moon in the lowest sphere, the Sun
in the fourth or middle sphere, and the stars in the highest. . ,
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK II
tem, declaring that Phaethon met the Scorpion extending fearfully
over the space of two signs.
According to ancient astronomy, the Sun would pass in front of the
groups known as the Bull, the Archer, and others which Ovid men-
tions. But, to pass all these in his legitimate course, Phaethon would
have had to drive for a period of eight months. In a single day he
would move only part of the distance across a single group.
In describing the surface of the earth, ancient scientists had recog-
nized the five zones which we know today. They sometimes made a
corresponding division of the heavens. When this was done, they
observed that the Sun moved always within the portion of the sky
belonging to the Torrid Zone. And at the two periods, known as the
Vernal Equinox (March 21st. ) and the Autumnal Equinox (September
21st. ), his course lay exactly in the middle of this Torrid belt. But
after the Vernal Equinox, his course left the middle and appeared
every day a little farther north, until at Midsummer (June 21st. ) he
followed the border of the North Temperate Zone. Then he slowly
returned and was again in the middle of the Torrid Zone by the Autum-
nal Equinox. But immediately after, his course left the middle a second
time and now ran daily farther south, until at Midwinter (December
21st. ) it followed the rim of the South Temperate Zone. Accordingly,
Ovid showed Apollo warning Phaethon that the Sun must keep within
the three middle zones, shunning either pole. If Apollo had been ex-
plaining the course of the Sun for the entire year, this statement
would be true. But during a single day the Sun would have only a
restricted course within a single zone.
Despite these scientific blunders, Ovid's use of astronomy added
much to the interest of the story and helped him to emphasize the
essential point. He made it clear that Phaethon was rashly under-
taking an enterprise fraught with peril and Apollo was remonstrating
with fatherly solicitude.
For Phaethon's disastrous ride, Ovid followed Nicander except in
the derivation of the Milky Way, which he had explained elsewhere as
the thoroughfare of the gods (see Lycaon, Bk. 1). But he added
many vivid details and he gladly introduced names of rivers and moun-
tains which had especial interest for the Romans. He tried also to
heighten the effect of terror, confusion, and conflagration. In this
he did not show his usual regard for consistency, for he mentioned the
alarm of the Bears, which did not exist before the later transformation
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? PHAETHON AND PHOEBUS
of Callisto, and the suffering of the swans in Cayster, which (accord-
ing to the Latin) did not exist hefore the transformation of Cycnus.
And, what was more unfortunate, he showed not only the scorching
of the Sahara and the Ethiopians but a universal conflagration after
which it would seem impossible for any life to survive.
After introducing an eloquent appeal of Earth, Ovid came to the
hurling of the thunderbolt. Here again he sacrificed probability for
sensational effect. Early tradition implied, and Lucretius had stated
clearly, that Jupiter struck down Phaethon, in order that Apollo
might redirect the chariot into the proper course. Ovid showed him
demolishing the chariot and allowing the frightened horses to strew
it far and wide. Yet later he recorded without explanation that it was
whole and ready in the east, when Apollo was persuaded to resume his
task.
In the Amores Ovid had mentioned Phaethon's becoming the con-
stellation of the Charioteer. In the Metamorphoses he omitted this
event entirely. The explanation seems to be that he reserved it, as he
had reserved the transformation of Io into the constellation of the
Bull (Bk. 1), for an appropriate passage of the Fasti.
The burial of Phaethon by his mother and sisters Ovid rejected as
improbable and he transferred this duty to the Naiads. He followed
the outline of Nicander's story about the transformation of the sisters.
But he added from Vergil's famous account of Polydorous the details
of their bleeding and crying out when their mother tore their poplar
bark. And he adapted the description of amber appropriately to its
use at Rome.
Vergil in the Aeneid had mentioned the traditional love of Cycnus
for Phaethon and added that Cycnus became a white bird, which left
the earth and followed the stars with his voice.
Juno transformed Io; but he added, near the end of the tale, that
Jupiter compelled her to restore Io's human shape. Mercury, he said,
did not kill Argus with a stone. Taking the form of a shepherd, the
god lulled his victim with the music of a reed pipe and recounted to him
the myth of Syrinx. Then he beheaded the sleeping Argus with the
curved sword, which tradition had told of his lending to Perseus (cf.
Bk. 4). Nicander did not retain the creation of the peacock from the
watchman's blood. Juno, he said, merely transferred the eyes of
Argus to the peacock's tail. The new metamorphosis, like that of
the mulberry darkening with Pyramus' blood (Bk. 4), was peculiar
in effecting only a local change of color.
Ovid was fond of the myth of Io and mentioned it often in his poetry.
For the Metamorphoses he took much from Nicander; but he improved
the story by inserting ideas from many other poets and by changes in
harmony with his general plan. Thus he introduced from Vergil's
Aeneid the meeting of the heifer Io with her father Inachus. And he
improved the incident by adding the recognition of father and daugh-
ter, with many pathetic details. For the terror and hardships of Io
in her animal form, Ovid owed much to an earlier version of Calvus.
This part of the tale he had treated already in his Amores and his
Epistle of Hypermnestra.
In the description of Mercury as a shepherd, Ovid recalled a well
known painting of the Athenian artist, Nicias. Following the picture,
he said that Mercury carried only a wand. But later, returning to
Nicander, he showed the god killing Argus with the curving sword.
Aware of the similarity between his narratives of both Daphne and
Io and Nicander's myth of Syrinx, Ovid soon interrupted the tale as
told by Mercury and merely summarized the rest. The music alone,
Ovid thought, might hardly suffice to overcome so many watchful eyes.
He remembered that both the Odyssey and the Aeneid had given Mer-
cury a sleep inspiring rod. And, since he had already called attention
to the wand, he added that Mercury used it to complete, the effect of his
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? JUPITER AND 10
piping. In the tale of Ceyx (Bk. 11) Ovid followed a different tra-
dition which attributed slumber to the deity Sleep.
Thinking the traditional gadfly a little undignified, Ovid remem-
bered that in another myth Nicander had shown Juno maddening her
enemy Ino with a Fury (Bk. 4). He showed her using a similar agent
for maddening her earlier enemy Io. Wisely omitting an account of
Io's wandering, Ovid passed immediately to an effective description
of her despair in Egypt. At the close of the Aeneid, Vergil had pre-
pared the way for the triumph of his hero by a famous reconciliation
of Jupiter and Juno. The idea harmonized well with Augustan con-
ceptions of the dignity of women. Accordingly, Ovid imitated it
briefly before showing the delivery of Io. It would have been appro-
priate to add, as Nicander had done, that Juno restored Io's human
shape. But Ovid omitted the incident. In the tale of Callisto (Bk.
2) he intended to have Juno complain that it was the work of Jupiter.
Earlier in the story Ovid had avoided a description of Io's altera-
tion to a cow, so that without repeating he might include a detailed
description of her recovery. From some predecessor, Ovid knew that,
when Io was restored, the image of the cow entered heaven as the con-
stellation usually called the Bull (Taurus). This further transforma-
tion Ovid reserved for the Fasti. He merely alluded to the Egyptian
worship of Io. But in the later tale of Ianthe (Bk. 9) he identified
her with Isis.
For nobility and grandeur of conception, no version of Io has ap-
proached that of Aeschylus in Prometheus Bound. Yet Ovid's narra-
tive was certainly easier to follow. Compared with other predeces-
sors, it was more full and interesting. And over all other versions it
had the advantage of being more accessible. Ovid's work suggested
nearly all later allusion to the myth.
Valerius Flaccus used the tale of Io in his Argonauts. Shakespeare
referred to it prominently in The Taming of the Shrew. Milton's
treatise Of Reformation recalled both Aeschylus and Ovid for a de-
nunciation of the prelates. "As Juno in the fable of Io," said Milton,
"they deliver up the poor transformed heifer of the Commonwealth
to be stung and vexed with the breese (gadfly) and goad of oppression
under the custody of some Argus with a hundred eyes of jealousy. "
For later authors Ovid's adventure of Mercury and Argus had par-
ticular interest. Dante declared that the wings of the four beasts
which he saw in the Apocalyptic Procession were covered with eyes
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK I
like those of Argus and that he himself drowsed under the Tree of Life
as Argus lulled by the tale of Syrinx. In Arcite's dream Chaucer
showed Mercury appearing in the same guise as he did to Juno's
watchman. Spenser in the Shepherd's Calendar alluded to Argus re-
peatedly. Marlowe profited by the incident for his adventure of Mer-
cury and the rustic maid. Shakespeare alluded to it briefly in the
Second Part of Henry Fourth and in Henry Fifth. And in Paradise
Lost Milton pictured the cherubim as
Spangled with eyes more numerous than those
Of Argus, and more wakeful than to drowse,
Charmed with Arcadian Pipe, the pastoral reed
Of Hermes, or his opiate rod.
Calderon in the Fable of Perseus showed that hero using Mercury's
wand for putting the vigilant Gorgons to sleep.
Statius used the tale of Syrinx in the Silva and Pope imitated it for
his myth of Lodona in Windsor Forest.
As introduction for his myth, Ovid had recorded the Thessalian
rivers which came to share the grief of Peneus for the loss of Daphne,
adding that there gathered also the other rivers of the world. To
Spenser this account probably suggested a remarkable passage where
he enumerated the many streams of England, Ireland, and more dis-
tant countries which assembled to honor the wedding of the Thames
and the Medway.
Various parts of Ovid's myth attracted a number of modern artists.
Corregio and Schiavone both painted Jupiter and Io. Juno delivering
Io to Argus inspired a great work of Rubens and a later work of
Claude Lorraine. Mercury and Argus were painted by Elsheimer,
Fabritius, Strozzi, Velasquez, Jordasns, and Debay, and three times by
Rubens. Thorwaldsen treated the same theme in sculpture. Modern
artists, like the ancient, appear to have avoided picturing the hundred
eyes. The myth of Syrinx attracted Jordasns, Van Mieris, Bocklin,
and Arthur Hacker.
Phaethon and Phoebus: See Book Two
In the First Book Ovid chose for the most part myths which had
long interested the ancients. He relied, however, on Alexandrian and
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? PHAETHON AND PHOEBUS
Roman versions. For the earlier stories of the book, Varro and
Aratus supplied most of the material. Nicander became important
with the tale of the Giants and continued so until the end. The
Manual was Ovid's chief source for the Deluge but elsewhere was
less useful than in many of the subsequent books. In these predeces-
sors Ovid found most of his raw material. He improved it in many
ways. He added appropriate ideas from Euripides, Catullus, and
Horace. Vergil helped him in almost every story. He omitted what
was inharmonious with his design; he improved many details; and he
introduced valuable inventions of his own. Although not gifted in
planning a great sustained work, Ovid did much to make his stories
consistent with one another and to make them progress effectively
from the Creation through the Deluge. And to all his tales he gave the
charm and brilliance of his style.
To the later Romans the First Book was unusually welcome. Ovid
dealt with ideas that already had proved congenial to their
philosophy and poetry; yet he introduced them in tales that were
comparatively new. He reminded them of other famous poets; yet his
work seemed always original and fascinating. Almost every impor-
tant Roman poet after Ovid's time recalled this book, and Seneca used
it in prose.
With the earlier Medieval authors, the opening tales were popular.
The entire book became a favorite with the chief authors of modern
times. Poets, who appeared to be in other respects utterly different
from one another, had here an interest in common. The First Book
attracted many who ordinarily used Ovid but little. Among them were
Regnier, Heywood, Pope, and Lowell. It contributed much to the
work of Petrarch, Camoens, Lope de Vega, and Browning. Jean de
Meun and Chaucer borrowed repeatedly. Dante, Spenser, and Shake-
speare showed interest in almost every tale. Milton turned to this
book continually at almost every period of his career and profited
by it in much of his greatest poetry. Dryden translated the entire
book.
In painting and sculpture, several of the tales were popular, and
they inspired a few masterpieces. The tale 6f Daphne was of signal
importance in the history of music. And that of Python contributed
interestingly to science.
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? BOOK TWO
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? BOOK TWO
Phaethon and Phoebus
The idea that the Sun had at one time left its proper course and
threatened the whole order of nature has inspired similar myths in
ancient Greece and among the Indian tribes of British Columbia. In
both stories the Sun had a child, who was mortal and grew up with his
mother. When someone doubted his being the child of the great
luminary, the youth tried to confirm his belief by visiting his father.
He then persuaded his father to let him drive the Sun's car for a day.
Unable to obey instructions, the boy left the proper course. To save
the world it was necessary that the Sun should resume the reins.
According to the Indians, the Sun god himself threw the boy from
the car and guided it back. But the Greeks imagined that the youth
was hurled from the car by a bolt of Jupiter.
In the tradition of prehistoric Greece the Sun may have been an
independent god, as we find him in the Odyssey. But later he was
identified with Apollo, the offspring of Jupiter and the goddess
Latona. In either case, the Sun god was the child of divine parents
and thus immortal by birth. But he married a sea nymph, who was
regarded as a being of a much humbler order and destined at length to
die. Tradition required ordinarily that the children of such an un-
equal marriage should have the rank of their lesser parent: Phaethon,
therefore, was mortal. The earliest tradition imagined that he grew
up in the bright region of Ethiopia and that he was struck down not
far from his home. Hence it was not difficult for his mother and sisters
to find and inter his body.
Before the myth entered literature, it coalesced with two others.
One of these tried to explain the origin of the fossil resin, amber. Dur-
ing prehistoric times amber was discovered in several rivers flowing
into the Baltic sea and was transported by land to the mouths of the
Rhone and the Po. From there Phoenician ships conveyed it to the
wealthy towns of Etruria and Greece. From the stories of the
Phoenicians, the Greeks came to believe that amber was the gum of a
contemporary tree, which they usually identified with the poplar, and
that it hardened in the sun while floating down some river in the north-
west, called the Eridanus. They imagined that Phaethon had devi-
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK II
ated from his course far enough to plunge into this river and that his
sisters wandered thither and lamented until they became poplar trees
on the bank. With the new localization of Phaethon's fall, the jour-
neying of his mother and sisters became much longer and more diffi-
cult and their loyalty more impressive. The transformation of
Phaethon's sisters was thought ordinarily to have relieved tlieiri
anguish; but they continued to drop tears of liquid amber in the
stream.
A second myth dealt with the origin of the swan. According to
the earlier form of the story, Phaethon had a somewhat older kinsman
named Cycnus, who lived near him in Ethiopia and regarded him with
special affection. After Phaethon's death his kinsman fell into incon-
solable grief and at length became the swan, a bird with a mournful
cry.
The combined myth entered literature in a lost poem ascribed to
Hesiod. Misunderstanding the Greek epithet for "mourning" (ligus)
the poet made Cycnus a prince of Liguria, in the northwestern part of
Italy. This brought him nearer to the fabulous river Eridanus and
the mourning sisters, but it made any unusual affection for Phaethon
improbable. The poet added that Phaethon became the Morning
Star and thus his father was consoled for his tragic death.
Aeschylus treated the myth in a tragedy called The Sun's Daugh-
ters (Heliades). He identified the Eridanus with an imaginary river
which united the Rhone with the Po--an idea that was repeated much
later in the Argonauts of Apollonius. But Pherecydes identified it ex-
clusively with the Po, and this became the usual tradition. Euripides
retold the myth in his Phaethon, a play which Goethe afterwards tried
to reconstruct. He said that Phaethon's mother was Clymene, a sea
nymph who became the wife of the Ethiopian king Merops. In another
tragedy, the Hippolytus, Euripides retold briefly the tale of Cycnus.
About a century after the death of Euripides, an unknown Alex-
andrian poet repeated the story of Phaethon with many alterations.
By this time educated Greeks had accepted a Babylonian tradition
that the Morning and the Evening Star was the goddess of Love.
Accordingly, this Alexandrian poet altered the conclusion of the myth
by making Phaethon the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga).
He added that the sisters became the Hyades, Cycnus became the con-
stellation of the Swan, and the river into which Phaethon dropped
became the constellation Fluvius Eridanus. In his mad career, said
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? PHAETHON AND PHOEBUS
the Alexandrian, Phaethon at first drove too high, scorching the
heavens and forming the Milky Way; then he drove top low and set
the earth afire. This conflagration was put out by the Deluge. The
tradition that Phaethon caused the Milky Way became popular with
later mythographers and passed from them to Dante, Chaucer, and
Spenser. Phaethon's association with the Deluge proved less interest-
ing than the older myth of Lycaon (Bk. 1), but it was mentioned
again by Lucretius.
Phanocles told at greater length of Cycnus and Phaethon, describ-
ing the former as a suitor of his kinsman. Apollonius recorded that
the Argonauts voyaging up the Po were troubled by the stench of
Phaethon's body still burning under the water and by the shrill lament
of the sisters. And Alexandrian sculptors often carved the tale of
Phaethon on sarcophagi to suggest the transitory nature of human
life.
Nicander retold the entire story. He repeated the idea that Phae-
thon caused the Milky Way and probably added that by driving too
low he occasioned the Cyclad Isles, the Sahara Desert, and the dark
skin of the Ethiopians. And he seems to have related the story to
a problem which had begun to interest the ancients, the mysterious
origin of the Nile. Dismayed by the excessive heat, he said, the Nile
took refuge in unknown regions far to the south, where he still has
his source. Nicander retained the metamorphosis of Phaethon into
the constellation of the Charioteer; but he rejected all other trans-
formation to stars. Many centuries after this, Nicander's version
inspired the late Greek poet Nonnus.
For Ovid the myth of Phaethon had great interest. He mentioned
it frequently and in the Tristia compared the fall of Phaethon to
his own exile by the Emperor Augustus.
In the Metamorphoses Ovid passed from the myth of Io to that of
Phaethon by declaring that Io's child, Epaphus, had been the one who
questioned the divine parentage of Phaethon. Ovid then proceeded to
elaborate and improve on the version of Nicander. With him he
showed Phaethon appealing to his mother and by her advice making on
foot a rather short journey eastward from Ethiopia, across the adjoin-
ing country of India, to the palace of the Sun. For the majority of
Romans this strange idea of geography in the east would have seemed
entirely credible. Although the ancient Egyptians and Persians knew
something of an Indian Ocean lying between Africa and India, such
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK II
knowledge had passed very slowly to the Greeks. For Aeschylus and
his audience the mainland of Asia was an almost inaccessible region
inhabited by fabulous peoples and extending southwards to the Nile
in its upper course. More than a century later, the victorious
Alexander, arriving at a branch of the Indus, believed that he
was close to the source of the Nile. And, although subsequent war
and commerce dispelled many illusions, the East was even in
Augustan times a distant, marvellous region rarely visited and little
known.
The Sun's palace Ovid described brilliantly, perhaps with some
recollection of the actual mansions in Roman times. It was built, he
said, by Vulcan, the great artificer of the gods. Following the exam-
ple of the Iliad and the Aeneid, he imagined elaborate sculpture on the
palace doors. But he seems also to have recalled an actual work of
art, for he pictured the world as the Mediterranean Sea enclosed by a
circle of land and both encircled by Ocean--an archaic conception
quite unlike the geography elsewhere in his poem. In portraying the
appearance of the Sun god on his throne, Ovid followed the rather
common epic practice of having a god attended by various personified
abstractions of an appropriate nature. This epic practice suggested
Ovid's personification of the Hours, Days, and Months. But for the
Seasons he again used a work of art. His description here was vague,
probably because the work was familiar to his contemporaries. In
the lore of Pythagoras (Bk. 15) he again treated the same idea, imply-
ing that the Seasons were represented by male figures of appropriately
varied age.
Following Nicander, Ovid recorded Phaethon's request for proof
of his origin and Apollo's rash promise to give whatever proof he
might wish, confirmed with an oath by the river Styx. This famous
oath had begun with a custom followed by many savage peoples of con-
firming an oath with a draught of water believed to have magic powers.
In ancient Greece the very cold waters of the Arcadian river Styx were
regarded as poisonous to any man who was not protected by the gods
--an idea which Ovid was to mention in the lore of Pythagoras. Ac-
cordingly, men wishing to give a solemn pledge would sometimes drink
water of the Styx, in order to show that their intentions were honor-
able and had divine approval. A similar custom was attributed to the
deities themselves. But this oath was associated with the Styx of
the Lower World, which the gods hoped never to visit, so for them
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? PHAETHON AND PHOEBUS
the draught of water was omitted. Both the Iliad and the Odyssey
recorded a pledge by the river Styx as the strongest oath that
could be taken by the gods. The Theogony added that any violation
was to be punished by nine years of suffering and exile from Olympus.
And other ancient authors in general made the Styx the most power-
ful sanction which a god could invoke. Following tradition, Ovid
made it clear that, when Phaethon asked unexpectedly for a chance to
drive the Sun's car, Apollo could not withdraw the pledge; but he
imagined that it would have been possible for Phaethon to free him
by withdrawing the request. Therefore, he showed Apollo trying
vainly to dissuade his son in two long and dramatic speeches of
warning.
After the first of these speeches, Ovid showed Apollo leading Phae-
thon to the car, which now was harnessed and ready for the beginning
of day. A description of Juno's chariot in the Iliad may have sug-
gested Ovid's brilliant account of the Sun's car made by Vulcan. But
Ovid described with a different purpose and more opulent effect. He
added also a splendid and beautiful account of the dawn. In these
two descriptions Ovid found unusual opportunity to profit by his
vivid imagination and his eager feeling for color.
According to the mythology of Egypt and many other partly
civilized countries, the sun rose from the east in the morning; tra-
versed the heavens to the west during the day; and returned during
the night through the Lower World to his rising in the east. On the
assumption that the world was flat, this theory explained his move-
ments quite plausibly. But it does not seem to have affected the myth-
ology of the Greeks. They imagined that the sun rose from the ocean
in the east and set in the ocean to the west; but at first they did not
trouble themselves about his method for returning They implied
clearly, however, that he did not pass through Hades, which they re-
garded as a region of gloom never visited by the sun. And later the
more thoughtful Greeks gave up their mythological ideas for the scien-
tific theory that the earth was a sphere and the sun a luminary moving
round it daily with the motion of the heavens. Greek mythology re-
mained illogical regarding the motion of the sun. It felt an incongru-
ity, however, in the conception of the sun's having contact with the
sea and invented the picturesque idea that Tethys, goddess of Ocean,
allowed him to rise from her boat in the east and met him again with
her boat as he came down to the western waves. This idea Ovid
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK II
accepted for his tale of Phaethon, and he did full justice to the meet-
ing in the west. But in order to describe the Sun's palace, he imag-
ined that the chariot rose in the morning from high ground. Under
these circumstances he could give Tethys only the incongruous duty of
lowering the stable bars.
To the speeches of Apollo and the narrative of Phaethon's ride,
Ovid gave added interest by drawing on the astronomy of his own time.
Such material was of later origin than the myth and not easy to recon-
cile with it. Moreover, Ovid did not understand the scientific prin-
ciples of the astronomy which he was using. Yet he realized that
there were many chances for picturesque detail and on the whole he
gained much by the attempt. His educated readers have been willing
to ignore his mistakes and all his readers have enjoyed the spirited
narrative and graphic detail.
Ovid's use of astronomy is a matter of extraordinary interest. It
showed his desire to enliven ancient myth by relating it unexpectedly
with advanced scientific ideas. For this reason alone it would be inter-
esting to observe his methods. But the conception of the universe
which Ovid was trying to suggest was not peculiar to his own age.
With minor changes, it was accepted by the, majority of well informed
men until the sixteenth century. And much of its doctrine reappeared
even a century later in Milton's Paradise Lost. It is worth while to
explain briefly a system which prevailed so widely and so long and to
show how Ovid applied and misapplied it in his myth.
The system of astronomy which was to become orthodox in Augustan
times had originated in ancient Chaldea. From there it passed to the
Greeks. It was improved by a number of Alexandrian scientists; and,
about a century and a half before Ovid's time, the great astronomer
Hipparchus had brought the science forward to a point where it
agreed in the main with the system later made famous by Ptolemy.
According to this view, an unmoving, spherical Earth was the center of
the universe. Enveloping the Earth closely on all sides was a hollow,
transparent sphere. The Earth resembled, in shape and position, the
yolk of an uncooked egg, and the hollow, transparent sphere resembled
the enveloping white. But in this transparent sphere there floated
a luminous body, the Moon, and from this body the sphere took its
name. Inclosing the sphere of the Moon, was another transparent
sphere, containing the planet Mercury. And this was inclosed suc-
cessively by the spheres of Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,
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? PHAETHON AND PHOEBUS
and the stars. 1 Thus, as Ovid pointed out, the proper route for the
Sun would lie in a middle distance, about equally removed from the
stars above and the Earth below, and it should be much higher than the
route of the Moon. But Ovid was wrong in declaring that this course
would take Phaethon among fear inspiring constellations.
Hipparchus believed further that all the successive spheres which
inclosed the Earth moved continually from east to west, carrying
with them the stars, planets, Sun, and Moon. This caused the appar-
ent westward movement of all heavenly bodies during every day and
night. But the Sun, Moon, and planets did not merely revolve in a
westerly direction with their spheres. Each of them at the same time
was moving slowly in a contrary direction through the yielding ma-
terial of the sphere and progressing from west to east. This independ-
ent motion altered their positions with respect to the fixed stars
above and in a year it allowed the Sun to make a complete circuit of
the heavens. Ovid said, therefore, that the Sun must move counter
to the rushing sky. For the year this would be true. But in a single
day his independent movement would be so slight that he would ap-
pear merely to be swept westward with the heavens.
Ancient astronomers had observed that in the course of a year the
Sun would pass through twelve successive regions of the sky called the
zodiac. In each region he would spend a month. This would cause
him to pass successively in front of the constellations occupying each
region. According to the Babylonians and the earlier Alexandrian
astronomers, these constellations were eleven in number and they were
identified in a rather arbitrary manner with eleven mythological crea-
tures. One of the eleven constellations, the Scorpion, extended over
two regions of the zodiac. The later Alexandrians restricted it to one
region and designated the stars remaining in the other as a twelfth
constellation, the Scales. But in early Augustan times the older view
still prevailed. Hence Vergil could inform the young Emperor
graciously that the Scorpion then occupied two regions but in time
would retire and leave room for the constellation of the deified
Augustus. Accepting the newer system, Ovid declared that Vulcan
had carved on the doors ot the Sun's Palace the twelve constellations
of the zodiac. But later he reverted inconsistently to the older sys-
1 The same idea of a central Earth enveloped by successive spheres was implied
in Dante's ParadUo. Dante, too, showed the Moon in the lowest sphere, the Sun
in the fourth or middle sphere, and the stars in the highest. . ,
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK II
tem, declaring that Phaethon met the Scorpion extending fearfully
over the space of two signs.
According to ancient astronomy, the Sun would pass in front of the
groups known as the Bull, the Archer, and others which Ovid men-
tions. But, to pass all these in his legitimate course, Phaethon would
have had to drive for a period of eight months. In a single day he
would move only part of the distance across a single group.
In describing the surface of the earth, ancient scientists had recog-
nized the five zones which we know today. They sometimes made a
corresponding division of the heavens. When this was done, they
observed that the Sun moved always within the portion of the sky
belonging to the Torrid Zone. And at the two periods, known as the
Vernal Equinox (March 21st. ) and the Autumnal Equinox (September
21st. ), his course lay exactly in the middle of this Torrid belt. But
after the Vernal Equinox, his course left the middle and appeared
every day a little farther north, until at Midsummer (June 21st. ) he
followed the border of the North Temperate Zone. Then he slowly
returned and was again in the middle of the Torrid Zone by the Autum-
nal Equinox. But immediately after, his course left the middle a second
time and now ran daily farther south, until at Midwinter (December
21st. ) it followed the rim of the South Temperate Zone. Accordingly,
Ovid showed Apollo warning Phaethon that the Sun must keep within
the three middle zones, shunning either pole. If Apollo had been ex-
plaining the course of the Sun for the entire year, this statement
would be true. But during a single day the Sun would have only a
restricted course within a single zone.
Despite these scientific blunders, Ovid's use of astronomy added
much to the interest of the story and helped him to emphasize the
essential point. He made it clear that Phaethon was rashly under-
taking an enterprise fraught with peril and Apollo was remonstrating
with fatherly solicitude.
For Phaethon's disastrous ride, Ovid followed Nicander except in
the derivation of the Milky Way, which he had explained elsewhere as
the thoroughfare of the gods (see Lycaon, Bk. 1). But he added
many vivid details and he gladly introduced names of rivers and moun-
tains which had especial interest for the Romans. He tried also to
heighten the effect of terror, confusion, and conflagration. In this
he did not show his usual regard for consistency, for he mentioned the
alarm of the Bears, which did not exist before the later transformation
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? PHAETHON AND PHOEBUS
of Callisto, and the suffering of the swans in Cayster, which (accord-
ing to the Latin) did not exist hefore the transformation of Cycnus.
And, what was more unfortunate, he showed not only the scorching
of the Sahara and the Ethiopians but a universal conflagration after
which it would seem impossible for any life to survive.
After introducing an eloquent appeal of Earth, Ovid came to the
hurling of the thunderbolt. Here again he sacrificed probability for
sensational effect. Early tradition implied, and Lucretius had stated
clearly, that Jupiter struck down Phaethon, in order that Apollo
might redirect the chariot into the proper course. Ovid showed him
demolishing the chariot and allowing the frightened horses to strew
it far and wide. Yet later he recorded without explanation that it was
whole and ready in the east, when Apollo was persuaded to resume his
task.
In the Amores Ovid had mentioned Phaethon's becoming the con-
stellation of the Charioteer. In the Metamorphoses he omitted this
event entirely. The explanation seems to be that he reserved it, as he
had reserved the transformation of Io into the constellation of the
Bull (Bk. 1), for an appropriate passage of the Fasti.
The burial of Phaethon by his mother and sisters Ovid rejected as
improbable and he transferred this duty to the Naiads. He followed
the outline of Nicander's story about the transformation of the sisters.
But he added from Vergil's famous account of Polydorous the details
of their bleeding and crying out when their mother tore their poplar
bark. And he adapted the description of amber appropriately to its
use at Rome.
Vergil in the Aeneid had mentioned the traditional love of Cycnus
for Phaethon and added that Cycnus became a white bird, which left
the earth and followed the stars with his voice.
