Lucan
borrowed some of his startling details.
borrowed some of his startling details.
Ovid - 1934 - Metamorphoses in European Culture - v1
Euripides had treated with rare in-
sight the passion of Phaedra for her stepson Hippolytus. Many
Alexandrians followed his example and some treated even more repel-
lent tales in a grosser manner. Roman poets took much interest in
amatory themes. The best poetry of Catullus dealt with love. Tibullus
and others followed his example but added less pleasing subjects.
And love appeared prominently in the greatest work of Vergil and
Horace. Ovid himself had treated the subject from many sides in
his previous work. By all this earlier poetry he profited in his
Metamorphoses. Like the majority of his predecessors, Ovid was
inclined to regard human love as raised but little from the animal
level and he did not scruple to treat degrading themes. 5 But he asso-
ciated them ordinarily with matters of great human interest, and he
could picture occasionally such noble devotion as that of Ceyx and
Alcyone (Bk. 11).
Ovid was not the earliest poet who attempted to use both subtle
analysis of love and a tale of metamorphosis, for Vergil had led the
way in a rather unsuccessful narrative called the Ciris. But Ovid was
the first to use the idea systematically, and he was the first to com-
bine perfectly the advantages of two exceedingly popular poetical
forms. Repeatedly he associated a tale of dramatic interest with a
denouement of astonishing skill.
Throughout his poem Ovid drew also on great poetry of still other
kinds--the Iliad and the Odyssey, the dramas of Euripides, the
Georgics and the Aeneid of Vergil. And more than any other Roman
poet he took suggestion from works of painting and sculpture. He
exalted an ingenious collection of mutations into a great narrative
'See discussion of Io, Narcissus, and Byblis.
13
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES IN EUROPEAN CULTURE
poem enriched with much of what was best in all varieties of ancient
culture.
The work which Ovid planned was to cover an extent of time far
greater than any previous writer had ever tried to include. Even
the Manual had recounted only traditional events from the creation
to the death of Ulysses; but the Metamorphoses was to continue with
the mythical origin of Rome, and thence more briefly to the author's
own times. Ovid planned to have his narrative pursue the following
course:
He would begin with the creation and the first ages of the world.
But he would not merely repeat the earlier childish myths. He would
surprise and impress his contemporaries by adopting their own ad-
vanced ideas and by drawing chiefly on widely respected scientific
writings of Varro, Aratus, and Vergil. Even these authors retained
an element of poetic myth and so he could pass imperceptibly from
them to more traditional material. First he would use Nicander as
the chief source for a number of tales dealing with the Deluge and with
subsequent adventures of Apollo, Jupiter, and Mercury (Bks. 1 and
2). Then he would draw on both the Manual and Nicander for many
stories related with the mythical history of Thebes (Bks. 3 and 4),
and with the career of Perseus (Bks. 4 and 5). After these he would
contrive to bring in some valuable myths from Callimachus and others.
He would return to the Manual as his chief source for the early mythi-
cal history of Athens, which was to include two famous themes of
heroic adventure, the voyage of the Argo and the hunting of the
Calydonian Boar (Bks. 6--8). Still using the Manual, he would pro-
ceed to some notable adventures of Hercules and then draw chiefly
on Nicander for several other tales ending with the marriage of Ianthe
(Bk. 9). He would retell in a new form the story of Orpheus, made
famous already by Vergil, and would make the hero's minstrelsy an
occasion for telling important myths from a number of Alexandrian
and Roman sources (Bk. 10). Nicander would supply him excellent
material for most of the Eleventh Book. This would bring him to the
mythical history of Troy. Avoiding the part told directly by the
Iliad, he would include what he found most suitable in the rest of the
story, taking his outline from the Manual but supplementing it con-
tinually from the Iliad, Euripides, and Vergil (Bks. 12 and 13).
Then leaving Troy, he would follow the voyage of Aeneas. In doing
this he would repeat briefly the outline of Vergil's epic and would
14
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? INTRODUCTORY SURVEY
embroider on it a number of interesting myths, taken mostly from
Varro, the Odyssey, or Nicander (Bks. 13 and 14). Varro and others
would then provide him with a few good tales from Roman history,
ending in the reign of Augustus.
Ovid's general design required continual adjustment of individual
tales. He wished to give the reader a feeling of easy, natural transi-
tion from story to story throughout the fifteen books. So far as
possible, he endeavored to suggest a succession in order of time, omit-
ting some things which were obviously inconsistenttactfully soften-
ing what he could not dismiss, and occasionally referring to an
earlier tale as an event long past. Thus he gave a feeling of historical
movement from the beginning through the myth of Callisto (Bk. 2)
and again from the beginning of the Trojan War to the end of the
poem (Bks. 12--15). Between those limits, the material proved too
refractory: Ovid could only suggest a chronological progress within
certain large groups of tales and especially within each of the mythic $
cycles. But another method proved helpful. Ovid aimed to give every
story some relation to the story which immediately followed. In many
cases, a single character took part in both. In others, a personage
in one story could be made the narrator of another, and sometimes a
group of people assembled for some reason would find occasion for
recounting a number of similar tales. At other times, Ovid narrated a
given myth as a contrast with some other. And sometimes he cleverly
brought in a tale explaining why a certain person was absent from a
gathering of his peers. 7 By these and other devices he guided the
reader deftly through a labyrinth of mythology to the deification of
Romulus' queen Hersilea, at the end of the Fourteenth Book. Only
here and after the later tale of Cipus, did he omit the usual connection.
In using chronological sequence, Ovid was wise: he might well have
done even more. Had he continued with the idea of successive ages,
which he introduced near the beginning of his poem, and divided into
later ages the subsequent time, he would have given more order and
proportion to the welter of events. But, in using other methods of
connection, Ovid proceeded dangerously far. After telling an effec-
* Thus in order to imply the proper separation of time between the tale of Actffion
(Bk. 3) and that of Orpheus (Bk. 10), Ovid carefully avoided all reference to
Aristasus.
'Examples are the tale of Io, showing why the river god Inachus did not visit the
river Peneus to condole with him for the loss of Daphne (Bk. 1) and the origin of
the Trojan War, showing why Paris did not participate in the funeral service for
his brother Aesacus (Bk. 12).
15
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES IN EUROPEAN CULTURE
tive story, he hardly slackened the pace but rather hastened, before
the reader was aware of it, on into the next. Even the end of a book
was not an opportunity to pause and appreciate what had been told.
It seemed merely arbitrary interruption of a tale which carried the
interest on far into the succeeding book. To halt the continuous
advance might have been fatal--might have reduced the narrative to
a collection of unrelated events. Yet to continue a narrative without
real pause through twelve thousand lines was to make severe demands
on the reader and to lose the emphasis and repose desirable in a great
poem.
In the choice of individual tales Ovid showed great skill. Since he
did not feel required to treat the myths as religious truth, he selected
them entirely for their novelty and interest. If, he had told elsewhere
part of a certain myth, he tried in his Metamorphoses to recount some
other part. Thus a reader of his entire poetical work would find cer-
tain adventures of Medea in Ovid's tragedy, other adventures in two
of his Heroides, many more in his Metamorphoses, and still others in
his Tristia. If in his other poetry Ovid had followed one version of a
certain myth, that in no wise prevented him from following a different
version in his Metamorphoses. Thus he referred to the Pierides else-
where as merely another name for the Muses: but here he presented
them as rivals of the Muses who were turned into magpies. And, if
more than one version of a myth proved suitable for his purpose, Ovid
did not hesitate to give them all, being careful, however, to separate
them widely. He went so far as to tell four different tales about the
origin of swans. 8 In the work of Nicander, Ovid found many trans-
formations which were only a matter of inference--where a human
being disappeared, and a tree or a flower was found on the spot. An
ending of this kind he avoided as tame, although he retained it in the
tale of Narcissus. He preferred mutations which he could describe in
elaborate detail. But for variety he contrasted them with others which
he mentioned but did not describe.
Ovid was careful in other ways to avoid monotonous effect. Among
his predecessors, mutations were beginning to have a stereotyped
form. Thus persons guilty of hardness or effrontery turned regu-
larly into stones or marble statues; those languishing in grief became
flowers or springs of water; those overcome while in full vigor turned
into beasts or trees; and the blood of those who met a violent death
? Cycnus, Bk. 2, Cycnus, Bk. 7, Cycnus, Bk. 12, Followers of Diomed, Bk. 14.
16
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? INTRODUCTORY SURVEY
was apt to become flowers of purple dye. Ovid carefully avoided a
monotonous effect of this kind. He kept tales of like ending far apart
and he continually associated tales of a different outcome so as to t
give the greatest possible variety. Where Ovid's predecessors de-
scribed a metamorphosis elaborately, the description was likely to fol-
low a rather definite order. For example, if a woman was to become a
tree, her feet suddenly became rooted in the ground; bark crept up
her legs and body; her arms took the form of branches and her hair
of leaves; and her mouth continued uttering lament until the bark
closed over her face. To avoid an evident likeness in such tales, Ovid
not only kept similar denouements apart; but varied the number of
persons, the degree of elaboration, and the phrasing, until the reader
was struck less by the identity of technique than the charming diver-
sity of effect. Most of Ovid's material showed human beings altering
to lower forms, but Ovid contrived to include many changes of a
different sort, and in such cases as that of Io he gladly contrasted her
assuming the shape of a cow with her recovery of her original form.
In the work of Ovid's predecessors, almost every story dealt wholly
with affairs in an old time world inhabited by the Greeks. But Ovid
often gave a tale new interest by relating it unexpectedly to well known
history and customs of Rome.
While telling of a metamorphosis, the Alexandrians were apt to make
prominent the divine being who caused the miracle. Ovid preferred
to keep the god in the background, often allowing his action to be
merely implied. Thus he tended to magnify the reader's amazement
at the transformation and concentrate his attention on the event itself.
The Alexandrians had often accompanied the story with a rather
elaborate statement of its effect in their own time--of the peculiarities
which the transformation had given a newly formed animal or the
strange rites performed in a festival commemorating the tale. This
was natural, for the Alexandrians were inclined to write in a scientific
spirit about nature and to have an interest in the religious practice
of other Greeks. For Ovid and his readers such reasons had less
force. If the event happened to affect details of Roman worship, Ovid
reserved his explanation for the Fasti. He did this, for example, in
the myths of Ino (Bk. 4) and Proserpina (Bk. 5). In the Metamor-
phoses he either omitted such material altogether or mentioned only
one or two especially interesting details. He tried to keep the reader's
attention wholly on the marvellous event.
17
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES IN EUROPEAN CULTURE
Ovid told the stories for their own sake and became the one great
story teller of Roman literature. He rarely concerned himself with
the moral. He attempted no careful study of character. Yet his
characters contributed much to his success. All were picturesque. He
portrayed women with unusual sympathy. His heroes and heroines
were generally young, strong, and beautiful. And nearly always he
showed his characters stirred deeply by love, anger, or fear.
In many respects the Metamorphoses was the ideal production of
Alexandrian art. What Callimachus or Nicander had attempted,
Ovid brought to unrivalled achievement. His style combined elegance
with ease. He contrasted attractive description of ordinary life with
marvels of ancient myth. He made impossible events appear real.
Each tale he told for a single strong effect and associated immediately
with another story of different effect. And tale after tale passed by
as a great mythological pageant of beautiful groups and endless
variety. But to all this Ovid added qualities unhoped for by his
Alexandrian predecessors. More than any other ancient poet, he
appreciated the charm of warm and luminous color. He showed un-
critical enthusiasm for his subjects and a joy in his work that were
nearly as delightful as his skill. And he approached even the great
epics in the extent of his narrative and greatness of his plan.
For two centuries after Ovid's time, new collections of metamor-
phoses continued to appear and be forgotten. Then authors gave up
this form of writing as a thing outworn. But Ovid's poem continued
to live and flourish. The greatness of the poet transcended the arti-
ficial literary form and imbued it with something of universal and
permanent worth. For all subsequent time Ovid's Metamorphoses
has been the best introduction to the realm of Graeco-Roman myth.
Strange and eventful was the subsequent history of Ovid's master-
piece. At all times it was an important work. Through century
after century it was praised and admired by the liberal and cultured.
Men usually read the Metamorphoses entire and showed an interest
varying with their individual character in the poem as a whole. It is
possible, therefore, to follow its history as a single work. Yet almost
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? INTRODUCTORY SURVEY
every tale had its particular admirers and exerted an influence com-
paratively distinct from the rest. So that for a fuller appreciation
of Ovid's influence we must turn later to these many separate and
often remarkable histories. There was not indeed an uninterrupted
chorus of praise. In times of religious reform the Metamorphoses
was shunned and feared by the zealous. But never was it regarded as
unimportant. Countless admirers turned to it for inspiration, and
the few detractors made it a chief object of their attack.
During the long afternoon and evening of pagan culture, Ovid was
continually read and admired. The elder Seneca enjoyed especially
his passages dealing with philosophy and quoted them even in prefer-
ence to the philosophers themselves. The younger Seneca was in-
debted to him repeatedly for scenes of tragic grief and horror.
Lucan
borrowed some of his startling details. Statius occasionally adopted
one of his more charming myths. Martial often imitated a pleasing
verse or borrowed a phrase convenient for his meter. Valerius Flaccus
used Ovid gladly in a new poem on the Argonauts. Ausonius recalled
him abundantly in a graceful narrative of Cupid punished. And -
Claudian was inspired by him in several poems that were long famous,
including his most ambitious work--the charming unfinished epic on
Proserpina.
More prosaic writers followed the example of the poets. The
mythographer Hyginus showed Ovid's influence in many of his tales.
Servius used him often for his Commentary on Vergil. And a scholar
called Lactantius Placidius made a summary in Latin prose of the
entire Metamorphoses, which proved a convenient work of reference
for many generations.
The Greeks were slow to appreciate a Latin author. For them the
Romans were an upstart people of barbarous ways. Apart from a
few students of history, they preferred to ignore Roman culture and
were content to read and reread the work of their own splendid past.
Apollodorus revised the Manual and Nonnus made continual use of
Nicander: neither of them made any allusion to Rome or showed any
acquaintance with Ovid. Yet even Greek prejudice gradually yielded
to the fascination of the Metamorphoses, and at last the scholar
Planudes translated both the Heroides and the Metamorphoses into
Greek.
With the rise of Christianity, Ovid's popularity received a tem-
porary check. St. Augustine and other early leaders of the church
id
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES IN EUROPEAN CULTURE
had been trained in the usual pagan culture and after their conversion
still quoted Ovid occasionally. Indeed Clement of Alexandria probably
used his work in order to discredit the older faith. But in general they
felt that the battle of religions was too fierce and the issue too doubt-
ful. They dared not compromise with a civilization that was rushing
spiritually and physically to destruction and threatening to sweep
the whole world with it. Earnestly they warned all Christians to
forbear and leave Vergil, Ovid, and the rest to the incorrigible heathen.
Their followers, for the most part, took heed. Ovid was known to a
(few poets at the court of Charlemagne. Otherwise he was little
/ noticed from the sixth to the tenth century.
There were a few scholars who could not ignore the ancient masters.
But they tried to bring them into accord with Christian teaching.
Scripture afforded many parables and other passages in which they
had been taught to find a hidden meaning. It occurred to them that
a hidden meaning might underlie great secular literature also, and
they found encouragement in the studies of the pagans themselves.
Even before Alexandrian times, a few thoughtful Greeks had felt that
their mythology included tales so foolish and wicked that they could
not have been the belief of their pious ancestors. They had attempted
to explain them either as philosophical allegory in which forces of
nature were personified, or as history misunderstood, in which the
gods had really been historical men. Plutarch and other late pagans
continued this work and made it available for later times. Christian
scholars used both kinds of interpretation; but they gave their prefer-
ence to allegory. They endeavored chiefly to identify the characters
found in pagan literature with those of the Bible and their stories
with the Christian doctrine of Salvation.
About the year five hundred A. D. Fulgentius Planciades made such
an interpretation of the Aeneid and the Metamorphoses, the two most
popular masterpieces of Latin literature. A few centuries later, an un-
known scholar used Ovid and others for an allegorical explanation of
all the ancient gods. In the eleventh century a certain Johannus in-
terpreted the spiritual import of the Metamorphoses in Latin couplets.
The movement reached a climax two centuries later in the Ovide
Moralise of a French poet, Chretien Legouais. This author trans-
lated each tale quite accurately and then added in verse a elaborate
and amazing allegory. Thus he explained in the following manner the
tale of Lycaon (Bk. 1). Lycaon is Herod, his plot against Jupiter is
20
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? INTRODUCTORY SURVEY
the attempt of Herod to murder the infant Christ, his destruction of
sheep the slaughter of the Innocents, and his mutation into a wolf is
Herod's dethronement and damnation. Moreover, Lycaon represents
all the oppressive and cruel and their appointed fate. This work of
misguided ingenuity extended to seventy thousand lines. It was widely
read and was used occasionally even by Chaucer. Bersuires, a scholar
of the early fourteenth century, produced an enormous work of Latin
prose, in which he gave Ovid's stories a different but equally fantastic
interpretation. His treatise enjoyed such favor that it was translated
first into French and then into English. New editions kept appear-
ing at intervals for a period of nearly two hundred years. Both
Petrarch and Boccaccio indulged in similar allegory, and even the
shrewd Cervantes felt obliged to pretend that Ovid's Metamorphoses
was meant for a repository of Christian truth.
While scholars of the Middle Ages labored to reconcile the Roman
poets with Christian doctrine, readers in general began to lose their
fear. With the tenth century, Vergil and Ovid became and remained
the great mediators between ancient literature and medieval barba-
rism, although Horace and others were widely read. Vergil obtained
the earliest welcome and the highest honor. His epic was part of
every medieval library, and he was revered as a poet of unapproach-
able excellence. But Ovid soon followed and circulated almost as
widely. A few, like John of Salisbury, preferred him to Vergil. The
majority of readers found him much more congenial. Even his faults
of diffuseness and over subtle monologue, they admired and imitated
to excess. In the eleventh century, Ovid was read in the schools of
Germany; in the twelfth he was studied regularly in those of France.
He was accessible to educated men throughout western Europe by
the time of Dante. In fact he had become an indispensable poet, with
whom every intelligent person was supposed to be familiar. The
Metamorphoses was a great storehouse of material, on which poet and
moralist might draw at will. It was repeated in numberless compendia
until the more important stories became almost common property.
The immense popularity of Ovid's masterpiece was promoted by
similar enthusiasm for his other work. His Tristia and Fasti were
read continually. The laments of the Heroides and similar passages
of his Metamorphoses 9 inspired a poetical form called the Complaint,
which was attempted, by many medieval authors but was most suc-
'Notably the famous laments of Narcissus, Hercules, Ianthe, Byblis, and Myrrha.
21
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES IN EUROPEAN CULTURE
cessful in Shakespeare's Lucrece. And Ovid's amatory poetry in
general contributed much to the great medieval system of Courtly
Love.
References to Ovid appeared first in Latin poetry of the eleventh
century. Dealing chiefly with theological matters, these poets took
special interest in the First and Fifteenth books. In the following
century, Hildebert of Lavardin imitated the Metamorphoses deftly
for a Latin poem retelling the tale of Susanna. Walter Map included
several of Ovid's stories in a Latin medley descriptive of life at the
court of Henry Second. Joseph of Exeter used Ovid skilfully for an
ambitious narrative of the Trojan War.
Poets of Provence were Ovid's earliest disciples in vernacular liter-
ature. They admired him almost entirely for his tales of love. Poets
of Northern France soon followed their example but showed a wider
range of interest. Their references, though often remarkably inaccu-
rate,10 gave evidence of great and continual admiration. In both
Southern and Northern France there was especial fondness for the
tales of Narcissus, Pyramus, and Orpheus. Many poets retold them,
often with sincerity and beauty. So much did they adapt them to
the medieval manner, that, had the ancient models been lost, their
work would pass for original. In Brittany the story of Orpheus
proved so congenial that it was retold in the guise of a very popular
Celtic fairy tale.
Beginning with the twelfth century, Ovid influenced a number of the
ablest and most popular medieval poets. Benoit de St. Maure adapted
Ovid's account of Medea at great length in his famous Romance of
Troy. The ingenious Chretien de Troyes profited in several works
by tragic situations of the Metamorphoses, although he usually gave
them a happier outcome. And he won great fame by imitating Ovid's
subtle monologues on the theme of love. In the thirteenth century
an early Spanish author referred to Ovid occasionally while writing
an important romance about Alexander. This poem was among the
earliest attempted in Spain. It suggests that Ovid was already be-
coming known to educated men, although his influence was not obvious
until much later. Meanwhile Ovid was a prime resource for the
authors of one of the most celebrated poems of medieval France, The
10 For example, The Romance of the Seven Sages reports that Orpheus attempted
to recover his wife from the Lower World and that Apollo graciously consented
on condition that, while returning, she was to refrain from gazing at her own
reflection. But this condition demanded too much of feminine perversity.
22
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? INTRODUCTORY SURVEY
Romance of the Rose. Guillaume Lorris, author of the first part,
used hardly any other ancient writer. Jean de Meun incorporated
long passages from the Metamorphoses in the second part. The able
but less popular poet Machaut adapted tales of the Metamorphoses
in each of his three long poems. Ovid influenced the Ameto and other
early poetry of Boccaccio and later furnished material for Boccaccio's
treatises in Latin prose. His influence was exceedingly important on
the work of the English poet Gower.
In the fourteenth century Ovid influenced poets so great as to belong
not only to the Middle Ages but to all time. For Dante, Ovid was
a favorite and most valuable author. Dante included him among the
five great heathen in the initial Circle of Hell. Elsewhere he com-
mended the Metamorphoses as a model of style. He used this work
in each of his prose treatises and prominently in his Eclogues. In the
Divine Comedy he used it continually. Illustrations from Ovid are
most frequent and pleasing in the Purgatorio and hardly less common
in the Paradiso. But the theme of the Inferno allowed Dante to draw
on Ovid for more than one character and for some of the most justly
celebrated adventures, in which he surpassed his original in vividness
and power. Dante never cited the Metamorphoses to show his learn-
ing or merely for the pleasure of doing so. He took only so much as
would clarify and enforce the spiritual truth on which he was intent.
And his attitude and purpose differed widely from those of Ovid. Yet
so careful was his study of the entire Metamorphoses that he could re-
call from even an unimportant story the circumstance, the detail, or
even the word which his purpose required. He refers more or less
frequently to almost every book.
With the elegant and scholarly Petrarch, Ovid was a favorite
author. In Petrarch's Italian verse, Dante and the writers of
Provpnce were his chief guides, yet Ovid often provided him with
beautiful and important illustration. This was true of the great
lyrical sequence to Laura, which was to be a model for noted sonnet
sequences of the Italian, French, and English Renaissance and for
revivals of such poetry in the nineteenth century. Petrarch often
indicated the grace and importance of his lady by identifying her with
Daphne and suggested the effect of her disapproval by likening it to
the congealing power of Medusa. In one of the early odes he gave an
allegorical description of his suffering when rebuffed by Laura, de-
claring that he experienced successively the grief and transformation
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES IN EUROPEAN CULTURE
of numerous characters in the Metamorphoses. And elsewhere he drew
on Ovid for graceful illustration, often at considerable length.
Even more prominent was the roll of Ovid in the first narrative of
Petrarch's dignified series called the Triumphs. This poem, the
Triumph of Love, showed Ovid among the great poets made captive
by the god and it included in the procession an extraordinary number
of his heroes and heroines. And Ovid provided a few characters ap-
propriate for the ensuing Triumph of Chastity.
In both lyrical and narrative poetry, Petrarch showed his fondness
for Ovid by using him more than the occasion required. He was
ready to include illustrations from the Metamorphoses which had
only a distant relation to his theme and to mention details for the
sheer delight of recalling them. Petrarch alluded not only to well
known stories, but to a number which were seldom noticed, and showed
himself familiar with the entire poem, especially the latter half. He
referred clearly to at least fourteen books.
Dante had related Ovid to the deeper meaning of life. Petrarch
found him most valuable for illustrating the vicissitudes of a lover.
Chaucer delighted in him as a storehouse of fascinating tales. He seems
to have read Ovid before he attempted a single poem and he learned
to use skilfully all Ovid's important work, but especially the Heroides
and the Metamorphoses. From the beginning he was familiar also with
the chief medieval versions of Ovid's tales--with Chretien, Machaut,
Boccaccio and others, and was able to combine them deftly with the
original. Chaucer was indebted to Ovid more than to any other
author, either ancient or medieval. With Vergil he did not become
acquainted until much later and he generally used him in relation to
Ovid.
Chaucer's first poem was a new version of Ceyx and Alcyone. It
probably survives with changes in two charming passages of the
Duchess. Other tales suggested the short poems called, The Former
Age, The Complaint of Mars, and The Tragedy of Hercules. In all
these poems, Chaucer adapted Ovidian material gracefully to medi-
eval forms of poetry which even in his hands were apt to be artificial.
But he soon learned from Ovid and other ancient writers to use more
naturalness in subject and form. This appeared in his interesting
House of Fame, which drew effectively on a considerable range ot
Ovid's work. It was even more 'evident in the great Troilus and
Cressida. In this poem Chaucer drew on Ovid for local color, for
24
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? INTRODUCTORY SURVEY
details illustrating the manners and interests of Trojan society. He
began the practice also of allowing one of his characters to recall
many appropriate myths while praying to a favorite deity. In the
Parliament of Fowls he learned how to mention suitable tales from
Ovid as the theme of paintings on the walls of a temple. Both devices
he repeated later in The Knight's Tale. For The Legend of Good
Women Chaucer drew his chief inspiration from the Heroides. Yet
he imitated the Metamorphoses in his charming Prologue and fol-
lowed it rather closely in the three subsequent tales of Thisbe, Ariadne,
and Philomela. In these he omitted the transformation. For
the Canterbury Tales Chaucer used Ovid less frequently, but he was
indebted to him for the subject of the Maunciple's story and for
important material in the Prologue and story of the Wife of Bath.
Throughout his career, Chaucer benefited by the example of Ovid.
He borrowed with discrimination: at times he effected minor improve-
ments in the plot. He was inclined to treat the characters with more
delicacy and sympathy. He avoided subtle monologue, and he raised
Ovid's love stories to a higher level. But he borrowed continually.
His obvious references extend to fourteen of the fifteen books. And
we can hardly doubt that Ovid contributed much to those pervasive
qualities in which the two poets are so much alike--style, understand-
ing of women, and power of dramatic narrative.
sight the passion of Phaedra for her stepson Hippolytus. Many
Alexandrians followed his example and some treated even more repel-
lent tales in a grosser manner. Roman poets took much interest in
amatory themes. The best poetry of Catullus dealt with love. Tibullus
and others followed his example but added less pleasing subjects.
And love appeared prominently in the greatest work of Vergil and
Horace. Ovid himself had treated the subject from many sides in
his previous work. By all this earlier poetry he profited in his
Metamorphoses. Like the majority of his predecessors, Ovid was
inclined to regard human love as raised but little from the animal
level and he did not scruple to treat degrading themes. 5 But he asso-
ciated them ordinarily with matters of great human interest, and he
could picture occasionally such noble devotion as that of Ceyx and
Alcyone (Bk. 11).
Ovid was not the earliest poet who attempted to use both subtle
analysis of love and a tale of metamorphosis, for Vergil had led the
way in a rather unsuccessful narrative called the Ciris. But Ovid was
the first to use the idea systematically, and he was the first to com-
bine perfectly the advantages of two exceedingly popular poetical
forms. Repeatedly he associated a tale of dramatic interest with a
denouement of astonishing skill.
Throughout his poem Ovid drew also on great poetry of still other
kinds--the Iliad and the Odyssey, the dramas of Euripides, the
Georgics and the Aeneid of Vergil. And more than any other Roman
poet he took suggestion from works of painting and sculpture. He
exalted an ingenious collection of mutations into a great narrative
'See discussion of Io, Narcissus, and Byblis.
13
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES IN EUROPEAN CULTURE
poem enriched with much of what was best in all varieties of ancient
culture.
The work which Ovid planned was to cover an extent of time far
greater than any previous writer had ever tried to include. Even
the Manual had recounted only traditional events from the creation
to the death of Ulysses; but the Metamorphoses was to continue with
the mythical origin of Rome, and thence more briefly to the author's
own times. Ovid planned to have his narrative pursue the following
course:
He would begin with the creation and the first ages of the world.
But he would not merely repeat the earlier childish myths. He would
surprise and impress his contemporaries by adopting their own ad-
vanced ideas and by drawing chiefly on widely respected scientific
writings of Varro, Aratus, and Vergil. Even these authors retained
an element of poetic myth and so he could pass imperceptibly from
them to more traditional material. First he would use Nicander as
the chief source for a number of tales dealing with the Deluge and with
subsequent adventures of Apollo, Jupiter, and Mercury (Bks. 1 and
2). Then he would draw on both the Manual and Nicander for many
stories related with the mythical history of Thebes (Bks. 3 and 4),
and with the career of Perseus (Bks. 4 and 5). After these he would
contrive to bring in some valuable myths from Callimachus and others.
He would return to the Manual as his chief source for the early mythi-
cal history of Athens, which was to include two famous themes of
heroic adventure, the voyage of the Argo and the hunting of the
Calydonian Boar (Bks. 6--8). Still using the Manual, he would pro-
ceed to some notable adventures of Hercules and then draw chiefly
on Nicander for several other tales ending with the marriage of Ianthe
(Bk. 9). He would retell in a new form the story of Orpheus, made
famous already by Vergil, and would make the hero's minstrelsy an
occasion for telling important myths from a number of Alexandrian
and Roman sources (Bk. 10). Nicander would supply him excellent
material for most of the Eleventh Book. This would bring him to the
mythical history of Troy. Avoiding the part told directly by the
Iliad, he would include what he found most suitable in the rest of the
story, taking his outline from the Manual but supplementing it con-
tinually from the Iliad, Euripides, and Vergil (Bks. 12 and 13).
Then leaving Troy, he would follow the voyage of Aeneas. In doing
this he would repeat briefly the outline of Vergil's epic and would
14
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? INTRODUCTORY SURVEY
embroider on it a number of interesting myths, taken mostly from
Varro, the Odyssey, or Nicander (Bks. 13 and 14). Varro and others
would then provide him with a few good tales from Roman history,
ending in the reign of Augustus.
Ovid's general design required continual adjustment of individual
tales. He wished to give the reader a feeling of easy, natural transi-
tion from story to story throughout the fifteen books. So far as
possible, he endeavored to suggest a succession in order of time, omit-
ting some things which were obviously inconsistenttactfully soften-
ing what he could not dismiss, and occasionally referring to an
earlier tale as an event long past. Thus he gave a feeling of historical
movement from the beginning through the myth of Callisto (Bk. 2)
and again from the beginning of the Trojan War to the end of the
poem (Bks. 12--15). Between those limits, the material proved too
refractory: Ovid could only suggest a chronological progress within
certain large groups of tales and especially within each of the mythic $
cycles. But another method proved helpful. Ovid aimed to give every
story some relation to the story which immediately followed. In many
cases, a single character took part in both. In others, a personage
in one story could be made the narrator of another, and sometimes a
group of people assembled for some reason would find occasion for
recounting a number of similar tales. At other times, Ovid narrated a
given myth as a contrast with some other. And sometimes he cleverly
brought in a tale explaining why a certain person was absent from a
gathering of his peers. 7 By these and other devices he guided the
reader deftly through a labyrinth of mythology to the deification of
Romulus' queen Hersilea, at the end of the Fourteenth Book. Only
here and after the later tale of Cipus, did he omit the usual connection.
In using chronological sequence, Ovid was wise: he might well have
done even more. Had he continued with the idea of successive ages,
which he introduced near the beginning of his poem, and divided into
later ages the subsequent time, he would have given more order and
proportion to the welter of events. But, in using other methods of
connection, Ovid proceeded dangerously far. After telling an effec-
* Thus in order to imply the proper separation of time between the tale of Actffion
(Bk. 3) and that of Orpheus (Bk. 10), Ovid carefully avoided all reference to
Aristasus.
'Examples are the tale of Io, showing why the river god Inachus did not visit the
river Peneus to condole with him for the loss of Daphne (Bk. 1) and the origin of
the Trojan War, showing why Paris did not participate in the funeral service for
his brother Aesacus (Bk. 12).
15
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES IN EUROPEAN CULTURE
tive story, he hardly slackened the pace but rather hastened, before
the reader was aware of it, on into the next. Even the end of a book
was not an opportunity to pause and appreciate what had been told.
It seemed merely arbitrary interruption of a tale which carried the
interest on far into the succeeding book. To halt the continuous
advance might have been fatal--might have reduced the narrative to
a collection of unrelated events. Yet to continue a narrative without
real pause through twelve thousand lines was to make severe demands
on the reader and to lose the emphasis and repose desirable in a great
poem.
In the choice of individual tales Ovid showed great skill. Since he
did not feel required to treat the myths as religious truth, he selected
them entirely for their novelty and interest. If, he had told elsewhere
part of a certain myth, he tried in his Metamorphoses to recount some
other part. Thus a reader of his entire poetical work would find cer-
tain adventures of Medea in Ovid's tragedy, other adventures in two
of his Heroides, many more in his Metamorphoses, and still others in
his Tristia. If in his other poetry Ovid had followed one version of a
certain myth, that in no wise prevented him from following a different
version in his Metamorphoses. Thus he referred to the Pierides else-
where as merely another name for the Muses: but here he presented
them as rivals of the Muses who were turned into magpies. And, if
more than one version of a myth proved suitable for his purpose, Ovid
did not hesitate to give them all, being careful, however, to separate
them widely. He went so far as to tell four different tales about the
origin of swans. 8 In the work of Nicander, Ovid found many trans-
formations which were only a matter of inference--where a human
being disappeared, and a tree or a flower was found on the spot. An
ending of this kind he avoided as tame, although he retained it in the
tale of Narcissus. He preferred mutations which he could describe in
elaborate detail. But for variety he contrasted them with others which
he mentioned but did not describe.
Ovid was careful in other ways to avoid monotonous effect. Among
his predecessors, mutations were beginning to have a stereotyped
form. Thus persons guilty of hardness or effrontery turned regu-
larly into stones or marble statues; those languishing in grief became
flowers or springs of water; those overcome while in full vigor turned
into beasts or trees; and the blood of those who met a violent death
? Cycnus, Bk. 2, Cycnus, Bk. 7, Cycnus, Bk. 12, Followers of Diomed, Bk. 14.
16
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? INTRODUCTORY SURVEY
was apt to become flowers of purple dye. Ovid carefully avoided a
monotonous effect of this kind. He kept tales of like ending far apart
and he continually associated tales of a different outcome so as to t
give the greatest possible variety. Where Ovid's predecessors de-
scribed a metamorphosis elaborately, the description was likely to fol-
low a rather definite order. For example, if a woman was to become a
tree, her feet suddenly became rooted in the ground; bark crept up
her legs and body; her arms took the form of branches and her hair
of leaves; and her mouth continued uttering lament until the bark
closed over her face. To avoid an evident likeness in such tales, Ovid
not only kept similar denouements apart; but varied the number of
persons, the degree of elaboration, and the phrasing, until the reader
was struck less by the identity of technique than the charming diver-
sity of effect. Most of Ovid's material showed human beings altering
to lower forms, but Ovid contrived to include many changes of a
different sort, and in such cases as that of Io he gladly contrasted her
assuming the shape of a cow with her recovery of her original form.
In the work of Ovid's predecessors, almost every story dealt wholly
with affairs in an old time world inhabited by the Greeks. But Ovid
often gave a tale new interest by relating it unexpectedly to well known
history and customs of Rome.
While telling of a metamorphosis, the Alexandrians were apt to make
prominent the divine being who caused the miracle. Ovid preferred
to keep the god in the background, often allowing his action to be
merely implied. Thus he tended to magnify the reader's amazement
at the transformation and concentrate his attention on the event itself.
The Alexandrians had often accompanied the story with a rather
elaborate statement of its effect in their own time--of the peculiarities
which the transformation had given a newly formed animal or the
strange rites performed in a festival commemorating the tale. This
was natural, for the Alexandrians were inclined to write in a scientific
spirit about nature and to have an interest in the religious practice
of other Greeks. For Ovid and his readers such reasons had less
force. If the event happened to affect details of Roman worship, Ovid
reserved his explanation for the Fasti. He did this, for example, in
the myths of Ino (Bk. 4) and Proserpina (Bk. 5). In the Metamor-
phoses he either omitted such material altogether or mentioned only
one or two especially interesting details. He tried to keep the reader's
attention wholly on the marvellous event.
17
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES IN EUROPEAN CULTURE
Ovid told the stories for their own sake and became the one great
story teller of Roman literature. He rarely concerned himself with
the moral. He attempted no careful study of character. Yet his
characters contributed much to his success. All were picturesque. He
portrayed women with unusual sympathy. His heroes and heroines
were generally young, strong, and beautiful. And nearly always he
showed his characters stirred deeply by love, anger, or fear.
In many respects the Metamorphoses was the ideal production of
Alexandrian art. What Callimachus or Nicander had attempted,
Ovid brought to unrivalled achievement. His style combined elegance
with ease. He contrasted attractive description of ordinary life with
marvels of ancient myth. He made impossible events appear real.
Each tale he told for a single strong effect and associated immediately
with another story of different effect. And tale after tale passed by
as a great mythological pageant of beautiful groups and endless
variety. But to all this Ovid added qualities unhoped for by his
Alexandrian predecessors. More than any other ancient poet, he
appreciated the charm of warm and luminous color. He showed un-
critical enthusiasm for his subjects and a joy in his work that were
nearly as delightful as his skill. And he approached even the great
epics in the extent of his narrative and greatness of his plan.
For two centuries after Ovid's time, new collections of metamor-
phoses continued to appear and be forgotten. Then authors gave up
this form of writing as a thing outworn. But Ovid's poem continued
to live and flourish. The greatness of the poet transcended the arti-
ficial literary form and imbued it with something of universal and
permanent worth. For all subsequent time Ovid's Metamorphoses
has been the best introduction to the realm of Graeco-Roman myth.
Strange and eventful was the subsequent history of Ovid's master-
piece. At all times it was an important work. Through century
after century it was praised and admired by the liberal and cultured.
Men usually read the Metamorphoses entire and showed an interest
varying with their individual character in the poem as a whole. It is
possible, therefore, to follow its history as a single work. Yet almost
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? INTRODUCTORY SURVEY
every tale had its particular admirers and exerted an influence com-
paratively distinct from the rest. So that for a fuller appreciation
of Ovid's influence we must turn later to these many separate and
often remarkable histories. There was not indeed an uninterrupted
chorus of praise. In times of religious reform the Metamorphoses
was shunned and feared by the zealous. But never was it regarded as
unimportant. Countless admirers turned to it for inspiration, and
the few detractors made it a chief object of their attack.
During the long afternoon and evening of pagan culture, Ovid was
continually read and admired. The elder Seneca enjoyed especially
his passages dealing with philosophy and quoted them even in prefer-
ence to the philosophers themselves. The younger Seneca was in-
debted to him repeatedly for scenes of tragic grief and horror.
Lucan
borrowed some of his startling details. Statius occasionally adopted
one of his more charming myths. Martial often imitated a pleasing
verse or borrowed a phrase convenient for his meter. Valerius Flaccus
used Ovid gladly in a new poem on the Argonauts. Ausonius recalled
him abundantly in a graceful narrative of Cupid punished. And -
Claudian was inspired by him in several poems that were long famous,
including his most ambitious work--the charming unfinished epic on
Proserpina.
More prosaic writers followed the example of the poets. The
mythographer Hyginus showed Ovid's influence in many of his tales.
Servius used him often for his Commentary on Vergil. And a scholar
called Lactantius Placidius made a summary in Latin prose of the
entire Metamorphoses, which proved a convenient work of reference
for many generations.
The Greeks were slow to appreciate a Latin author. For them the
Romans were an upstart people of barbarous ways. Apart from a
few students of history, they preferred to ignore Roman culture and
were content to read and reread the work of their own splendid past.
Apollodorus revised the Manual and Nonnus made continual use of
Nicander: neither of them made any allusion to Rome or showed any
acquaintance with Ovid. Yet even Greek prejudice gradually yielded
to the fascination of the Metamorphoses, and at last the scholar
Planudes translated both the Heroides and the Metamorphoses into
Greek.
With the rise of Christianity, Ovid's popularity received a tem-
porary check. St. Augustine and other early leaders of the church
id
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES IN EUROPEAN CULTURE
had been trained in the usual pagan culture and after their conversion
still quoted Ovid occasionally. Indeed Clement of Alexandria probably
used his work in order to discredit the older faith. But in general they
felt that the battle of religions was too fierce and the issue too doubt-
ful. They dared not compromise with a civilization that was rushing
spiritually and physically to destruction and threatening to sweep
the whole world with it. Earnestly they warned all Christians to
forbear and leave Vergil, Ovid, and the rest to the incorrigible heathen.
Their followers, for the most part, took heed. Ovid was known to a
(few poets at the court of Charlemagne. Otherwise he was little
/ noticed from the sixth to the tenth century.
There were a few scholars who could not ignore the ancient masters.
But they tried to bring them into accord with Christian teaching.
Scripture afforded many parables and other passages in which they
had been taught to find a hidden meaning. It occurred to them that
a hidden meaning might underlie great secular literature also, and
they found encouragement in the studies of the pagans themselves.
Even before Alexandrian times, a few thoughtful Greeks had felt that
their mythology included tales so foolish and wicked that they could
not have been the belief of their pious ancestors. They had attempted
to explain them either as philosophical allegory in which forces of
nature were personified, or as history misunderstood, in which the
gods had really been historical men. Plutarch and other late pagans
continued this work and made it available for later times. Christian
scholars used both kinds of interpretation; but they gave their prefer-
ence to allegory. They endeavored chiefly to identify the characters
found in pagan literature with those of the Bible and their stories
with the Christian doctrine of Salvation.
About the year five hundred A. D. Fulgentius Planciades made such
an interpretation of the Aeneid and the Metamorphoses, the two most
popular masterpieces of Latin literature. A few centuries later, an un-
known scholar used Ovid and others for an allegorical explanation of
all the ancient gods. In the eleventh century a certain Johannus in-
terpreted the spiritual import of the Metamorphoses in Latin couplets.
The movement reached a climax two centuries later in the Ovide
Moralise of a French poet, Chretien Legouais. This author trans-
lated each tale quite accurately and then added in verse a elaborate
and amazing allegory. Thus he explained in the following manner the
tale of Lycaon (Bk. 1). Lycaon is Herod, his plot against Jupiter is
20
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? INTRODUCTORY SURVEY
the attempt of Herod to murder the infant Christ, his destruction of
sheep the slaughter of the Innocents, and his mutation into a wolf is
Herod's dethronement and damnation. Moreover, Lycaon represents
all the oppressive and cruel and their appointed fate. This work of
misguided ingenuity extended to seventy thousand lines. It was widely
read and was used occasionally even by Chaucer. Bersuires, a scholar
of the early fourteenth century, produced an enormous work of Latin
prose, in which he gave Ovid's stories a different but equally fantastic
interpretation. His treatise enjoyed such favor that it was translated
first into French and then into English. New editions kept appear-
ing at intervals for a period of nearly two hundred years. Both
Petrarch and Boccaccio indulged in similar allegory, and even the
shrewd Cervantes felt obliged to pretend that Ovid's Metamorphoses
was meant for a repository of Christian truth.
While scholars of the Middle Ages labored to reconcile the Roman
poets with Christian doctrine, readers in general began to lose their
fear. With the tenth century, Vergil and Ovid became and remained
the great mediators between ancient literature and medieval barba-
rism, although Horace and others were widely read. Vergil obtained
the earliest welcome and the highest honor. His epic was part of
every medieval library, and he was revered as a poet of unapproach-
able excellence. But Ovid soon followed and circulated almost as
widely. A few, like John of Salisbury, preferred him to Vergil. The
majority of readers found him much more congenial. Even his faults
of diffuseness and over subtle monologue, they admired and imitated
to excess. In the eleventh century, Ovid was read in the schools of
Germany; in the twelfth he was studied regularly in those of France.
He was accessible to educated men throughout western Europe by
the time of Dante. In fact he had become an indispensable poet, with
whom every intelligent person was supposed to be familiar. The
Metamorphoses was a great storehouse of material, on which poet and
moralist might draw at will. It was repeated in numberless compendia
until the more important stories became almost common property.
The immense popularity of Ovid's masterpiece was promoted by
similar enthusiasm for his other work. His Tristia and Fasti were
read continually. The laments of the Heroides and similar passages
of his Metamorphoses 9 inspired a poetical form called the Complaint,
which was attempted, by many medieval authors but was most suc-
'Notably the famous laments of Narcissus, Hercules, Ianthe, Byblis, and Myrrha.
21
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES IN EUROPEAN CULTURE
cessful in Shakespeare's Lucrece. And Ovid's amatory poetry in
general contributed much to the great medieval system of Courtly
Love.
References to Ovid appeared first in Latin poetry of the eleventh
century. Dealing chiefly with theological matters, these poets took
special interest in the First and Fifteenth books. In the following
century, Hildebert of Lavardin imitated the Metamorphoses deftly
for a Latin poem retelling the tale of Susanna. Walter Map included
several of Ovid's stories in a Latin medley descriptive of life at the
court of Henry Second. Joseph of Exeter used Ovid skilfully for an
ambitious narrative of the Trojan War.
Poets of Provence were Ovid's earliest disciples in vernacular liter-
ature. They admired him almost entirely for his tales of love. Poets
of Northern France soon followed their example but showed a wider
range of interest. Their references, though often remarkably inaccu-
rate,10 gave evidence of great and continual admiration. In both
Southern and Northern France there was especial fondness for the
tales of Narcissus, Pyramus, and Orpheus. Many poets retold them,
often with sincerity and beauty. So much did they adapt them to
the medieval manner, that, had the ancient models been lost, their
work would pass for original. In Brittany the story of Orpheus
proved so congenial that it was retold in the guise of a very popular
Celtic fairy tale.
Beginning with the twelfth century, Ovid influenced a number of the
ablest and most popular medieval poets. Benoit de St. Maure adapted
Ovid's account of Medea at great length in his famous Romance of
Troy. The ingenious Chretien de Troyes profited in several works
by tragic situations of the Metamorphoses, although he usually gave
them a happier outcome. And he won great fame by imitating Ovid's
subtle monologues on the theme of love. In the thirteenth century
an early Spanish author referred to Ovid occasionally while writing
an important romance about Alexander. This poem was among the
earliest attempted in Spain. It suggests that Ovid was already be-
coming known to educated men, although his influence was not obvious
until much later. Meanwhile Ovid was a prime resource for the
authors of one of the most celebrated poems of medieval France, The
10 For example, The Romance of the Seven Sages reports that Orpheus attempted
to recover his wife from the Lower World and that Apollo graciously consented
on condition that, while returning, she was to refrain from gazing at her own
reflection. But this condition demanded too much of feminine perversity.
22
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? INTRODUCTORY SURVEY
Romance of the Rose. Guillaume Lorris, author of the first part,
used hardly any other ancient writer. Jean de Meun incorporated
long passages from the Metamorphoses in the second part. The able
but less popular poet Machaut adapted tales of the Metamorphoses
in each of his three long poems. Ovid influenced the Ameto and other
early poetry of Boccaccio and later furnished material for Boccaccio's
treatises in Latin prose. His influence was exceedingly important on
the work of the English poet Gower.
In the fourteenth century Ovid influenced poets so great as to belong
not only to the Middle Ages but to all time. For Dante, Ovid was
a favorite and most valuable author. Dante included him among the
five great heathen in the initial Circle of Hell. Elsewhere he com-
mended the Metamorphoses as a model of style. He used this work
in each of his prose treatises and prominently in his Eclogues. In the
Divine Comedy he used it continually. Illustrations from Ovid are
most frequent and pleasing in the Purgatorio and hardly less common
in the Paradiso. But the theme of the Inferno allowed Dante to draw
on Ovid for more than one character and for some of the most justly
celebrated adventures, in which he surpassed his original in vividness
and power. Dante never cited the Metamorphoses to show his learn-
ing or merely for the pleasure of doing so. He took only so much as
would clarify and enforce the spiritual truth on which he was intent.
And his attitude and purpose differed widely from those of Ovid. Yet
so careful was his study of the entire Metamorphoses that he could re-
call from even an unimportant story the circumstance, the detail, or
even the word which his purpose required. He refers more or less
frequently to almost every book.
With the elegant and scholarly Petrarch, Ovid was a favorite
author. In Petrarch's Italian verse, Dante and the writers of
Provpnce were his chief guides, yet Ovid often provided him with
beautiful and important illustration. This was true of the great
lyrical sequence to Laura, which was to be a model for noted sonnet
sequences of the Italian, French, and English Renaissance and for
revivals of such poetry in the nineteenth century. Petrarch often
indicated the grace and importance of his lady by identifying her with
Daphne and suggested the effect of her disapproval by likening it to
the congealing power of Medusa. In one of the early odes he gave an
allegorical description of his suffering when rebuffed by Laura, de-
claring that he experienced successively the grief and transformation
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? METAMORPHOSES IN EUROPEAN CULTURE
of numerous characters in the Metamorphoses. And elsewhere he drew
on Ovid for graceful illustration, often at considerable length.
Even more prominent was the roll of Ovid in the first narrative of
Petrarch's dignified series called the Triumphs. This poem, the
Triumph of Love, showed Ovid among the great poets made captive
by the god and it included in the procession an extraordinary number
of his heroes and heroines. And Ovid provided a few characters ap-
propriate for the ensuing Triumph of Chastity.
In both lyrical and narrative poetry, Petrarch showed his fondness
for Ovid by using him more than the occasion required. He was
ready to include illustrations from the Metamorphoses which had
only a distant relation to his theme and to mention details for the
sheer delight of recalling them. Petrarch alluded not only to well
known stories, but to a number which were seldom noticed, and showed
himself familiar with the entire poem, especially the latter half. He
referred clearly to at least fourteen books.
Dante had related Ovid to the deeper meaning of life. Petrarch
found him most valuable for illustrating the vicissitudes of a lover.
Chaucer delighted in him as a storehouse of fascinating tales. He seems
to have read Ovid before he attempted a single poem and he learned
to use skilfully all Ovid's important work, but especially the Heroides
and the Metamorphoses. From the beginning he was familiar also with
the chief medieval versions of Ovid's tales--with Chretien, Machaut,
Boccaccio and others, and was able to combine them deftly with the
original. Chaucer was indebted to Ovid more than to any other
author, either ancient or medieval. With Vergil he did not become
acquainted until much later and he generally used him in relation to
Ovid.
Chaucer's first poem was a new version of Ceyx and Alcyone. It
probably survives with changes in two charming passages of the
Duchess. Other tales suggested the short poems called, The Former
Age, The Complaint of Mars, and The Tragedy of Hercules. In all
these poems, Chaucer adapted Ovidian material gracefully to medi-
eval forms of poetry which even in his hands were apt to be artificial.
But he soon learned from Ovid and other ancient writers to use more
naturalness in subject and form. This appeared in his interesting
House of Fame, which drew effectively on a considerable range ot
Ovid's work. It was even more 'evident in the great Troilus and
Cressida. In this poem Chaucer drew on Ovid for local color, for
24
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:20 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015003854125 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? INTRODUCTORY SURVEY
details illustrating the manners and interests of Trojan society. He
began the practice also of allowing one of his characters to recall
many appropriate myths while praying to a favorite deity. In the
Parliament of Fowls he learned how to mention suitable tales from
Ovid as the theme of paintings on the walls of a temple. Both devices
he repeated later in The Knight's Tale. For The Legend of Good
Women Chaucer drew his chief inspiration from the Heroides. Yet
he imitated the Metamorphoses in his charming Prologue and fol-
lowed it rather closely in the three subsequent tales of Thisbe, Ariadne,
and Philomela. In these he omitted the transformation. For
the Canterbury Tales Chaucer used Ovid less frequently, but he was
indebted to him for the subject of the Maunciple's story and for
important material in the Prologue and story of the Wife of Bath.
Throughout his career, Chaucer benefited by the example of Ovid.
He borrowed with discrimination: at times he effected minor improve-
ments in the plot. He was inclined to treat the characters with more
delicacy and sympathy. He avoided subtle monologue, and he raised
Ovid's love stories to a higher level. But he borrowed continually.
His obvious references extend to fourteen of the fifteen books. And
we can hardly doubt that Ovid contributed much to those pervasive
qualities in which the two poets are so much alike--style, understand-
ing of women, and power of dramatic narrative.
