But he would not merely repeat the earlier
childish
myths.
Ovid - 1934 - Metamorphoses in European Culture - v1
The Metamorphoses was to be a poetical history of the world
from the creation to the time of Augustus. It was to deal chiefly with
Greek myth and to be narrative in form. This poem Ovid pushed for-
ward much the more rapidly and was able to finish. Before making
* Both the Art of Love and the Remedies for Love were immensely popular dur-
ing the later Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Their effect appears to have been
deepest in the work of the Spanish and Portuguese novelists who wrote and were
internationally famous during the sixteenth century, In other countries, the Art
of Love was a favorite with Chretien de Troyes, Dryden, and Fielding.
7
? ? 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
final corrections, Ovid showed the work to a number of his friends.
They were enthusiastic in their admiration and some of them even
made copies of it from beginning to end.
Meanwhile Ovid continued with his other poem, the Fasti. This
work was to be a carefully written treatise in elegiac verse, following
as chief literary model the Origins (Aitia) of Callimachus. Ovid
wished to explain and make popular the new Roman calendar. For
his countrymen the subject was of great interest. Men still living
could remember a period when methods of calculating time had fallen
into hopeless confusion. So crude was the older Roman system that
the official year was regularly ten days too short. At least once in
four years it had been the duty of the high priest to insert a special
month, which might bring the calendar abreast of the advancing sea-
sons. But so ineffectual were his efforts that shortly before Ovid's
birth the calendar lagged three entire months behind the season! It
was recording the beginning of winter when it should have recorded
the beginning of spring. Julius Caesar had inserted the three months
needed to correct this error and also instituted a far better system for
reckoning in the future. Yet even Caesar's methods proved inaccu-
rate within a few years. And so the Emperor Augustus had established
a still better system, so accurate that it was to remain in force nearly
sixteen centuries.
This great reform Ovid wished to promote by his Fasti. Beginning
with the month of January, he would discuss in succession the twelve
months of the Augustan calendar. He would describe in order each
Roman festival, showing how the date was calculated from the stars
and what had been its origin in the fabulous past. He would deal
chiefly with Roman myth and explain how the events of sacred story
affected details of a contemporary ceremony. Since the calculation
of a festival would often require him to tell of some human being or
some animal that became a constellation, Ovid reserved material of
this kind for the Fasti and excluded it from the Metamorphoses.
Ovid completed the first half of the Fasti, six books ending with the
month of June. The first of these he later revised in the hope of con-
ciliating a prince called Germanicus. On the whole Ovid found the
subject very congenial. It allowed him to contrast interesting descrip-
tion of his own time with brief tales from the romantic past and to
adapt his material with infinite skill. And, although Ovid often mis-
stated the methods of calculating a festival from the stars, he gave
8
? ? 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 festival itself new interest for the Romans and even for men of
later times. The Fasti has continued to be read both for its own
merit and for the unusual information which it gives about' Roman
life. 4 It is valuable also for understanding many parts of the Meta-
morphoses.
But, while Ovid was pushing forward rapidly with the Fasti, he
made a disastrous blunder. He may have been implicated in the dis-
grace of the Emperor's granddaughter; he may have become involved
in a plot against the succession of Tiberius. The facts we can only
conjecture; but a second time Ovid offended Augustus. The Emperor
had often shown fondness for literature. He had taken continual
interest in Vergil and Horace, encouraging them to do their greatest
work; he rewarded Propertius and many other poets; and he found
time even under the tremendous pressure of administrative duties to
write some poetry of his own. We should like to think that he saw
merit in Ovid, the last great poet of his reign. In many ways he
showed Ovid forbearance. He allowed the poet to retain both citizen-
ship and property and to correspond at will with his friends. But he
expelled from the public libraries all copies of the Art of Love and he
required Ovid himself to live thereafter in the remote border town of
Tomis on the Black Sea. Dismayed at the sentence, Ovid burned the
manuscript of his Metamorphoses. But happily the great work was
saved: it survived in the copies taken by his. friends. Ovid consented
to have the poem made public, regretting that it lacked his final re-
vision.
During his exile Ovid continued to write poetry. His nature was
an Aeolian harp, musical even in the rude blasts of Pontus. In the
Tristia and the Epistles from Pontus, he appealed to various persons,
lamenting his fate and endeavoring to obtain a milder place of banish-
ment. These poems have been much read but are valuable chiefly for
what they tell us about the poet and his other work. A treatise on
fishes and a lost poem in Getic showed Ovid willing to find inspiration
even in his uncongenial enviroment. The Ibis, written in imitation of a
similar work by Callimachus, appears to be obscure and learned vitu-
peration of a personal enemy. Still in Tomis, Ovid died at the age of
sixty, about the year 18 A. D.
'Among later admirers of the Fatti were Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Goethe.
9
? ? 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
S The Metamorphoses remains Ovid's greatest and most continuously
popular work. From the vast number of ancient myths recorded
briefly in his Manual or the studies of Varro or here and there in the
work of earlier poets, Ovid contrived to select all that were most
appropriate for his purpose; retell each as a fascinating poetical
narrative; and relate all to one another so as to form a single work
of art. Crude, half organized records of popular belief he transmuted
into a great literary masterpiece.
/ For the subject of his great work, Ovid chose the idea of changes
'in physical form. He mentioned some of the more ordinary examples
of the phenomenon, such as the mutation of an egg into a bird, and
a number of supposed observations from nature, such as the trans-
formation of Nilotic mud into animals, which were approved by the
science of his time; but he dealt chiefly with the more extraordinary
cases recorded by mythology.
/ The idea of miraculous alteration of form, like mythology in gen-
eral, originated at a very early stage of human culture and has
occurred in all parts of the world. Savage men believed that animals,
plants, and inanimate objects were inspired by an intelligence like
their own and might assume the human shape. They believed also that
human beings might relapse into lower forms. They ascribed extra-
ordinary power to their medicine men and to the divinities whose aid
the medicine man was thought to invoke. And they often supposed
that a miraculous change was due to motives of a hero or divinity
which were for savages a matter of course but which were rather hard
for their more civilized descendants to justify. For savage men the
interest lay chiefly in the motive and success of their hero. In a world
governed by supernatural powers, a metamorphosis might give added
interest; but it seemed neither strange nor incredible. It was merely
a necessary incident of the myth.
3 At this stage of Greek culture examples of metamorphosis entered
literature and appear in both the Iliad and the Odyssey. They were
mentioned in the course of some adventure, often so casually that the
modern reader hardly realizes that there was any transformation at
all. The Theogony and other poems treating sacred myth preserved
a similar attitude. Three centuries later the feeling of the more en-
lightened Greeks began to change. Men were loath to reject any part
of the sacred history which had come down from the past; yet tales
of a noble human being or even a god changing suddenly into a beast
10
? ? 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
struck them as unpleasantly odd and grotesque. Aeschylus merely
suggested Io's transformation by introducing a maiden wearing the
horns of a cow, and elsewhere the tragic poets alluded to metamor-
phoses but kept them off the stage. Similar feeling appears in the
art of the time. A painter would show Actaeon as a graceful youth
and near by he would paint the skin of a stag to imply the tragic story.
Plato, still more cautious, used such myth symbolically, as illustration
of philosophical truth.
For the intellectual leaders of Alexandrian times a still different
attitude came into being. These later Greeks had made some advance
in science and philosophy. They might still believe occasionally in a
very extravagant tale; but they could no longer take the old-time
mythology seriously. They used it instead as material for their
studies of Greek culture or for re-telling as a diverting story. In a
rather scientific spirit, they began to investigate the local traditions of
little known Greek communities. Callimachus made them the subject
of a long poem called Origins. This material did not afford a single
dominating theme or a well proportioned treatment, such as the older
poets had attempted in epic and tragedy. But for the Alexandrians
both the subjects and the methods of earlier times had become a twice
told tale. They welcomed new material and desired only that the poet
should present a new idea briefly and in graceful style. Then let him
stop or pass on to something else. The example of Callimachus sug-
gested to Nicander and others a further exploiting of local tradition.
These authors were interested in the extraordinary number of myths
leading to a strange metamorphosis. They tried to describe the
process as if it were a scientific phenomenon and even to give their
incredulous readers the momentary feeling that the miracle was pos-
sible. The idea was new and fascinating. Many poets collected tales
of metamorphoses and artists depicted the changes as actually taking
place.
The Romans followed the Alexandrians in cultivating the new
literary form. Ordinarily they did not make collections of meta-
morphoses; but Cicero, Vergil, and many others experimented eagerly
with individual tales of this kind.
Poetical treatment of marvellous transformation proved supremely
congenial to Ovid. The first idea of treating such a theme came to
him probably when Aemilius Macer read him his poem on the mar-
vellous origin of birds. But Ovid wisely extended his own treatment
11
? ? 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
to all varieties of mutation. For individual tales, he gladly profited
by previous work of Vergil, Calvus, Cinna, and other Roman prede-
cessors and by such lesser Alexandrians as Boeus or Parthenius. And
in both method and material he owed very much to Nicander. This
Alexandrian had written many poems dealing with local tradition, of
which the most famous was called Transformations (Heteroioumena).
He was the first to record many little known and remarkable myths
and had learned to relate them with one another by a variety of skill-
ful devices. But he seems often to have confused the ending of a tale
by needlessly recording several transformations and to have told his
stories dryly in rather awkward style. Ovid was careful as a rule to
avoid Nicander's faults, yet he fully appreciated his merit. He had
Nicander in mind continually and took from him at least the outline
for many of his most justly famous tales.
By relating his stories to one another in a supposed sequence of
time, Ovid greatly improved on the design of nearly all his predeces-
sors, including Nicander. This method Vergil had used on a small
scale for his Sixth Eclogue, which reads almost like a preliminary
sketch of Ovid's poem. But Ovid first applied it to a great work and
with admirable success. Adopting a sequence of time, Ovid could
make his plan agree on the whole with that of the Manual and follow
the course of this work whenever he desired through the greater part
of his poem. Adding what he wished from other authors and organ-
izing a little better the arrangement of tales in the Manual, Ovid was
able to include almost the entire range of Greek mythology and at
least mention almost every important myth.
For his verse Ovid departed from the measure which had proved
so successful in his other poetical triumphs. Instead of the elegiac
couplet, he adopted the epic hexameter. In choosing this meter, he
followed the practice of almost all previous writers on the subject of
metamorphoses. But he was swayed chiefly by a far more illustrious
example. He was designing his most ambitious narrative poem and
he wished to follow, at least at a distance, Vergil's earlier master-
piece, The Aeneid. In emulation of Vergil Ovid chose the hexameter,
but he did not attempt to duplicate Vergil's consummate metrical art.
He created a simpler, more rapid measure appropriate for his new
purpose and gave it a sweetness and fluency of his own.
In other directions also Ovid benefited by the example of great auth-
ors outside the earlier field of metamorphoses. Much in the beginning
12
? ? 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
of his poem he owed to the scientific studies of Aratus and Varro. To
Varro and Lucretius he turned for a summary of the whole idea of
metamorphosis in the lore of Pythagoras (Bk. 15). /
Eor the poem as a whole Ovid drew inspiration repeatedly from
another important variety of ancient literature--poetry dealing with
love. The subject had inspired Sappho and Anacreon. It appeared
prominently in the tragedy of Euripides and was a favorite theme for
Theocritus and many other leading Alexandrians. These poets took
great interest in the motives and sensations of lovers, both men and
women. They found special opportunity in the case of those whose
love seemed to encounter a hopeless obstacle and such an obstacle often
appeared in the form of moral law. 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.
from the creation to the time of Augustus. It was to deal chiefly with
Greek myth and to be narrative in form. This poem Ovid pushed for-
ward much the more rapidly and was able to finish. Before making
* Both the Art of Love and the Remedies for Love were immensely popular dur-
ing the later Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Their effect appears to have been
deepest in the work of the Spanish and Portuguese novelists who wrote and were
internationally famous during the sixteenth century, In other countries, the Art
of Love was a favorite with Chretien de Troyes, Dryden, and Fielding.
7
? ? 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
final corrections, Ovid showed the work to a number of his friends.
They were enthusiastic in their admiration and some of them even
made copies of it from beginning to end.
Meanwhile Ovid continued with his other poem, the Fasti. This
work was to be a carefully written treatise in elegiac verse, following
as chief literary model the Origins (Aitia) of Callimachus. Ovid
wished to explain and make popular the new Roman calendar. For
his countrymen the subject was of great interest. Men still living
could remember a period when methods of calculating time had fallen
into hopeless confusion. So crude was the older Roman system that
the official year was regularly ten days too short. At least once in
four years it had been the duty of the high priest to insert a special
month, which might bring the calendar abreast of the advancing sea-
sons. But so ineffectual were his efforts that shortly before Ovid's
birth the calendar lagged three entire months behind the season! It
was recording the beginning of winter when it should have recorded
the beginning of spring. Julius Caesar had inserted the three months
needed to correct this error and also instituted a far better system for
reckoning in the future. Yet even Caesar's methods proved inaccu-
rate within a few years. And so the Emperor Augustus had established
a still better system, so accurate that it was to remain in force nearly
sixteen centuries.
This great reform Ovid wished to promote by his Fasti. Beginning
with the month of January, he would discuss in succession the twelve
months of the Augustan calendar. He would describe in order each
Roman festival, showing how the date was calculated from the stars
and what had been its origin in the fabulous past. He would deal
chiefly with Roman myth and explain how the events of sacred story
affected details of a contemporary ceremony. Since the calculation
of a festival would often require him to tell of some human being or
some animal that became a constellation, Ovid reserved material of
this kind for the Fasti and excluded it from the Metamorphoses.
Ovid completed the first half of the Fasti, six books ending with the
month of June. The first of these he later revised in the hope of con-
ciliating a prince called Germanicus. On the whole Ovid found the
subject very congenial. It allowed him to contrast interesting descrip-
tion of his own time with brief tales from the romantic past and to
adapt his material with infinite skill. And, although Ovid often mis-
stated the methods of calculating a festival from the stars, he gave
8
? ? 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 festival itself new interest for the Romans and even for men of
later times. The Fasti has continued to be read both for its own
merit and for the unusual information which it gives about' Roman
life. 4 It is valuable also for understanding many parts of the Meta-
morphoses.
But, while Ovid was pushing forward rapidly with the Fasti, he
made a disastrous blunder. He may have been implicated in the dis-
grace of the Emperor's granddaughter; he may have become involved
in a plot against the succession of Tiberius. The facts we can only
conjecture; but a second time Ovid offended Augustus. The Emperor
had often shown fondness for literature. He had taken continual
interest in Vergil and Horace, encouraging them to do their greatest
work; he rewarded Propertius and many other poets; and he found
time even under the tremendous pressure of administrative duties to
write some poetry of his own. We should like to think that he saw
merit in Ovid, the last great poet of his reign. In many ways he
showed Ovid forbearance. He allowed the poet to retain both citizen-
ship and property and to correspond at will with his friends. But he
expelled from the public libraries all copies of the Art of Love and he
required Ovid himself to live thereafter in the remote border town of
Tomis on the Black Sea. Dismayed at the sentence, Ovid burned the
manuscript of his Metamorphoses. But happily the great work was
saved: it survived in the copies taken by his. friends. Ovid consented
to have the poem made public, regretting that it lacked his final re-
vision.
During his exile Ovid continued to write poetry. His nature was
an Aeolian harp, musical even in the rude blasts of Pontus. In the
Tristia and the Epistles from Pontus, he appealed to various persons,
lamenting his fate and endeavoring to obtain a milder place of banish-
ment. These poems have been much read but are valuable chiefly for
what they tell us about the poet and his other work. A treatise on
fishes and a lost poem in Getic showed Ovid willing to find inspiration
even in his uncongenial enviroment. The Ibis, written in imitation of a
similar work by Callimachus, appears to be obscure and learned vitu-
peration of a personal enemy. Still in Tomis, Ovid died at the age of
sixty, about the year 18 A. D.
'Among later admirers of the Fatti were Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Goethe.
9
? ? 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
S The Metamorphoses remains Ovid's greatest and most continuously
popular work. From the vast number of ancient myths recorded
briefly in his Manual or the studies of Varro or here and there in the
work of earlier poets, Ovid contrived to select all that were most
appropriate for his purpose; retell each as a fascinating poetical
narrative; and relate all to one another so as to form a single work
of art. Crude, half organized records of popular belief he transmuted
into a great literary masterpiece.
/ For the subject of his great work, Ovid chose the idea of changes
'in physical form. He mentioned some of the more ordinary examples
of the phenomenon, such as the mutation of an egg into a bird, and
a number of supposed observations from nature, such as the trans-
formation of Nilotic mud into animals, which were approved by the
science of his time; but he dealt chiefly with the more extraordinary
cases recorded by mythology.
/ The idea of miraculous alteration of form, like mythology in gen-
eral, originated at a very early stage of human culture and has
occurred in all parts of the world. Savage men believed that animals,
plants, and inanimate objects were inspired by an intelligence like
their own and might assume the human shape. They believed also that
human beings might relapse into lower forms. They ascribed extra-
ordinary power to their medicine men and to the divinities whose aid
the medicine man was thought to invoke. And they often supposed
that a miraculous change was due to motives of a hero or divinity
which were for savages a matter of course but which were rather hard
for their more civilized descendants to justify. For savage men the
interest lay chiefly in the motive and success of their hero. In a world
governed by supernatural powers, a metamorphosis might give added
interest; but it seemed neither strange nor incredible. It was merely
a necessary incident of the myth.
3 At this stage of Greek culture examples of metamorphosis entered
literature and appear in both the Iliad and the Odyssey. They were
mentioned in the course of some adventure, often so casually that the
modern reader hardly realizes that there was any transformation at
all. The Theogony and other poems treating sacred myth preserved
a similar attitude. Three centuries later the feeling of the more en-
lightened Greeks began to change. Men were loath to reject any part
of the sacred history which had come down from the past; yet tales
of a noble human being or even a god changing suddenly into a beast
10
? ? 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
struck them as unpleasantly odd and grotesque. Aeschylus merely
suggested Io's transformation by introducing a maiden wearing the
horns of a cow, and elsewhere the tragic poets alluded to metamor-
phoses but kept them off the stage. Similar feeling appears in the
art of the time. A painter would show Actaeon as a graceful youth
and near by he would paint the skin of a stag to imply the tragic story.
Plato, still more cautious, used such myth symbolically, as illustration
of philosophical truth.
For the intellectual leaders of Alexandrian times a still different
attitude came into being. These later Greeks had made some advance
in science and philosophy. They might still believe occasionally in a
very extravagant tale; but they could no longer take the old-time
mythology seriously. They used it instead as material for their
studies of Greek culture or for re-telling as a diverting story. In a
rather scientific spirit, they began to investigate the local traditions of
little known Greek communities. Callimachus made them the subject
of a long poem called Origins. This material did not afford a single
dominating theme or a well proportioned treatment, such as the older
poets had attempted in epic and tragedy. But for the Alexandrians
both the subjects and the methods of earlier times had become a twice
told tale. They welcomed new material and desired only that the poet
should present a new idea briefly and in graceful style. Then let him
stop or pass on to something else. The example of Callimachus sug-
gested to Nicander and others a further exploiting of local tradition.
These authors were interested in the extraordinary number of myths
leading to a strange metamorphosis. They tried to describe the
process as if it were a scientific phenomenon and even to give their
incredulous readers the momentary feeling that the miracle was pos-
sible. The idea was new and fascinating. Many poets collected tales
of metamorphoses and artists depicted the changes as actually taking
place.
The Romans followed the Alexandrians in cultivating the new
literary form. Ordinarily they did not make collections of meta-
morphoses; but Cicero, Vergil, and many others experimented eagerly
with individual tales of this kind.
Poetical treatment of marvellous transformation proved supremely
congenial to Ovid. The first idea of treating such a theme came to
him probably when Aemilius Macer read him his poem on the mar-
vellous origin of birds. But Ovid wisely extended his own treatment
11
? ? 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
to all varieties of mutation. For individual tales, he gladly profited
by previous work of Vergil, Calvus, Cinna, and other Roman prede-
cessors and by such lesser Alexandrians as Boeus or Parthenius. And
in both method and material he owed very much to Nicander. This
Alexandrian had written many poems dealing with local tradition, of
which the most famous was called Transformations (Heteroioumena).
He was the first to record many little known and remarkable myths
and had learned to relate them with one another by a variety of skill-
ful devices. But he seems often to have confused the ending of a tale
by needlessly recording several transformations and to have told his
stories dryly in rather awkward style. Ovid was careful as a rule to
avoid Nicander's faults, yet he fully appreciated his merit. He had
Nicander in mind continually and took from him at least the outline
for many of his most justly famous tales.
By relating his stories to one another in a supposed sequence of
time, Ovid greatly improved on the design of nearly all his predeces-
sors, including Nicander. This method Vergil had used on a small
scale for his Sixth Eclogue, which reads almost like a preliminary
sketch of Ovid's poem. But Ovid first applied it to a great work and
with admirable success. Adopting a sequence of time, Ovid could
make his plan agree on the whole with that of the Manual and follow
the course of this work whenever he desired through the greater part
of his poem. Adding what he wished from other authors and organ-
izing a little better the arrangement of tales in the Manual, Ovid was
able to include almost the entire range of Greek mythology and at
least mention almost every important myth.
For his verse Ovid departed from the measure which had proved
so successful in his other poetical triumphs. Instead of the elegiac
couplet, he adopted the epic hexameter. In choosing this meter, he
followed the practice of almost all previous writers on the subject of
metamorphoses. But he was swayed chiefly by a far more illustrious
example. He was designing his most ambitious narrative poem and
he wished to follow, at least at a distance, Vergil's earlier master-
piece, The Aeneid. In emulation of Vergil Ovid chose the hexameter,
but he did not attempt to duplicate Vergil's consummate metrical art.
He created a simpler, more rapid measure appropriate for his new
purpose and gave it a sweetness and fluency of his own.
In other directions also Ovid benefited by the example of great auth-
ors outside the earlier field of metamorphoses. Much in the beginning
12
? ? 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
of his poem he owed to the scientific studies of Aratus and Varro. To
Varro and Lucretius he turned for a summary of the whole idea of
metamorphosis in the lore of Pythagoras (Bk. 15). /
Eor the poem as a whole Ovid drew inspiration repeatedly from
another important variety of ancient literature--poetry dealing with
love. The subject had inspired Sappho and Anacreon. It appeared
prominently in the tragedy of Euripides and was a favorite theme for
Theocritus and many other leading Alexandrians. These poets took
great interest in the motives and sensations of lovers, both men and
women. They found special opportunity in the case of those whose
love seemed to encounter a hopeless obstacle and such an obstacle often
appeared in the form of moral law. 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.
