No More Learning

The story grew out of a popular belief that a man may fall in love
with a woman's likeness in some work of art. The same belief underlies
the modern tradition of men who fell in love with Da "Vinci's painting
of the Mona Lisa and in despair were driven to suicide. It is related
often to some work of sculpture. According to Lucian, a certain young
man of Cnidus in Caria fell in love with the beautiful statue of Venus
by Praxiteles, which stood in the temple. According to a widespread
medieval tradition, a young man, who was engaged to marry, became
fascinated by another ancient statue of Venus and unwarily put the
future wedding ring on its finger. This medieval tale included a second
aspect of the popular belief, an idea that a woman's likeness may show
corresponding passion for the man. The statue of Venus withheld the
wedding ring, when the young man tried to regain it, and, after the
wedding, it entered the nuptial chamber and prevented him from ap-
proaching his bride. In some versions of the tale, the young man at last
obtained the ring and so overcame the opposition of the statue. But in
Merimee's Venus of IUe, the bronze arms of the statue embraced him and
crushed him to death.
Both aspects of the popular belief appeared in the Phoenician tale
of King Puni-Yathon and a likeness of the goddess Astarte. The king
fell in love with the work of sculpture, and the statue made some favor-
able response. At Carthage an early medallion associated the king and
the image of the divinity. Philostephanus recorded the tale in his His-
tory of Cyprus, which now is lost. Adapting the theme to Greek readers,
he named the king Pygmalion and spoke of the statue as a likeness of
Venus. He noted that it stood in a temple of Idalium, a Cyprian town
famous for her worship. Although early examples of sculpture appear
always to have shown the goddess fully clothed, Philostephanus imag-
ined the likeness according to Alexandrian fashion and spoke of it as
representing a naked figure.
In adapting the account of Philostephanus, Ovid altered many
particulars. He described Pygmalion as merely a citizen of a town in
Cyprus. He said nothing of Idalium and implied that his events oc-
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
curred in Amathus. He spoke of the statue as representing a mortal
woman. And, although he showed Venus responding favorably to Pyg-
malion, it was only as a kind presiding deity. Ovid also related the story
to another idea -- that one who is deprived of congenial human society
may obtain some comfort by lavishing affection on a statue.
Euripides had introduced the idea in his Alcestis. When the queen
lay dying, King Admetus declared that he would have a sculptor make a
life-like image of her and lay it on a bed, as if she were sleeping. Then
he should gain the sad comfort of addressing it by her loved name and
of embracing it and fancying that he still held his wife. Euripides pre-
sented the idea as a project, which later events made unnecessary. Ovid
carried the idea further. In the Epistle of Laodamia he described a
similar plan as actually in operation. During the absence of Protesilaiis,
Laodamia comforted herself, so far as possible, by lavishing affection
on his waxen image. Ovid showed her adding that his image was so life-
like that, if it should speak, one would believe it to be Protesilaiis.
Ovid imagined Pygmalion as following a similar course. But his
problem required a somewhat different answer. Both Admetus and
Laodamia had found a congenial human partner. Pygmalion had not.
The notorious conduct of the Propoetides, said Ovid, had impressed him
with the vices of actual women and made him unwilling to marry any
woman of his acquaintance. Therefore the statue did not represent some
particular individual but an ideal of womanhood.
Ovid imagined that Pygmalion himself made the statue, an idea
which added greatly to the interest of the tale. But he ought to have
warned his readers that Pygmalion had some training as a sculptor.
Ovid described the statue as carved in white ivory, a material used fre-
quently in ancient sculpture. He imagined a life-size figure standing on
a low pedestal. Made in ivory, this would require skillful joining of
many pieces. Probably the ivory was laid as a veneer over some other
material. The face, said Ovid, appeared to be that of a living woman,
with a warmth of feelings which modesty held in restraint. In the Art of
Love, Ovid had observed that, if art is concealed, it has a more desirable
effect. He now remarked that Pygmalion's art by concealing itself at-
tained the effect of life. Even Pygmalion was deceived. Although he
went so far as repeatedly to touch the statue with his hand, he could not
believe that it was ivory. He fell in love with his own creation. He even
fancied that it returned his kisses and that the surface yielded under
pressure of his fingers.
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? PYGMALION
Up to this point, Ovid had been adapting the tale of Philoste-
phanus. Now, adding ideas of Euripides, he skillfully elaborated them.
Pygmalion embraced the statue and addressed loving words to it. He
also brought gifts which would be pleasing to a girl, and he arrayed the
loved figure in appropriate clothing and jewels. With such adornment
it was beautiful, yet unadorned it was equally beautiful. Pygmalion
laid the statue on a bed, which he had provided with coverlets of Tyrian
purple and soft pillows, and he called it his wife.
Ovid seems to have invented the incidents which followed. At the
next ensuing festival of Venus, Pygmalion brought a gift to the altar
and timidly prayed that his future wife might be--like his ivory maiden.
Venus, understanding his intent, gave a favorable omen. The altar fire
three times leaped high in air.
Pygmalion returned home, anxious to look again on the image.
Ovid implied that it lay in a room which opened on the inner court and
that, when Pygmalion bent over the couch, behind him the sky was
visible through the open doorway. As he kissed the loved figure, it
seemed to be warm; and, as he laid his hand on the breast, the ivory be-
came more and more soft and yielding. Unwisely Ovid tried to illustrate
the sensation by an experience of his stay in Athens. It was, he said,
as if bee's wax from Mt. Hymettus were warmed in the sun and then
were moulded by the thumb into numerous forms and grew more respon-
sive with use. Pygmalion, afraid to credit the evidence of his senses,
made repeated trials. It was real flesh, with a pulse beating under his
thumb. After pouring out gratitude to Venus, Pygmalion turned again
to the maiden. Feeling his kiss on her lips, she timidly opened her eyes
and beheld at the same time the sky and her lover.
Ovid's remarkable story attracted many authors of later times.
Dryden translated it, and a number of other poets alluded to it. Some
recalled Pygmalion's success as an artist. Petrarch complimented Mar-
tini's painting of Laura by declaring that it reminded him of Pygma-
lion's achievement and awakened the regret that he could not hope to
converse in a similar manner with the beautiful likeness. Chaucer in The
Physician's Tale and Thomson in The Castle of Indolence referred to
Pygmalion as a sculptor of superlative ability. Thomson in this pas-
sage spoke of the statue as carved in marble, an idea which appeared
often in modern times. Other modern authors recalled Pygmalion's fall-
ing in love with his work. Rousseau declared in the Confessions that he
himself felt a similar susceptibility. Cowper observed gloomily in his
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
Progress of Error that Pygmalion was an ancient example of people
who love their own productions. Shelley in his Witch of Atlas remem-
bered both Pygmalion's skill in creation and his passion for the com-
pleted work.
Others recalled the transformation of the image into a living
woman. Shakespeare referred to it vaguely in Measure for Measure.
Schiller in his lyric The Ideal described it inaccurately. He declared
that just as Pygmalion, embracing the statue, had given it feeling; so
he himself, embracing Nature, had brought inanimate objects to life.
And Petrarch in his Triumph of Love noted among the god's followers
Pygmalion and his living bride.
A number of authors retold the story. Gower in the Confessio
Amantis followed Ovid closely. But most authors handled the subject
with considerable freedom. Jean de Meun expanded Ovid's account very
much, and, while recording the gifts which Pygmalion brought the
statue, he included almost every item of feminine dress and ornament.
He also added the circumstance that Pygmalion was in doubt whether
the statue had become a woman, until she spoke. This detail he seems
to have taken from the Epistle of Laodamia. The idea that Pygmalion
was convinced by her speaking appeared often in the work of modern
authors. John Marston chose Pygmalion as the subject of his first
work, a long narrative poem. Gray in a Latin Ode to the Prince of Wales
retold the latter part of Ovid's tale. And Goethe treated the theme in
an early lyric.
During the third quarter of the eighteenth century Rousseau made
Pygmalion the hero of a play. He called the maiden Galatea, and in
time this name won general acceptance. During the nineteenth century,
twenty English poets retold the story. The greater number of them
treated it seriously, and of these the most important was William
Morris in The Eartlily Paradise. His graceful narrative was illustrated
with four pictures by Burne-Jones. A few poets made the innovation of
treating the subject as comedy. Chief among them was W. S. Gilbert in
a successful play. He retold the tale as follows. Pygmalion originally
had a wife and chose her as the model for a statue. The image became
a woman and fell in love with Pygmalion. But, finding that he preferred
his wife, she willingly was transformed again into her original marble.
Certain authors imitated Ovid in tales of their own. Shakespeare
used several of Ovid's important ideas for the beautiful closing scene of
A Winter's Tale, the meeting between Leontes and the reputed statue of
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? PYGMALION
Hermione. In a narrative called Drowne's Wooden Image Hawthorne
skillfully adapted Ovid's theme to the life of prerevolutionary Boston.
Hazlitt's transcript of personal experience called Liber Amoris or the
New Pygmalion and Shaw's comedy entitled Pygmalion associated the
ancient myth with an attempt at spiritual transformation. Both authors
pictured a man undertaking to develop a crude, ignorant young woman
into a lady and meanwhile falling in love with her. In both cases the
hero's attempt was a failure.
Ovid's tale interested a few modern artists. Boucher treated it in
painting, Donner in a lead relief, and Falconet and Rodin in statuary.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
Myerha
After speaking of Pygmalion's daughter Paphos, Ovid added that
she was the mother of Cinyras. Previous authors had indicated that
Cinyras had a different parentage, and the Manual had called him a
child of Sandocus and Celenderis. The Manual noted that Cinyras
married a daughter of Pygmalion named Metharme, and so became
Pygmalion's son-in-law. In describing him as Pygmalion's grandson,
Ovid appears to have followed an Alexandrian author whose work now
is lost, perhaps Philostephanus.
Apparently following the same author, Ovid spoke of Cinyras as
a native of Cyprus. All others had named as his birthplace the main-
land of Asia Minor. But some had noted that he lived at least for a
while on the island. The Iliad mentioned him as king of Cyprus, and
the Manual observed that he migrated there with part of his followers.
Most authors indicated that Cinyras was by inheritance a king. Ovid
had suggested the contrary, for he had implied that his grandfather,
Pygmalion, was only a citizen of Amathus. Ovid now implied that
Cinyras was a king but offered no explanation as to how he obtained
the crown. According to the Iliad, Cinyras was contemporary with the
beginning of the Trojan War. Ovid imagined that he lived several gen-
erations earlier.
The Manual had noted that Cinyras and his wife, Metharme, were
parents of Adonis. Theodorus agreed that Cinyras was the father but
differed in other respects. The mother, he said, was a child of Cinyras
named Myrrha, and he declared that she had illicit relations with her
father. Ovid followed this version. In the tale of Byblis (Bk. 9), Ovid
had treated the theme of immoral relations between brother and sister.
He now planned to treat similar relations of parent and child. Before
proceeding to the tale, Ovid showed Orpheus giving an elaborate apology.
The minstrel advised both daughters and fathers to avoid acquaintance
with the story or at least to remember the punishment which followed the
offense. A warning to daughters and fathers might come appropriately
from Ovid, who addressed human beings, but not from Orpheus, who
addressed an audience of trees and wild animals. But in either case, the
moral would be anything but impressive, for both Ovid's predecessors
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? MYRRHA
and Ovid himself described the fate of Myrrha as a great and enduring
honor.
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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