No More Learning

Vergil in the Georgics had praised Italy as more desirable than
spice-bearing Panchaia in Arabia and had observed that Italy is un-
visited by such ravening beasts as the tiger or such a mythological
terror as Jason's armed crop. Propertius had pronounced the Roman
domain fortunate in its creditable history and, after noting its freedom
from monstrous animals, had rejoiced also in its freedom from mytho-
logical crimes, one of them the horror of Thyestes deceived and devour-
ing his children, a horror from which even the sun had fled. Following
both passages, Ovid showed Orpheus congratulating Thrace on its re-
moteness from the scene of Myrrha's heinous offense and adding that
Thrace need not envy Panchaia its incense, while Panchaia continues to
grow the myrrh tree. Creation of this new tree was not worth the dis-
grace involved. Ovid implied that Myrrha was transformed in the region
of Panchaia. Later he spoke of the event as occurring, less appro-
priately, in the neighboring region of Sabaea.
Cupid disclaimed any share in provoking Myrrha, Orpheus con-
tinued. She was incited by one of the Furies. Previous authors had at-
tributed Myrrha's abnormal passion to Venus. The goddess was offended
with Myrrha, they said, and she took this way of punishing her. Ovid
implied later that he accepted their idea. But, remembering that Juno
had employed a Fury to provoke the crime of Athamas (Bk. 4), he
seems to have imagined that Venus employed a similar agent to provoke
the crime of Myrrha.
He then showed Orpheus recounting the tale. Most authors had
called the heroine Smyrna, and, according to one author, Cinyras had
founded the port of Smyrna and named it after his daughter. Ovid
called the girl Myrrha, an unusual dialect form of the name, because
this form was related to myrrha and murra, the Latin words for myrrh.
Panyasis had recorded the earliest version of the tale which still
survives. The girl offended Venus, he said, by failing to honor her and
was punished with lust for her father. Panyasis called the father Thias,
king of Assyria. With the aid of her nurse, the girl contrived to de-
ceive him and indulge in illicit relations during twelve nights. After a
while the father discovered her guilt and attempted to kill her with a
sword. Overtaken in flight, she implored the gods to save her. They
transformed her into the myrrh tree, which Panyasis may have regarded
as native to Assyria. In time Adonis was born from the tree. This
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
account was repeated in the Manual. Lycophron, alluding to the meta-
morphosis, mentioned the locality as Byblus in Syria.
Nicander also named Syria but spoke of the girl's birthplace as
the higher of two ranges called Mt. Lebanon. The girl's mother, he
said, was a nymph called Orithyia. Nicander said nothing about the
anger of Venus, but he added many other circumstances. He indicated
that Myrrha could easily have enjoyed love of a proper kind. A number
of youths from many cities wished to marry her. She avoided them and
desired none but her father. After concealing her passion for some
time, she confided it to her nurse Hippolyte. The nurse promised to find
a remedy. Hippolyte told Myrrha's father that a woman of the better
sort desired to have illicit relations with him, but wanted her identity
to remain unknown. The king arranged to wait for her with no illumi-
nation in his room. The nurse led in Myrrha. According to Nicander,
the affair continued over a period of many months, until it was almost
time for the birth of Myrrha's child. At last the king hid a light in the
room and, as Myrrha entered, suddenly brought it out and revealed her
identity.
Nicander gave a different conclusion to the story. The father
made no attempt to kill his daughter. But sudden fear and shame caused
Myrrha to bear the child prematurely. She then prayed that she might
disappear both from the living and from the dead. Jupiter metamor-
phosed her into the tree, which every year weeps myrrh from its wood.
By the will of Jupiter the father adopted the child and called him Adonis.
Theodoras gave a still different account. He called Myrrha's father
Cinyras and her mother Cenchreis. The mother offended Venus, he said,
by alleging that her daughter was more beautiful than the goddess.
Theodorus offered some extenuation for the conduct of the nurse.
Myrrha at least threatened to hang herself. The nurse then undertook
the deception of Cinyras. The father continued unaware of Myrrha's
identity; but Myrrha, fearing that her pregnancy might attract atten-
tion, hid in the woods. Venus took pity on her and transformed her into
the tree. Afterwards Adonis inflamed Venus with unhappy love and
requited her for the sufferings of his mother. The tale of Myrrha may
have been recorded also by Philostephanus and Parthenius. A Pom-
peiian fresco showed the birth of Adonis.
In a long narrative poem, the Roman author Helvius Cinna, retold
the story of Myrrha. His work now is lost. Cinna elaborated the idea
that Myrrha forsook her home. Realizing that myrrh grows neither in
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? MYRRHA
Assyria nor in Syria, he told of her wandering all the way to Arabia,
an incredible distance. In the Ciris, Vergil referred to Cinna's narrative
by calling Myrrha Arabian. Other Roman poets alluded to the tradi-
tion in general. Propertius named Myrrha as an example of feminine
depravity. Ovid in his Art of Love mentioned her as evidence that women
are capable of assuming the aggressive. In the Remedies for Love, Ovid
declared that, if Myrrha had taken warning in the early stages of her
passion, she could have retained her human shape.
In the Metamiorphoses, Ovid combined many incidents from Theo-
doras and Nicander with a few from other predecessors. He elaborated
the work of the Greek authors very much, and, while doing so, he con-
tinually remembered his own tale of Byblis. By showing the woman as
the aggressor and by describing the man as appalled at her conduct,
tradition already had given the two stories an important resemblance.
Ovid gave them a further similarity by showing interest chiefly in the
development of the guilty passion. But in other respects he made the
tales as different as possible, and he often contrasted one with the other.
In order to have Myrrha's conduct appear more sensational, Ovid
said nothing about hostility of Venus. But he noted later that Adonis
requited Venus for the suffering of his mother. Ovid had implied that
Byblis found little chance to obtain a suitable husband. He described
the opposite situation as true of Myrrha. Heightening the statement
of Nicander, he observed that she was courted not merely by a number
of youths from many cities but by princes from the whole Orient.
In the tale of Byblis, Ovid had begun with the unconscious early
development of the girl's passion. In the tale of Myrrha he began at a
later stage, when Myrrha already understood its nature. Although he
showed each girl debating her future course, he indicated that the cir-
cumstances were different. Byblis soliloquized after awaking in the
night, Myrrha in a quiet interval of the day. Tradition had suggested
a contrast in the attitude of the two heroines towards the gods. Byblis
had seemed unmindful of them, but Myrrha towards the end of the tale
had prayed to them for deliverance. Ovid emphasized the contrast by
showing Byblis impious and Myrrha relatively pious. Byblis had re-
membered the gods only as affording examples which might justify her
evil desire. Myrrha could have made a similar attempt to justify her-
self, for the Theogony had recorded at least one example of illicit rela-
tions between parent and child -- that of Earth and her son the Sky.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
But Myrrha commenced her soliloquy by praying the gods to avert such
a crime.
Myrrha then doubted if it would be a crime. She endeavored to
persuade herself that her desire was natural. Here Ovid recalled his
tale of Ianthe. Both Ianthe and Myrrha judged what would be natural
from the supposed conduct of animals. But Myrrha indicated also that
she regarded human beings as essentially nothing more than animals.
The two girls arrived at opposite conclusions. Ianthe decided that all
evidence was against her, Myrrha that it was for her. Myrrha declared
that among animals father and daughter have no scruples about repro-
ducing their kind.
Ianthe had named chiefly domestic animals. She mentioned cattle,
horses, sheep, deer, and birds. Myrrha went little, if at all, beyond the
domestic sorts. She mentioned cattle, horses, goats, and birds. For the
purpose of Myrrha such evidence was misleading. Wild animals ordi-
narily can choose mates according to their preference, and they seem
to avoid their near kin. As the mating season approaches, they wander
to great distances and tend to become separated from all their close
relatives. Domestic animals ordinarily are restricted and often have
no choice. It is unwise to assume that such animals are without scruples.
But Myrrha decided that incestuous relations between parent and child
are the natural state of affairs and that civilization has interposed
artificial, malignant laws.
She corroborated this opinion from the supposed conduct of human
beings. It is reported, she said, that certain tribes allow marriage of
parent and child. Ovid may have alluded to the Greek idea that such
marriages were allowed in Persia. Like Byblis, Myrrha argued that
family affection would be heightened by a closer tie. Byblis had de-
clared that she suffered merely from accident of birth. Had she been a
member of some other family, she would have been eligible to marry
Caunus. Myrrha expressed a similar idea. Had she been a member of
some other tribe, she would have been eligible to marry Cinyras. For
Byblis it appeared enough to remove the obstacle of kinship. For
Myrrha it was otherwise. She doubted if, even so, she could fare any
better, alluding probably to the fact that Cinyras already had a wife.
Myrrha then made various efforts to dissuade herself. She consid-
ered the possibility of removing temptation by departure from the
country, but could not give up the satisfaction of continuing near
Cinyras. Sophocles in his Oedipus ths King had dwelt on the confused
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? MYRRHA
and monstrous family relations which resulted from the marriage of
Oedipus and his mother. Oedipus, for example, was both the father and
the brother of his children, Jocasta both their grandmother and their
mother. Ovid showed Myrrha warning herself against the similar con-
fusion that would result in her case. She would be daughter and rival
of her mother, mistress of her father, sister of her son, mother of her
brother. But the effect of the two passages was different, for Sophocles
presented a noble character who felt and communicated a sense of
horror.
Myrrha then warned herself also of the Furies, who punish guilt.
She told herself to avoid offending, even in thought. Byblis had im-
agined that her brother would yield to her plea. Myrrha warned her-
self that her father would not. Byblis had reflected that Caunus might
have been the first to love and had encouraged herself with the idea.
Myrrha made a similar reflection about Cinyras, only to lament that it
was impossible. Byblis had ended by persuading herself that she ought
to act aggressively. Myrrha persuaded herself that she must give up in
despair.
Ovid then invented a striking incident. Cinyras, in doubt as to
which of the many suitors he ought to favor, named them to his daughter
and asked her opinion. Myrrha gazed at him mutely and shed tears.
Interpreting this as maidenly alarm, Cinyras tried affectionately to re-
assure her and inquired what kind of husband she desired. Remember-
ing that Pygmalion had prayed for a wife like his ivory maid, Ovid
repeated the concealing phrase. Myrrha replied, one like you. Venus
had understood the intent of Pygmalion. Cinyras failed to understand
that of Myrrha and hoped that she always might be so filial. The word
"filial" caused her to look down in guilty embarrassment.
Touching on the familiar Roman contrast between peaceful night
and the wakeful activity of some human being, Ovid spoke of the fol-
lowing-midnight and Myrrha's oscillation between shame and desire.
In the Aeneid, Vergil had likened Troy during its last hours to a great
tree cut with repeated strokes of the axe, which nods and continually
threatens to fall and at length, overcome with wounds, crashes down.
Ovid likened the resistance of Myrrha, enervated by wounds, to a great
tree cut with all except the final blow of the axe, which wavers and
threatens to fall. And he added the striking idea of the tree's nodding
successively in many directions. Vergil had described Dido as turning
her swift mind hither and thither. Ovid used a similar phrase to describe
Myrrha.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
Euripides in the Hippolytus had shown Phaedra resolving to escape
guilt by suicide, Theodorus had associated with Myrrha the idea of
hanging, and Apollonius had noted that Byblis hanged herself with her
own girdle. Ovid showed Myrrha resolving to take her own life and then
tying one end of her girdle round the highest post of the ceiling. Ap-
parently she tied it at a point between a beam of the ceiling and the
roof above. Byblis had hoped that after her death her brother might
be unaware of the cause. But Myrrha cried, "Dear Cinyras, farewell,
and learn the cause of my death! " She then began fastening the other
end of the girdle round her neck.
Tradition had mentioned the nurse's intervening in Myrrha's be-
half, and Theodorus had shown her moved by the girl's threat of suicide.
Ovid improved these hints with ideas from other tales, especially from
the Ciris of Vergil and the Hippolytus of Euripides.
From Vergil, Ovid took the following details. The noise of Myrrha's
preparation awakened the nurse, who slept close to her room, and led
her to seek the girl and inquire the cause of her distress. Ovid added a
lively description of the terror and haste with which the nurse inter-
rupted the hanging. Myrrha showed reluctance to answer and regretted
that slowness had defeated her intent. The nurse persisted in her in-
quiry, guessed that the cause was love of someone, and promised aid.
Ovid added that she promised concealment from Myrrha's father.
Learning the object of the girl's passion, the nurse expressed horror
and remonstrance.
But, when she found the girl resolved either to be
gratified or to die, she again promised aid and confirmed her promise
with an oath by a divinity.
Euripides suggested the following additional details. The nurse
offered medicine, if the trouble was illness, and suggested the idea that
it might be sorcery. But Ovid showed her offering remedies for many
possible evils: for madness, charms and herbs ; for the spell of an enemy,
purifying magic; for anger of a deity, sacrifice. Myrrha was distressed
because her nurse accidentally mentioned the object of her passion.
When the nurse observed that all seemed well with her mother and father,
the last word caused the girl to sigh deeply. Myrrha asked the nurse to
go away, but reluctantly yielded to her persistence. Ovid added that
Myrrha's nurse threatened to tell her father about the attempted sui-
cide. Myrrha could not state her desire but used an expression which
allowed the nurse to guess it. She exclaimed, "0 mother fortunate in
your husband! " Myrrha understood the right course but persisted in
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? MYRRHA
the wrong. This last idea Ovid had used more than once in previous
tales.
With the material from Vergil and Euripides, Ovid combined a few
additional circumstances. In the Iliad, Hecuba had tried to dissuade
Hector from encountering Achilles. She had wept, uncovered her breast,
and urged him by the milk that once relieved his hunger to do as she de-
sired. Ovid, assuming that during Myrrha's infancy the nurse had pro-
vided milk, showed the nurse acting in the same manner as Hecuba. But
he gave a stronger impression of advanced age. And, as Byblis had felt
ashamed to utter the word "brother," Myrrha's nurse felt ashamed to
utter the word "father. "
Theodorus had implied that Cenchreis was living in the palace as
the wife of Cinyras, and he made it appear doubtful whether Myrrha
could have succeeded in her purpose. Nicander had implied that during
the time of her plot the father had no consort. Ovid reconciled the two
accounts. Cenchreis, he said, was the queen of Cinyras, but at this time
she happened to be absent. It was the annual festival in honor of Ceres
which occurred in August, and all matrons were required to leave their
husbands for a period of nine days. A festival of Ceres was no part of
Phoenician or Syrian worship. Ovid assumed that Cyprus had adopted
the ways of the Greeks. Ovid may have supposed that unmarried women
also had gone into temporary seclusion, for he indicated that Myrrha
and the nurse were living away from the palace.
One night during the festival the nurse visited Cinyras. Ovid prob-
ably thought of the time as the night after Myrrha's attempt at suicide.
In the Old Testament story of Lot, two daughters deceived their father
by making him drunk. In Greek and Roman tales of this kind, there
seems never to have been any idea of using drunkenness as a means of
seduction. And Ovid appears to have been the only classic author who
even mentioned intoxication. The nurse found Cinyras under the influ-
ence of wine, he said, and took advantage of his condition. But Ovid
spoke of the father's drunkenness as being a matter of chance and as
happening only on the first occasion.
Following Nicander, Ovid showed the nurse describing the woman
as unknown to him but attractive. The nurse, he added, gave a fictitious
name but described a real passion. Ovid said nothing about the woman's
desire to continue unrecognized, perhaps assuming that his readers
would be familiar with this idea. He noted that Cinyras inquired about
her age. In reply the nurse gave a hint as to her identity, which Cinyras
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
failed to understand. Her age, she answered, is the same as Myrrha's.
Bidden to fetch the woman, the nurse informed Myrrha and told her to
rejoice. The girl did rejoice but was troubled with forebodings.
In describing the approach of Myrrha to her father's chamber,
Ovid desired to suggest both the solemn hour of midnight and the horror
of her intent. It was the time, he said, when the constellation of the
Waggoner (Bootes), between the two Bears, turned the pole of his wain
from the zenith downwards to the west. The description was more im-
pressive than accurate. At any season Bootes would appear to move
behind the Bears, and at midnight in August he would be setting. Ovid
then recalled a memorable incident in the Greek tradition of Atreus.
When Thyestes unwittingly devoured the flesh of his children, the sun
was reported to have changed its course in horror. Sophocles had told
the story in his Atreus, which now is lost, and Propertius had mentioned
the circumstance in his praise of the Roman domain. At the intent of
Myrrha, Ovid imagined a similar demonstration by the heavenly bodies,
but he drew less on the supernatural. The golden moon fled from the
sky ? --? presumably it set. The stars hid behind somber clouds, leaving
the night without illumination.
The first constellations which hid themselves were those most likely
to realize the enormity of the offense. Here Ovid recalled a tradition
associated with Bacchus. When that god visited the region of Athens,
a certain Icarus received him hospitably. In return Bacchus taught him
the art of making wine. Icarus shared the new gift with shepherds of the
neighborhood. Becoming intoxicated, they supposed that he had poi-
soned them, and they killed him. His daughter Erigone, aided by her
dog, sought for him and, finding the body, hanged herself. The gods
rewarded this pious household by metamorphosis into constellations.
Icarus became Bootes, Erigone became Virgo, and the dog became Canis
Minor. The story had appeared in the Manual and in many sculptured
reliefs. Ovid noted the constellations of Icarus and Erigone as the first
to hide their faces at the conduct of Myrrha. Earlier in the poem (Bk.
1) Ovid had alluded to a different story, that Astraea became the con-
stellation Virgo. He lessened the difficulty by merely alluding to each
of the tales and by keeping the two allusions far apart.
He invented other dramatic circumstances which attended the ap-
proach of Myrrha. When Byblis was despatching a letter to her brother,
she was startled by the omen of tablets falling to the ground, but she
persisted nevertheless. Ovid imagined a similar incident in tLe tale of
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? MYRRHA
Myrrha. Three times she stumbled, and three times she heard the ill-
boding cry of the screech owl. But she persisted. Darkness lessened
her feeling of shame, and the nurse held her by the hand. As Myrrha
entered the door, she grew faint and gladly would have turned back be-
fore her father knew of her presence. But the nurse led her in and ad-
dressed Cinyras with tragic double meaning. Take her, she is yours.
Then the nurse departed. Even in the darkness and confusion of the
moment, Cinyras perceived the girl's reluctance. He attempted to en-
courage her and, recalling her age, addressed her as daughter. She
addressed him by a word appropriate to his age, father. So even names
accompanied their guilt.
Tradition had recorded the idea that Myrrha repeated her offense
during many later nights. Ovid had implied that the total number
could have been at most nine, the period of the mother's absence; but
he gave the impression that Myrrha offended repeatedly. Byblis had
not been deterred by failure; Myrrha was not deterred by success. Ac-
cording to Nicander, the father contrived suddenly to illumine the
room and learned the girl's identity. According to Panyasis, he en-
deavored to kill her with a'sword. Ovid repeated both circumstances
but gave a different sequel. Myrrha easily escaped in the darkness.
Following the idea of Cinna, Ovid imagined that she crossed un-
recognized to the mainland of Asia Minor and wandered to south-
eastern Arabia. Ovid had recorded in some detail the wanderings of
Byblis, he only sketched those of Myrrha. In both stories, the heroine
became exhausted. Byblis dropped face downwards and lay mute,
Myrrha continued standing and prayed. Tired of living and scared of
dying, she asked for relief. Nicander, without indicating what god she
addressed, had shown Myrrha asking that she might disappear both
from the living and from the dead. Vergil had shown Scylla admitting
that she deserved punishment. Ovid combined these ideas. Myrrha
prayed to any god who might be willing to listen, admitted that she de-
served punishment, and desired that she might avoid further offense
either to the living or to the dead. Ovid added that she asked explicitly
for transformation.
Nicander had ascribed the transformation to Jupiter, Theodoras
had ascribed it to Venus. Ovid, unwilling to associate it with any heav-
enly power, left the agency indefinite. But he implied that, as certain
naiads had transformed Byblis, now others of the same race transformed
Myrrha. As usual when describing a metamorphosis into a tree, Ovid
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
pictured the change in detail. When the bark rose to Myrrha's neck, he
said, she hastened the change by concealing her face underneath it. She
then wept tears of myrrh, which have given her lasting fame. As in the
tale of Byblis, weeping became a permanent aspect of the metamorphosis.
According to Panyasis, transformation of the mother delayed the
birth of the child. Accepting this idea, Ovid gave a vivid description
of Myrrha's suffering. He imagined that Lucina came of her own accord
and brought relief. The bark split open, and a son was born. In the
tale of Arachne (Bk. 6) Ovid had observed that even Envy could not
find fault with Arachne's web. He now declared that even Envy would
praise the beauty of Adonis. The child, he said, was like the Cupids of
Greek and Roman art, except that he lacked a quiver of arrows.
In later times many poets recalled Ovid's tale of Myrrha. Dryden
translated it, praising the skill of Ovid's transition from the story of
Pygmalion. Alfieri retold the tale of Myrrha as one of his most cele-
brated tragedies. Chretien de Troyes imitated many circumstances of
the story in his romance of Sir Cliges. He described the relations of the
girl Fenice and her nurse, Thessala, with detailed recollection of Myrrha
and her nurse. Other poets introduced Ovid's heroine into different sit-
uations of their own. Dante, visiting the region of the fraudulent, saw
Myrrha punished for impersonation. Swinburne introduced her as a
character in his Masque of Bersaba. Byron gave the name Myrrha to
the heroine of his drama Sardanapalus, once by mistake calling her
Byblis, and he imitated the circumstance of her struggling with a pas-
sion that she thought disgraceful.
Other poets recalled certain passages of Ovid's tale. Shakespeare
in Twelfth Night imitated both the incident of Cinyras asking Myrrha
whom she desired for a husband, and the two incidents of replying with
a hint which was not understood. Orsino asked Viola, who was dis-
guised as a page, what sort of woman she loved; and she replied, one
of your complexion. He then inquired what the woman's age might be,
and she replied, about the same as yours. Gray in a Latin Ode to the
Prince of Wales recalled Ovid's statement that under a fictitious name
one can describe a real passion. Chaucer declared in his TroHus that
when the hero and heroine said farewell, they shed tears more bitter
than the tears which Myrrha wept through the bark. In Pericles,
Shakespeare's hero invoked Lucina as a merciful goddess to aid his
queen. And Corneille observed in his Psyche that Venus was punished
with Adonis.
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? MYRRHA
Ovid's theme attracted a few modern artists. At Bologna an un-
known sculptor portrayed Myrrha in the decoration of a fane. Luini
painted the birth of Adonis, and Thorvaldsen treated the event more
than once in sculpture.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
Venus and Adonis
From the story of Myrrha, Ovid showed Orpheus proceeding to
that of her son, Adonis. He was a god who represented vegetation fad-
ing in the hot, dry summer and afterwards reviving at a more congenial
season. His festival occurred in the early summer, in certain commu-
nities at the solstice.
Adonis was one of several deities of this kind, who were worshiped
in southern Asia and southern Europe. In India the god of fading vege-
tation was called Parvati. He was loved by Shiva, goddess of fertility.
At his festival the offerings about his image included many plants which
had grown rapidly in shallow pots. The community joined first in
lamentation of his death and later in happy celebration of his revival.
Then the figure and the offerings were thrown into some body of water,
with the purpose of assuring rain for the crops.
In Babylonia the god was called Tammuz, and he was loved by the
goddess Ishtar. A few Babylonian laments, which still survive, were
composed for chanting over an effigy. They associated Tammuz with
fading plants. A story was told also to the following effect. Tammuz
died and went to the Lower World, the realm of the goddess Allatu.
Ishtar departed in order to recover him, and generation ceased on earth.
In alarm, the chief god Ea intervened and arranged for her return. Pre-
sumably Ishtar brought back Tammuz.
Many Semitic peoples of Asia Minor worshiped this god of vege-
tation. The prophet Ezechiel mentioned as one of the abominations of
his time the spectacle of Israelitish women mourning for Tammuz. The
Syrians of Byblus associated Tammuz with their goddess Astarte and
localized the events of his career in Mt.