Once more he
reverted
often to myth-
ology; but he was inclined to associate it now with deeper forces of
nature and morality remote from Ovid's thought.
ology; but he was inclined to associate it now with deeper forces of
nature and morality remote from Ovid's thought.
Ovid - 1934 - Metamorphoses in European Culture - v1
Sculptors appear less prominently, but they too did Ovid
ample honor. Painting and sculpture inspired by Ovid found place
ordinarily in the palaces of the great and wealthy and indicate the
tremendous vogue of the Metamorphoses among all who aspired to
culture.
It was a rather common practice for a wealthy man to have an
artist adorn his palace with a series of mythological paintings, and
such labors engaged Perino del Vaga and several other artists of
moderate ability. In the Roman palace of Farnesina this fashion at-
tained its height and inspired not only numerous paintings of Piombo
and Peruzzi but Raphael's splendid Galatea. Raphael and other art-
ists of first rank preferred to do single pictures; but many of them
returned to Ovid more than once with notable success. This was true,
for example, of Correggio, Veronese, and Tintoretto. Raphael designed
several important works for others to finish, and even the great archi-
tect Bramante, who designed St. Peter's, found leisure for a painting
of Mercury and Argus. But among Ovid's admirers none could vie
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with Titian. He was inspired by Ovid to masterpiece after master-
piece and his methods were admired and applied to other themes by
Velasquez, Van Dyck, and many painters of England. With Titian
Ovid's influence reached a climax. Yet it continued on a high level
in the work of Guido Reni and Salvator Rosa.
In sculpture Ovid probably supplied the theme for two admirable
achievements of Michelangelo. He was prominent in the masterpieces
of Cellini and Giovanni da Bologna. And Filarete carved scenes from
his Metamorphoses even on the door of St. Peters!
The creation of opera was another triumph for Ovid and the
Italian Renaissance. In 1597 the new musical form began timidly
with a private performance of Jacopo Peri's Daphne. This was the
first opera ever given. So enthusiastic was the welcome that three
years later the same composer attempted a public performance of his
Orpheus. The success of his venture attracted a still abler musician,
Monteverde. This composer produced a number of operas. Many of
his stories he took from Ovid, proving most successful in his Ariadne
and his Orpheus. With him opera became established as an impor-
tant musical form.
From Italy the Renaissance had passed quickly to Spain. Here too
Ovid awakened immense enthusiasm. During the fifteenth and six-
teenth centuries his Metamorphoses was translated repeatedly into
Spanish and once into Catalan. Among the Spanish versions, none
could compare in popularity with that of Bustamente. He para-
phrased Ovid in prose, not hesitating sometimes to add congenial tales
from other authors also, and adapted him perfectly to the spirit of
the time. Bustamente's translation! passed through edition after
edition and probably influenced every author during the great period
of Spain. In his work there still lingers the medieval belief that Ovid
was a purveyor of hidden moral truth and this belief was at least
affected by the chief authors who followed.
Meanwhile Ovid had become familiar to all educated men of the
fifteenth century in Spain. Such a writer as Juan della Mena could
fill his work with allusions to even the least important parts of the"
Metamorphoses. Among the chief lyric poets Ovid's popularity
rivalled that of Vergil. During the following century, he inspired
lyrists as important as Herrera and Castillejo. In Spain Ovid's
popularity took also a new direction. His Metamorphoses became a
mine of material for works of prose fiction, including two which for a
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? INTRODUCTORY SURVEY
time were internationally famous, La Celestina and the Diana of
Montemayor. Ovid's tales of Myrrha and Vertumnus contributed
much to a stock character of this fiction, the old woman who co-
operates in a dishonorable love affair. His Medea and Circe became
models for another favorite character, the sorceress in love.
Equally great was Ovid's favor with the three most important
authors of Spain. Lope de Vega might occasionally ridicule Ovid,
but he regarded him as full of philosophy and moral precept. Ovid
aided him in his chief work of fiction, the Dorothea, and supplied
themes for his poetry and seven of his lesser plays. Although Cervantes
had little acquaintance with Latin, he read Ovid eagerly in translation
and alluded to him continually. He borrowed from him often in his
Persiles and occasionally in his more famous Don Quixote. Even more
important was Ovid's contribution to the work of Calderon. This
poet and Ovid had many qualities in common. The Metamorphoses
furnished Calderon with material for a number of successful plays and
some of these plays are among his best.
To Spanish art the Metamorphoses appears to have been less con-
genial. Yet it inspired at least one work of the great Velasquez.
In Portugal the vogue of Ovid was probably as great as it was in
Spain. During the sixteenth century prose fiction grew up in both
countries under the same influences. Indeed the same author would
sometimes write one of his novels in Portuguese and another in Span-
ish. Ovid's influence was pervasive in Portuguese fiction and appeared
notably in Palmerin of England, a work which enjoyed two centuries
of international fame. But the Metamorphoses proved even more im-
portant in Portuguese verse and contributed much to the one great
poem which obtained lasting favor at home and abroad. In his fine
epic, the Lusiad, Camoens draws on Ovid repeatedly for striking
illustration, for appropriate decoration of a palace, and memorable
incident. And probably in recollection of Ovid he showed the oriental
conqueror Bacchus provoked to jealous hostility by the greater
achievement of the mortal Gama.
With the second quarter of the sixteenth century, Ovid's influence
became obvious in France. The once famous Marot paraphrased two
books of the Metamorphoses; Francois Habert composed a rhymed
translation of the entire poem. Rabelais made merry over the absurd-
ity of Ovid's medieval interpreters. It was from Ovid's Metamor-
phoses that Montaigne first learned the pleasure of reading. At the
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? METAMORPHOSES IN EUROPEAN CULTURE
age of eight, he says, this poem seemed to him the easiest and most
congenial book that he knew. He gladly withdrew from all other
delights in order to read it. And before the middle of the century,
French royalty employed the artists Rosso and Primaticcio to deco-
rate with paintings from Ovid the great palace of Fontainbleau. But
in the second half of the century Ovid's favor rapidly waned. Other
ancient authors proved more congenial with those who still tried to
write, and most men diverted their attention to a devastating period
of civil strife.
Yet even here we find evidence of Ovid's continued importance.
During five centuries religious opposition had slept. Ovid and other
Latin authors had triumphed in the culture of Western Europe, and
Roger Bacon's had been almost the only dissenting voice. Suddenly
the old hostility broke out anew among the zealous Protestants of
France. Their poet, Du Bartas, undertook to turn men's attention
from this seductive literature of heathen deity and wanton love. Scrip-
tural lore and the studies of natural science were his theme in a series
of poems, which culminated in his long epic of the Creation, The Divine
Week. The zeal and originality of the new poet awakened enthusiasm
in both France and England. Spenser and Ben Jonson praised him;
Milton felt his influence; and his name was revered even in the pioneer
colonies of New England. But his speculation proved artificial, his
style prolix. He soon began to lose favor and after about a century
was almost forgotten.
Meanwhile Ovid was becoming popular in France of the seventeenth
century. Benserade translated the entire Metamorphoses into
tondeaux. 1 Certain other poets made it the fashion for a while to
parody favorite Latin authors. Scarron led the way with a travesty
of Vergil's Aeneid, and soon after both Richer and D'Assoucy under-
took a similar treatment of Ovid's Metamorphoses. From the begin-
ning of the century, minor poets used individual tales for drama.
And towards the middle of the century Ovid began to inspire many
leading poets of this great period.
La Fontaine adapted his tale of Philemon and Baucis and used
other tales for his two operas, Daphne and Galatea. The great
Corneille took from Ovid the subject of his Andromeda and used him
frequently while collaborating with Moliere in a remarkable opera
called Psyche. The lesser Corneille translated the entire Metamor-
phoses and was inspired by Ovid in his dramatic masterpiece Ariadne.
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? INTRODUCTORY SURVEY
During Moliere's last years, the Metamorphoses was one of a few
favorite books kept in his bedroom at Auteuil. And, although
Moliere profited almost entirely by other predecessors, he showed
his familiarity with Ovid by using here and there a name, a graceful
reference, or a touch of incomparable ridicule. From an Italian imi-
tator of Ovid he took one strand in the plot of his comedy he Depit
Amoureux.
Ovid was still more important in French art. He inspired great
masterpieces by the painters Poussin and Claude Lorrain. His effect
was even more interesting in sculpture. At the command of Marie
de Medici, Salmon de Brosse prepared the royal gardens of the
Luxembourg and decorated a great fountain with Ovid's tale of
Galatea. Louis Fourteenth continued the fashion on a grander scale.
His great landscape architect, Le Notre, arranged for statuary in
every division of the famous gardens at the Tuileries and at Versailles.
The chief sculptors of France carried out his designs. More than a
dozen of them were inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses,11 and much of
their work is justly famous. Yet even this was not Ovid's greatest
triumph in French sculpture. Spanish royalty planted a garden of
like splendor at San Ildefonso and allowed the French sculptors
Thierry and Fremin to reach unequalled heights in their great foun-
tains of Andromeda, Apollo, and the Lycian Frogs.
During the later Renaissance, intellectual leaders of the Low
Countries too showed extraordinary interest in Ovid and were in-
spired by him to work of international fame. Heinsius and Burmann
studied him carefully and produced a great edition of his poetry.
Rubens, the foremost artist of his time, took from Ovid the subjects
of innumerable paintings, many of which rank with his best. Jordaens,
though of humbler ability, showed equal enthusiasm. And there were
many others whose paintings appear in the collections of Belgium or
Northern France.
In England the whole energy of the Renaissance found expression
in literature and culminated in drama and epic hardly equalled by any
period of human history. The effect of Ovid appeared early and be-
came increasingly important. Elizabethan England read him even more
than Vergil and felt his influence continually in such favorite authors
as Chaucer, Ariosto, and the lesser Italians. Before any of the great
n Among them were G. Coustou, Nicolas Coustou, Flamen, Girardon, Le Conte,
Le Paultre, Marqueste, Royal and Tuby.
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? METAMORPHOSES IN EUROPEAN CULTURE
poets had become of age, there appeared the famous translation of
Golding. The picturesque language and long, swinging verse of this
author suited admirably the feeling of the time. It was widely popular
and frequently guided the phrasing of Shakespeare. Minor writers
soon began to retell stories of Ovid, both in prose and in verse. More
important authors followed: Lodge turned to the Metamorphoses for
Glaucus and Scilla, his most ambitious poem, and Marlowe recalled
Ovid abundantly in his Hero and Leander.
Ovid was even more congenial to the splendid genius of Spenser.
Familiar with all important authors of the ancient world and the best
poets of more recent times, this great Elizabethan readily combined
ideas from many sources and gave them new value by additions of his
own. Yet Ovid fascinated him and was at all times a favorite poet.
Spenser at least alluded to the Metamorphoses in nearly all of his many
poetical works. He referred more or less frequently to almost every
book. Most striking was his indebtedness to Ovid in Muipotomus and
The Faerie Queen. In his great romantic poem, Spenser continually
alluded to Ovid or adapted his material and he associated an extra-
ordinary number of stories with Britomart's adventure in the House
of Busyrane and Mutability's quarrel with the gods. Though occa-
sionally inaccurate in detail,12 Spenser understood well the spirit of
ancient myth. Sometimes he altered a story from Ovid by adding a
new metamorphosis. Not infrequently he imitated the Roman Poet in
a myth of his own invention. Though differing from Ovid in having
a strong, moral purpose, he often showed a similar delight in a story
for its own sake. By Ovid's example he was probably encouraged in
his love of beautiful form and color and his power to move easily in
a world of his own imagination.
Even more interesting was. Ovid's contribution to the work of
Shakespeare. The great dramatist read Ovid continually, both in
Latin and in English. He praised him in Love's Labour's Lost, his
earliest comedy, and elsewhere represented him as important in the
education of young gentlemen. Shakespeare fully understood Ovid's
wit and his dramatic power. He used the Metamorphoses as a store-
house of classical information. All his knowledge of ancient literature
and myth, he could have derived from Ovid and Vergil, and the im-
portance of Ovid exceeded that of Vergil in the proportions of four to
one; Shakespeare's mythology was at all times Ovidian. His direct
"Thus he refers to Daphne as fleeing Apollo "on the Aegean stronde. "
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? INTRODUCTORY SURVEY
reference to the Metamorphoses begins with the earliest plays and
extends to every book.
Shakespeare's attitude towards Ovid did not remain constant but
altered with his artistic growth. His genius was the higher, more
serious, and more discerning. Though he loved Ovid, he became in-
creasingly aware of Ovid's limitations and rose above them.
Shakespeare's most enthusiastic admiration of the ancient master
coincided with the years when he himself was experimenting in many
directions and was rapidly gaining an assured control of his art. At
this period he used the last book of Ovid's Metamorphoses again and
again in the speculation of his Sonnets, notably in the passages where
he followed the Renaissance convention of predicting his own immortal
fame. Still more evident was his use of Ovid for Venus and Adonis
and The Passionate Pilgrim. In these poems Shakespeare not only
followed individual tales of Ovid but reproduced to an extraordinary
degree his pervading spirit and style. Important likewise was his
indebtedness to Ovid for the plot of his drama Titus Andronicus. In
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare took from the Metamor-
phoses the name of his fairy queen Titania, associated by Ovid with
Diana, Hecat, and Circe--the whole female empire of mystery and
night. And no play equalled the Merchant of Venice in frequency and
grace of allusion. Yet even at this time Shakespeare admired the ancient
poet with judgment. He used Ovid freely for the wit and embellish-
ment of comedy, but in graver scenes he adopted a more d^ect and
simple style. Like Ovid, he dealt frequently with love; but he was
more careful to distinguish the noble from the base.
The time of Shakespeare's romantic comedy and later historical
plays witnessed a change in his attitude. He began to feel the absurd-
ity of Ovid's mythology and to mention it frequently as an idle jest.
The period of his major tragedies found him using Ovid infrequently
or not at all. But the older poet was still guiding him in the great
funeral orations of Julius Caesar, the character of Ulysses in the
Troilus, and Hamlet's quarrel at the grave. After this period,
Shakespeare experimented with a variety of romantic plays, dealing
frequently with ancient times.
Once more he reverted often to myth-
ology; but he was inclined to associate it now with deeper forces of
nature and morality remote from Ovid's thought. Nevertheless in A
Winter's Tale he used the Metamorphoses directly for the character of
Autolycus and the delightful speeches of Florizel and Perdita and(in
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? METAMORPHOSES IN EUROPEAN CULTURE
The Tempest he gave Ovid a parting tribute in Prospero's farewell to
magic.
Among other prominent authors of the seventeenth century, Ovid
won favorable attention. Jonson made him an important character
of the Poetaster and translated the conclusion of his Metamorphoses.
Heywood remembered him in the plays called The Four Ages. And
both Heywood and Shirley chose tales from his work as subjects
of their non-dramatic poetry. Cowley borrowed from his myth of
Ceyx. Sandys made a translation of the entire Metamorphoses, the
first great poem written in the British colonies of North America. The
elegant heroic couplets of this translation were later to do much in
forming the style of Dryden and Pope.
More important than all of these was Milton. He seems to have
been acquainted with the whole field of literature. His great and re-
sponsive nature appreciated every literary work at its true worth and
allowed him to emulate what was best in every other author for master-
pieces of his own. Of highest worth and most valuable in their contri-
bution were the Bible, Vergil, and perhaps Homer. But Ovid followed
immediately after and his contribution was large indeed. From Ovid
no other great author took so much or used so intelligently what he
took.
At the early age of fourteen, Milton composed a summary of every
tale in his edition of the Metamorphoses. For this purpose he used
the blank reverse side of any page which bore an illustration. Such
illustrations occurred oftenest in the First and Second Books, so that
in this part of the poem he was able to write most frequently; but else-
where he profited by every available space. Each summary he made
in verse, using the free heroic couplet of the time, and almost every
summary comprised eight lines. Although seldom of any poetical
value, the verses were made with intelligent care and they showed
many traits which afterwards were distinctive in Milton's English
poetry. In all they must have numbered well over fourteen hundred
lines--more than we find in! any other poetical work until Paradise
Lost. This was Milton's earliest attempt in the field of poetry and
must have afforded him invaluable training.
A few years later, Milton's many Latin poems imply intimate ac-
quaintance with Ovid's language and meter. He must have known
all Ovid's important work almost by heart and have mastered all the
niceties of his versification. Ovid had also an important effect on
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Milton's ideas. Milton declared in one of his Latin elegies that, if
Ovid had escaped exile, he would have surpassed Vergil and rivalled
Homer. In another elegy he imitated Ovid's tale of Daphne for much
of his charming account of an early experience with love. And he
recalled Ovid even more skilfully while writing his ambitious ode on
the frustration of the Gunpowder Plot. Nor was Ovid's influence
confined to these passages; it was pervasive in Milton's Latin verse.
Meeting the joyful pagan on this neutral ground, the earnest young
Puritan laid aside his armor of gravity and prejudice and learned to
move with ease, lightness, and audacity.
Milton borrowed from Ovid in several of his earlier English poems,
making brief references even in his Ode on the Nativity. He recalled
Ovid gracefully in L'Allegro and more than once in II Penseroso,
adapting the ancient material judiciously to a quite different effect
of his own. Comus owed to Ovid still more: Milton drew much of his
plot from Ovid's tales of Bacchus and of Circe. And the effect of the
Metamorphoses was very important in Lycidas. During Milton's
boyhood and youth, a number of his poems indicate an extraordinary
fondness for the local myths of England. Such interest none was more
likely to encourage than Ovid.
With the approach of middle life, Milton's thought turned in new
directions. He was hoping to emulate Vergil and the tragic poets of
Greece. When he attempted poetry, he was apt to rely on Horace
or the Italians. And most of his time was devoted to great issues of
the day and the writing of bold controversial treatises. Yet Ovid lent
beauty to a Sonnet on the Tetrachordon and often gave point to a
fierce thrust of his prose.
When Milton at last found opportunity for his epic, he turned
again to his early favorite. Ellwood, Milton's helper during his
blindness, assures us that the authors whom Milton consulted most
frequently were Homer, Euripides, and Ovid. For the subject and
the plan of Paradise Lost, Milton looked chiefly to the Scripture and
Vergil. But much of the rest he adapted carefully from Ovid's Meta-
morphoses. In his hands the old myths took on a great and spiritual
significance: even the sensual and grotesque gave hints for the pure
and sublime. 13 Milton realised that it suited only the guilty to hide
in a lower form and he used metamorphosis appropriately for the
wiles and punishment of Satan. And he recalled Ovid most judiciously
"See the essays on Narcissus (Bk. 8) and Hermaphroditus (Bk. 4).
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? METAMORPHOSES IN EUROPEAN CULTURE
for details in his grand descriptions of Chaos, Creation, and the
Flood.
Milton profited by the Metamorphoses again in the simpler and
graver design of Paradise Regained. Recollection of Ovid suggested
an occasional illustration and probably the disguises of Satan. And
Ovid's work received a new meaning in Satan's rebuke of his wanton
follower Belial:
Have we not seen, or by relation heard,
In courts and regal chambers how thou lurk'st,
In wood or grove, by mossy fountain side,
In valley or green meadow, to waylay
Some beauty rare, Calisto, Clymene,
Daphne, or Semele, Antiopa,
Or Amymone, Syrinx, many more
Too long--then layest thy scapes on names adored,
Apollo, Neptune, Jupiter, or Pan?
Traces of Ovid appear even in Samson Agonistes.
Although Milton's use of the Metamorphoses varied with the nature
of his work, his method was on the whole constant from the begin-
ning. He borrowed no more than was required by his context and
suited the material admirably to his purpose. He was inclined to
prefer what was already grave and impressive and to endow it with
added purity and grandeur. As he went on, the veil of sensuous
charm grew progressively thinner over the underlying spiritual mean-
ing. 14 And he used mythology always in relation to universal truth.
With the death of Moliere and Milton, the Renaissance came to an
end. Its great men were dead; the lesser men had run to unfortunate
excess. Imagination, creative fervor, eager experiment had taken on
grotesque forms and disgusted the new leaders who shaped the thought
of the eighteenth century. These men were anxious at all costs to
preserve sanity and decorum. They restricted themselves to what
seemed to be the precept and practice of the most correct among
Roman authors. Horace became the model of poet and critic. Writ-
ers' of fiction relied chiefly on close observation of contemporary life.
To the new spirit Ovid was much ldss congenial. His merits were not
14 Compare Milton's references to Orpheus in L'Allegro, II Penseroso, Lycidas,
and Paradise Lost.
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those of Vergil and Horace; his lack of restraint and his ill timed
wit jarred on men who dreaded excess. Ovid continued to be read;
but he no longer was ranked with the best.
The reaction was most violent in the south of Europe. In Spain
Ovid seems to have disappeared from literature and art and never
returned to favor. In Italy he appears to have survived only as an
occasional theme for opera libretto. References to him continue
even in the Figaro of Mozart.
In France Ovid fared much better. The leading authors nearly
always found inspiration elsewhere;: yet Ovid was not forgotten.
His Metamorphoses were translated by Desaintange and appeared in
a fine edition with innumerable illustrations. Voltaire lauded Ovid's
masterpiece in his Apology for Fable. Andre Chenier made Europa
the theme of a carefully written lyric.
Ovid inspired important paintings of Lemoine and Boucher and
several of Boucher's great tapestries portraying the loves of the gods.
His prominence in French art attracted the Prussian ruler, Frederick
the Great. By order of this monarch, two French painters, Resne
and Lancret, proceeded north to Potsdam and adorned with scenes
from the Metamorphoses the new palace of Sans Souci.
But Ovid enjoyed even greater favor in opera. With the opening
of the Academy in 1671, this form of entertainment became accessible
to the French public. The new theater began its career with Cam-
bert's Pomona, a subject taken from Ovid's famous myth, and so
enthusiastic was the welcome that the same opera was given without
interruption for eight months. The first Academy then gave place
to the Royal Academy of Music. Here opera continued to be ex-
ceedingly popular and enjoyed an increasing vogue for more than a
century. To provide suitable repertories, the Royal Academy soon
was enlisting many poets of France. Quinault and others devoted
their entire energy to the writing of librettos. Almost every minor
dramatist made at least one venture in the field of opera. More
prominent authors, such as Fontenelle, followed their lead. The
music was composed successively by Lulli, Rameau, and Cherubini.
In the history of French culture the entire period was remarkable.
It was distinguished by able poets and still abler composers and
added much to the development of operatic art in general. And
throughout this period a favorite theme was Ovid's Metamorphoses.
But Ovid's most memorable triumph occurred in the work of Gliick.
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After experimenting with several tales from the Metamorphoses, this
composer produced his Orpheus and Eurydice, a work that revolution-
ized the methods of opera and holds the stage today.
England was more conservative than the continent. Ovid main-
tained for many years a prominent place in her literature. Although
Dryden compared him unfavorably with Chaucer, he admired Ovid
almost as much as his favorite, Vergil. In his last years, Dryden had
occasion to translate the twelfth book of the Metamorphoses, which
dealt with the beginning of the Trojan War. He became enthusiastic
and, after finishing his appointed task, he turned to other parts of
Ovid's masterpiece and rendered story after story, until he had in-
cluded all those which pleased him best. The work did not stop here.
Samuel Garth arranged for a translation of all the others. Addison,
Pope, and other leading poets each undertook a part. This version
went through edition after edition and was the standard for over a
century.
Although this great translation was Ovid's chief honor, it was not
the only one. Pope imitated him delightfully in his Windsor Forest
and more conventionally in the Dunciad. Swift made a poetical ver-
sion of Philemon and Baucis, and Johnson and Boswell still recalled
the Metamorphoses occasionally towards the close of the century.
Meanwhile interest in the Metamorphoses had taken another direc-
tion. Even in ancient Greece there had been men who failed to under-
stand or enjoy the popular myths. Such men insisted on excluding
the supernatural and retelling myths as if they were the result of
ordinary human action. Herodotus recorded a few explanations of
this kind at the beginning of his history. This way of accounting for
the older lore proved less congenial to the Greeks than other methods,
such as allegory. Yet it continued during ancient times and re-
appeared in the philosophy of Francis Bacon. During the second
half of the eighteenth century, there began in Germany a movement
called the Enlightenment, which passed rapidly to France and Eng-
land. The aim of Lessing, Diderot, and its other leaders was to do
away with superstition and prejudice in the name of reason and
common sense. Their purpose was commendable; but in the direc-
tion of mythology it was often misapplied. Among these reformers
the old method of rationalizing myths was received with acclaim.
Ovid and the rest were reread and their stories were laid on the
Procrustean bed of reason and common sense. What could be made
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to seem ordinary, was stretched to the breaking point, what could not,
was lopped away and carefully hidden.
Thus Ovid's tale of Phaethon was distorted to the following shape:
"Phaethon was a young and enterprising prince of Lybia. Crossing
the Mediterranean in quest of adventure, he visited Italy to see his
intimate friend Cygnus. Phaethon was skilled in astrology, from
whence he arrogated to himself the title of the son of Apollo. One
day in the heat of summer, as he was riding along the banks of the
Po, his horses took fright at a clap of thunder, and plunged into the
river, where, together with their master, they perished. Cygnus, who
was a poet, celebrated the death of his friend, from whence the fable. "
Judged even by standards of the eighteenth century, much in this
explanation appears unwarranted. We may ask, for example, by
what authority the interpreter made Cygnus a poet or by what
authority he silently removed the remarkable mutation of Cygnus to
a swan. In the nineteenth century a careful study of mythology
among many primitive peoples, raised further difficulties and showed
that such interpretation was apt to be quite as incredible as the
original myth. But the leaders of the Enlightenment were well pleased
with their apparent triumphs over superstition, and educated men in
general were impressed by their cleverness. The practice continued
through the eighteenth century and affected the famous dictionary
of mythology by Lempriere.
With the Romantic Revival many long accepted standards were
challenged. Men realized that the world was much larger than they
had supposed at the beginning of the eighteenth century and they
hastened to readjust their ideas accordingly. Horace, Vergil, and a
few other accepted authors were no longer supreme. Men even
doubted their greatness. Men became anxious to know at first hand
the older masters of Greece, the authors of medieval and modern
Europe, and the great literature of Oriental peoples. They found
means to travel frequently and to profit more by direct observation
of man and nature. In the new order Ovid's other work lost favor,
but his Metamorphoses gained on the whole. If it was read less often,
it was judged more kindly. Men took new interest in mythology of
all sorts. When dealing with classic myth, they often preferred to
use Greek poets or Apollodorus. But some famous tales were peculiar
to Ovid and many others he told so well as to make them his own.
Ovid did not become a great formative influence, yet he was well known
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and he contributed to the work of many who were leaders during the
nineteenth century.
ample honor. Painting and sculpture inspired by Ovid found place
ordinarily in the palaces of the great and wealthy and indicate the
tremendous vogue of the Metamorphoses among all who aspired to
culture.
It was a rather common practice for a wealthy man to have an
artist adorn his palace with a series of mythological paintings, and
such labors engaged Perino del Vaga and several other artists of
moderate ability. In the Roman palace of Farnesina this fashion at-
tained its height and inspired not only numerous paintings of Piombo
and Peruzzi but Raphael's splendid Galatea. Raphael and other art-
ists of first rank preferred to do single pictures; but many of them
returned to Ovid more than once with notable success. This was true,
for example, of Correggio, Veronese, and Tintoretto. Raphael designed
several important works for others to finish, and even the great archi-
tect Bramante, who designed St. Peter's, found leisure for a painting
of Mercury and Argus. But among Ovid's admirers none could vie
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with Titian. He was inspired by Ovid to masterpiece after master-
piece and his methods were admired and applied to other themes by
Velasquez, Van Dyck, and many painters of England. With Titian
Ovid's influence reached a climax. Yet it continued on a high level
in the work of Guido Reni and Salvator Rosa.
In sculpture Ovid probably supplied the theme for two admirable
achievements of Michelangelo. He was prominent in the masterpieces
of Cellini and Giovanni da Bologna. And Filarete carved scenes from
his Metamorphoses even on the door of St. Peters!
The creation of opera was another triumph for Ovid and the
Italian Renaissance. In 1597 the new musical form began timidly
with a private performance of Jacopo Peri's Daphne. This was the
first opera ever given. So enthusiastic was the welcome that three
years later the same composer attempted a public performance of his
Orpheus. The success of his venture attracted a still abler musician,
Monteverde. This composer produced a number of operas. Many of
his stories he took from Ovid, proving most successful in his Ariadne
and his Orpheus. With him opera became established as an impor-
tant musical form.
From Italy the Renaissance had passed quickly to Spain. Here too
Ovid awakened immense enthusiasm. During the fifteenth and six-
teenth centuries his Metamorphoses was translated repeatedly into
Spanish and once into Catalan. Among the Spanish versions, none
could compare in popularity with that of Bustamente. He para-
phrased Ovid in prose, not hesitating sometimes to add congenial tales
from other authors also, and adapted him perfectly to the spirit of
the time. Bustamente's translation! passed through edition after
edition and probably influenced every author during the great period
of Spain. In his work there still lingers the medieval belief that Ovid
was a purveyor of hidden moral truth and this belief was at least
affected by the chief authors who followed.
Meanwhile Ovid had become familiar to all educated men of the
fifteenth century in Spain. Such a writer as Juan della Mena could
fill his work with allusions to even the least important parts of the"
Metamorphoses. Among the chief lyric poets Ovid's popularity
rivalled that of Vergil. During the following century, he inspired
lyrists as important as Herrera and Castillejo. In Spain Ovid's
popularity took also a new direction. His Metamorphoses became a
mine of material for works of prose fiction, including two which for a
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time were internationally famous, La Celestina and the Diana of
Montemayor. Ovid's tales of Myrrha and Vertumnus contributed
much to a stock character of this fiction, the old woman who co-
operates in a dishonorable love affair. His Medea and Circe became
models for another favorite character, the sorceress in love.
Equally great was Ovid's favor with the three most important
authors of Spain. Lope de Vega might occasionally ridicule Ovid,
but he regarded him as full of philosophy and moral precept. Ovid
aided him in his chief work of fiction, the Dorothea, and supplied
themes for his poetry and seven of his lesser plays. Although Cervantes
had little acquaintance with Latin, he read Ovid eagerly in translation
and alluded to him continually. He borrowed from him often in his
Persiles and occasionally in his more famous Don Quixote. Even more
important was Ovid's contribution to the work of Calderon. This
poet and Ovid had many qualities in common. The Metamorphoses
furnished Calderon with material for a number of successful plays and
some of these plays are among his best.
To Spanish art the Metamorphoses appears to have been less con-
genial. Yet it inspired at least one work of the great Velasquez.
In Portugal the vogue of Ovid was probably as great as it was in
Spain. During the sixteenth century prose fiction grew up in both
countries under the same influences. Indeed the same author would
sometimes write one of his novels in Portuguese and another in Span-
ish. Ovid's influence was pervasive in Portuguese fiction and appeared
notably in Palmerin of England, a work which enjoyed two centuries
of international fame. But the Metamorphoses proved even more im-
portant in Portuguese verse and contributed much to the one great
poem which obtained lasting favor at home and abroad. In his fine
epic, the Lusiad, Camoens draws on Ovid repeatedly for striking
illustration, for appropriate decoration of a palace, and memorable
incident. And probably in recollection of Ovid he showed the oriental
conqueror Bacchus provoked to jealous hostility by the greater
achievement of the mortal Gama.
With the second quarter of the sixteenth century, Ovid's influence
became obvious in France. The once famous Marot paraphrased two
books of the Metamorphoses; Francois Habert composed a rhymed
translation of the entire poem. Rabelais made merry over the absurd-
ity of Ovid's medieval interpreters. It was from Ovid's Metamor-
phoses that Montaigne first learned the pleasure of reading. At the
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age of eight, he says, this poem seemed to him the easiest and most
congenial book that he knew. He gladly withdrew from all other
delights in order to read it. And before the middle of the century,
French royalty employed the artists Rosso and Primaticcio to deco-
rate with paintings from Ovid the great palace of Fontainbleau. But
in the second half of the century Ovid's favor rapidly waned. Other
ancient authors proved more congenial with those who still tried to
write, and most men diverted their attention to a devastating period
of civil strife.
Yet even here we find evidence of Ovid's continued importance.
During five centuries religious opposition had slept. Ovid and other
Latin authors had triumphed in the culture of Western Europe, and
Roger Bacon's had been almost the only dissenting voice. Suddenly
the old hostility broke out anew among the zealous Protestants of
France. Their poet, Du Bartas, undertook to turn men's attention
from this seductive literature of heathen deity and wanton love. Scrip-
tural lore and the studies of natural science were his theme in a series
of poems, which culminated in his long epic of the Creation, The Divine
Week. The zeal and originality of the new poet awakened enthusiasm
in both France and England. Spenser and Ben Jonson praised him;
Milton felt his influence; and his name was revered even in the pioneer
colonies of New England. But his speculation proved artificial, his
style prolix. He soon began to lose favor and after about a century
was almost forgotten.
Meanwhile Ovid was becoming popular in France of the seventeenth
century. Benserade translated the entire Metamorphoses into
tondeaux. 1 Certain other poets made it the fashion for a while to
parody favorite Latin authors. Scarron led the way with a travesty
of Vergil's Aeneid, and soon after both Richer and D'Assoucy under-
took a similar treatment of Ovid's Metamorphoses. From the begin-
ning of the century, minor poets used individual tales for drama.
And towards the middle of the century Ovid began to inspire many
leading poets of this great period.
La Fontaine adapted his tale of Philemon and Baucis and used
other tales for his two operas, Daphne and Galatea. The great
Corneille took from Ovid the subject of his Andromeda and used him
frequently while collaborating with Moliere in a remarkable opera
called Psyche. The lesser Corneille translated the entire Metamor-
phoses and was inspired by Ovid in his dramatic masterpiece Ariadne.
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During Moliere's last years, the Metamorphoses was one of a few
favorite books kept in his bedroom at Auteuil. And, although
Moliere profited almost entirely by other predecessors, he showed
his familiarity with Ovid by using here and there a name, a graceful
reference, or a touch of incomparable ridicule. From an Italian imi-
tator of Ovid he took one strand in the plot of his comedy he Depit
Amoureux.
Ovid was still more important in French art. He inspired great
masterpieces by the painters Poussin and Claude Lorrain. His effect
was even more interesting in sculpture. At the command of Marie
de Medici, Salmon de Brosse prepared the royal gardens of the
Luxembourg and decorated a great fountain with Ovid's tale of
Galatea. Louis Fourteenth continued the fashion on a grander scale.
His great landscape architect, Le Notre, arranged for statuary in
every division of the famous gardens at the Tuileries and at Versailles.
The chief sculptors of France carried out his designs. More than a
dozen of them were inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses,11 and much of
their work is justly famous. Yet even this was not Ovid's greatest
triumph in French sculpture. Spanish royalty planted a garden of
like splendor at San Ildefonso and allowed the French sculptors
Thierry and Fremin to reach unequalled heights in their great foun-
tains of Andromeda, Apollo, and the Lycian Frogs.
During the later Renaissance, intellectual leaders of the Low
Countries too showed extraordinary interest in Ovid and were in-
spired by him to work of international fame. Heinsius and Burmann
studied him carefully and produced a great edition of his poetry.
Rubens, the foremost artist of his time, took from Ovid the subjects
of innumerable paintings, many of which rank with his best. Jordaens,
though of humbler ability, showed equal enthusiasm. And there were
many others whose paintings appear in the collections of Belgium or
Northern France.
In England the whole energy of the Renaissance found expression
in literature and culminated in drama and epic hardly equalled by any
period of human history. The effect of Ovid appeared early and be-
came increasingly important. Elizabethan England read him even more
than Vergil and felt his influence continually in such favorite authors
as Chaucer, Ariosto, and the lesser Italians. Before any of the great
n Among them were G. Coustou, Nicolas Coustou, Flamen, Girardon, Le Conte,
Le Paultre, Marqueste, Royal and Tuby.
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poets had become of age, there appeared the famous translation of
Golding. The picturesque language and long, swinging verse of this
author suited admirably the feeling of the time. It was widely popular
and frequently guided the phrasing of Shakespeare. Minor writers
soon began to retell stories of Ovid, both in prose and in verse. More
important authors followed: Lodge turned to the Metamorphoses for
Glaucus and Scilla, his most ambitious poem, and Marlowe recalled
Ovid abundantly in his Hero and Leander.
Ovid was even more congenial to the splendid genius of Spenser.
Familiar with all important authors of the ancient world and the best
poets of more recent times, this great Elizabethan readily combined
ideas from many sources and gave them new value by additions of his
own. Yet Ovid fascinated him and was at all times a favorite poet.
Spenser at least alluded to the Metamorphoses in nearly all of his many
poetical works. He referred more or less frequently to almost every
book. Most striking was his indebtedness to Ovid in Muipotomus and
The Faerie Queen. In his great romantic poem, Spenser continually
alluded to Ovid or adapted his material and he associated an extra-
ordinary number of stories with Britomart's adventure in the House
of Busyrane and Mutability's quarrel with the gods. Though occa-
sionally inaccurate in detail,12 Spenser understood well the spirit of
ancient myth. Sometimes he altered a story from Ovid by adding a
new metamorphosis. Not infrequently he imitated the Roman Poet in
a myth of his own invention. Though differing from Ovid in having
a strong, moral purpose, he often showed a similar delight in a story
for its own sake. By Ovid's example he was probably encouraged in
his love of beautiful form and color and his power to move easily in
a world of his own imagination.
Even more interesting was. Ovid's contribution to the work of
Shakespeare. The great dramatist read Ovid continually, both in
Latin and in English. He praised him in Love's Labour's Lost, his
earliest comedy, and elsewhere represented him as important in the
education of young gentlemen. Shakespeare fully understood Ovid's
wit and his dramatic power. He used the Metamorphoses as a store-
house of classical information. All his knowledge of ancient literature
and myth, he could have derived from Ovid and Vergil, and the im-
portance of Ovid exceeded that of Vergil in the proportions of four to
one; Shakespeare's mythology was at all times Ovidian. His direct
"Thus he refers to Daphne as fleeing Apollo "on the Aegean stronde. "
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reference to the Metamorphoses begins with the earliest plays and
extends to every book.
Shakespeare's attitude towards Ovid did not remain constant but
altered with his artistic growth. His genius was the higher, more
serious, and more discerning. Though he loved Ovid, he became in-
creasingly aware of Ovid's limitations and rose above them.
Shakespeare's most enthusiastic admiration of the ancient master
coincided with the years when he himself was experimenting in many
directions and was rapidly gaining an assured control of his art. At
this period he used the last book of Ovid's Metamorphoses again and
again in the speculation of his Sonnets, notably in the passages where
he followed the Renaissance convention of predicting his own immortal
fame. Still more evident was his use of Ovid for Venus and Adonis
and The Passionate Pilgrim. In these poems Shakespeare not only
followed individual tales of Ovid but reproduced to an extraordinary
degree his pervading spirit and style. Important likewise was his
indebtedness to Ovid for the plot of his drama Titus Andronicus. In
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare took from the Metamor-
phoses the name of his fairy queen Titania, associated by Ovid with
Diana, Hecat, and Circe--the whole female empire of mystery and
night. And no play equalled the Merchant of Venice in frequency and
grace of allusion. Yet even at this time Shakespeare admired the ancient
poet with judgment. He used Ovid freely for the wit and embellish-
ment of comedy, but in graver scenes he adopted a more d^ect and
simple style. Like Ovid, he dealt frequently with love; but he was
more careful to distinguish the noble from the base.
The time of Shakespeare's romantic comedy and later historical
plays witnessed a change in his attitude. He began to feel the absurd-
ity of Ovid's mythology and to mention it frequently as an idle jest.
The period of his major tragedies found him using Ovid infrequently
or not at all. But the older poet was still guiding him in the great
funeral orations of Julius Caesar, the character of Ulysses in the
Troilus, and Hamlet's quarrel at the grave. After this period,
Shakespeare experimented with a variety of romantic plays, dealing
frequently with ancient times.
Once more he reverted often to myth-
ology; but he was inclined to associate it now with deeper forces of
nature and morality remote from Ovid's thought. Nevertheless in A
Winter's Tale he used the Metamorphoses directly for the character of
Autolycus and the delightful speeches of Florizel and Perdita and(in
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The Tempest he gave Ovid a parting tribute in Prospero's farewell to
magic.
Among other prominent authors of the seventeenth century, Ovid
won favorable attention. Jonson made him an important character
of the Poetaster and translated the conclusion of his Metamorphoses.
Heywood remembered him in the plays called The Four Ages. And
both Heywood and Shirley chose tales from his work as subjects
of their non-dramatic poetry. Cowley borrowed from his myth of
Ceyx. Sandys made a translation of the entire Metamorphoses, the
first great poem written in the British colonies of North America. The
elegant heroic couplets of this translation were later to do much in
forming the style of Dryden and Pope.
More important than all of these was Milton. He seems to have
been acquainted with the whole field of literature. His great and re-
sponsive nature appreciated every literary work at its true worth and
allowed him to emulate what was best in every other author for master-
pieces of his own. Of highest worth and most valuable in their contri-
bution were the Bible, Vergil, and perhaps Homer. But Ovid followed
immediately after and his contribution was large indeed. From Ovid
no other great author took so much or used so intelligently what he
took.
At the early age of fourteen, Milton composed a summary of every
tale in his edition of the Metamorphoses. For this purpose he used
the blank reverse side of any page which bore an illustration. Such
illustrations occurred oftenest in the First and Second Books, so that
in this part of the poem he was able to write most frequently; but else-
where he profited by every available space. Each summary he made
in verse, using the free heroic couplet of the time, and almost every
summary comprised eight lines. Although seldom of any poetical
value, the verses were made with intelligent care and they showed
many traits which afterwards were distinctive in Milton's English
poetry. In all they must have numbered well over fourteen hundred
lines--more than we find in! any other poetical work until Paradise
Lost. This was Milton's earliest attempt in the field of poetry and
must have afforded him invaluable training.
A few years later, Milton's many Latin poems imply intimate ac-
quaintance with Ovid's language and meter. He must have known
all Ovid's important work almost by heart and have mastered all the
niceties of his versification. Ovid had also an important effect on
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Milton's ideas. Milton declared in one of his Latin elegies that, if
Ovid had escaped exile, he would have surpassed Vergil and rivalled
Homer. In another elegy he imitated Ovid's tale of Daphne for much
of his charming account of an early experience with love. And he
recalled Ovid even more skilfully while writing his ambitious ode on
the frustration of the Gunpowder Plot. Nor was Ovid's influence
confined to these passages; it was pervasive in Milton's Latin verse.
Meeting the joyful pagan on this neutral ground, the earnest young
Puritan laid aside his armor of gravity and prejudice and learned to
move with ease, lightness, and audacity.
Milton borrowed from Ovid in several of his earlier English poems,
making brief references even in his Ode on the Nativity. He recalled
Ovid gracefully in L'Allegro and more than once in II Penseroso,
adapting the ancient material judiciously to a quite different effect
of his own. Comus owed to Ovid still more: Milton drew much of his
plot from Ovid's tales of Bacchus and of Circe. And the effect of the
Metamorphoses was very important in Lycidas. During Milton's
boyhood and youth, a number of his poems indicate an extraordinary
fondness for the local myths of England. Such interest none was more
likely to encourage than Ovid.
With the approach of middle life, Milton's thought turned in new
directions. He was hoping to emulate Vergil and the tragic poets of
Greece. When he attempted poetry, he was apt to rely on Horace
or the Italians. And most of his time was devoted to great issues of
the day and the writing of bold controversial treatises. Yet Ovid lent
beauty to a Sonnet on the Tetrachordon and often gave point to a
fierce thrust of his prose.
When Milton at last found opportunity for his epic, he turned
again to his early favorite. Ellwood, Milton's helper during his
blindness, assures us that the authors whom Milton consulted most
frequently were Homer, Euripides, and Ovid. For the subject and
the plan of Paradise Lost, Milton looked chiefly to the Scripture and
Vergil. But much of the rest he adapted carefully from Ovid's Meta-
morphoses. In his hands the old myths took on a great and spiritual
significance: even the sensual and grotesque gave hints for the pure
and sublime. 13 Milton realised that it suited only the guilty to hide
in a lower form and he used metamorphosis appropriately for the
wiles and punishment of Satan. And he recalled Ovid most judiciously
"See the essays on Narcissus (Bk. 8) and Hermaphroditus (Bk. 4).
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for details in his grand descriptions of Chaos, Creation, and the
Flood.
Milton profited by the Metamorphoses again in the simpler and
graver design of Paradise Regained. Recollection of Ovid suggested
an occasional illustration and probably the disguises of Satan. And
Ovid's work received a new meaning in Satan's rebuke of his wanton
follower Belial:
Have we not seen, or by relation heard,
In courts and regal chambers how thou lurk'st,
In wood or grove, by mossy fountain side,
In valley or green meadow, to waylay
Some beauty rare, Calisto, Clymene,
Daphne, or Semele, Antiopa,
Or Amymone, Syrinx, many more
Too long--then layest thy scapes on names adored,
Apollo, Neptune, Jupiter, or Pan?
Traces of Ovid appear even in Samson Agonistes.
Although Milton's use of the Metamorphoses varied with the nature
of his work, his method was on the whole constant from the begin-
ning. He borrowed no more than was required by his context and
suited the material admirably to his purpose. He was inclined to
prefer what was already grave and impressive and to endow it with
added purity and grandeur. As he went on, the veil of sensuous
charm grew progressively thinner over the underlying spiritual mean-
ing. 14 And he used mythology always in relation to universal truth.
With the death of Moliere and Milton, the Renaissance came to an
end. Its great men were dead; the lesser men had run to unfortunate
excess. Imagination, creative fervor, eager experiment had taken on
grotesque forms and disgusted the new leaders who shaped the thought
of the eighteenth century. These men were anxious at all costs to
preserve sanity and decorum. They restricted themselves to what
seemed to be the precept and practice of the most correct among
Roman authors. Horace became the model of poet and critic. Writ-
ers' of fiction relied chiefly on close observation of contemporary life.
To the new spirit Ovid was much ldss congenial. His merits were not
14 Compare Milton's references to Orpheus in L'Allegro, II Penseroso, Lycidas,
and Paradise Lost.
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those of Vergil and Horace; his lack of restraint and his ill timed
wit jarred on men who dreaded excess. Ovid continued to be read;
but he no longer was ranked with the best.
The reaction was most violent in the south of Europe. In Spain
Ovid seems to have disappeared from literature and art and never
returned to favor. In Italy he appears to have survived only as an
occasional theme for opera libretto. References to him continue
even in the Figaro of Mozart.
In France Ovid fared much better. The leading authors nearly
always found inspiration elsewhere;: yet Ovid was not forgotten.
His Metamorphoses were translated by Desaintange and appeared in
a fine edition with innumerable illustrations. Voltaire lauded Ovid's
masterpiece in his Apology for Fable. Andre Chenier made Europa
the theme of a carefully written lyric.
Ovid inspired important paintings of Lemoine and Boucher and
several of Boucher's great tapestries portraying the loves of the gods.
His prominence in French art attracted the Prussian ruler, Frederick
the Great. By order of this monarch, two French painters, Resne
and Lancret, proceeded north to Potsdam and adorned with scenes
from the Metamorphoses the new palace of Sans Souci.
But Ovid enjoyed even greater favor in opera. With the opening
of the Academy in 1671, this form of entertainment became accessible
to the French public. The new theater began its career with Cam-
bert's Pomona, a subject taken from Ovid's famous myth, and so
enthusiastic was the welcome that the same opera was given without
interruption for eight months. The first Academy then gave place
to the Royal Academy of Music. Here opera continued to be ex-
ceedingly popular and enjoyed an increasing vogue for more than a
century. To provide suitable repertories, the Royal Academy soon
was enlisting many poets of France. Quinault and others devoted
their entire energy to the writing of librettos. Almost every minor
dramatist made at least one venture in the field of opera. More
prominent authors, such as Fontenelle, followed their lead. The
music was composed successively by Lulli, Rameau, and Cherubini.
In the history of French culture the entire period was remarkable.
It was distinguished by able poets and still abler composers and
added much to the development of operatic art in general. And
throughout this period a favorite theme was Ovid's Metamorphoses.
But Ovid's most memorable triumph occurred in the work of Gliick.
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After experimenting with several tales from the Metamorphoses, this
composer produced his Orpheus and Eurydice, a work that revolution-
ized the methods of opera and holds the stage today.
England was more conservative than the continent. Ovid main-
tained for many years a prominent place in her literature. Although
Dryden compared him unfavorably with Chaucer, he admired Ovid
almost as much as his favorite, Vergil. In his last years, Dryden had
occasion to translate the twelfth book of the Metamorphoses, which
dealt with the beginning of the Trojan War. He became enthusiastic
and, after finishing his appointed task, he turned to other parts of
Ovid's masterpiece and rendered story after story, until he had in-
cluded all those which pleased him best. The work did not stop here.
Samuel Garth arranged for a translation of all the others. Addison,
Pope, and other leading poets each undertook a part. This version
went through edition after edition and was the standard for over a
century.
Although this great translation was Ovid's chief honor, it was not
the only one. Pope imitated him delightfully in his Windsor Forest
and more conventionally in the Dunciad. Swift made a poetical ver-
sion of Philemon and Baucis, and Johnson and Boswell still recalled
the Metamorphoses occasionally towards the close of the century.
Meanwhile interest in the Metamorphoses had taken another direc-
tion. Even in ancient Greece there had been men who failed to under-
stand or enjoy the popular myths. Such men insisted on excluding
the supernatural and retelling myths as if they were the result of
ordinary human action. Herodotus recorded a few explanations of
this kind at the beginning of his history. This way of accounting for
the older lore proved less congenial to the Greeks than other methods,
such as allegory. Yet it continued during ancient times and re-
appeared in the philosophy of Francis Bacon. During the second
half of the eighteenth century, there began in Germany a movement
called the Enlightenment, which passed rapidly to France and Eng-
land. The aim of Lessing, Diderot, and its other leaders was to do
away with superstition and prejudice in the name of reason and
common sense. Their purpose was commendable; but in the direc-
tion of mythology it was often misapplied. Among these reformers
the old method of rationalizing myths was received with acclaim.
Ovid and the rest were reread and their stories were laid on the
Procrustean bed of reason and common sense. What could be made
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to seem ordinary, was stretched to the breaking point, what could not,
was lopped away and carefully hidden.
Thus Ovid's tale of Phaethon was distorted to the following shape:
"Phaethon was a young and enterprising prince of Lybia. Crossing
the Mediterranean in quest of adventure, he visited Italy to see his
intimate friend Cygnus. Phaethon was skilled in astrology, from
whence he arrogated to himself the title of the son of Apollo. One
day in the heat of summer, as he was riding along the banks of the
Po, his horses took fright at a clap of thunder, and plunged into the
river, where, together with their master, they perished. Cygnus, who
was a poet, celebrated the death of his friend, from whence the fable. "
Judged even by standards of the eighteenth century, much in this
explanation appears unwarranted. We may ask, for example, by
what authority the interpreter made Cygnus a poet or by what
authority he silently removed the remarkable mutation of Cygnus to
a swan. In the nineteenth century a careful study of mythology
among many primitive peoples, raised further difficulties and showed
that such interpretation was apt to be quite as incredible as the
original myth. But the leaders of the Enlightenment were well pleased
with their apparent triumphs over superstition, and educated men in
general were impressed by their cleverness. The practice continued
through the eighteenth century and affected the famous dictionary
of mythology by Lempriere.
With the Romantic Revival many long accepted standards were
challenged. Men realized that the world was much larger than they
had supposed at the beginning of the eighteenth century and they
hastened to readjust their ideas accordingly. Horace, Vergil, and a
few other accepted authors were no longer supreme. Men even
doubted their greatness. Men became anxious to know at first hand
the older masters of Greece, the authors of medieval and modern
Europe, and the great literature of Oriental peoples. They found
means to travel frequently and to profit more by direct observation
of man and nature. In the new order Ovid's other work lost favor,
but his Metamorphoses gained on the whole. If it was read less often,
it was judged more kindly. Men took new interest in mythology of
all sorts. When dealing with classic myth, they often preferred to
use Greek poets or Apollodorus. But some famous tales were peculiar
to Ovid and many others he told so well as to make them his own.
Ovid did not become a great formative influence, yet he was well known
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? METAMORPHOSES IN EUROPEAN CULTURE
and he contributed to the work of many who were leaders during the
nineteenth century.
