Euripides in his Medea
mentioned
the circumstances.
Ovid - 1934 - Metamorphoses in European Culture - v2
Cycnus kept putting off
Phyllius by imposing a series of difficult tasks. At his command Phyllius
brought him first a lion, then some formidable vultures, then a savage
bull. And the denouement was unusual. Cycnus plunged into the lake
Conope; his mother, grief-stricken, followed his example; and Apollo
saved their lives by transforming them into swans. Because of this event
the name of the water afterwards was changed to Swan Lake.
Ovid, retelling the tale, confined himself to the parts which were
unusual, and he considerably improved it. He made more plausible the
boy's attempted suicide. Displeased at the continued evasion of Cycnus,
he said, Phyllius withheld the bull, and Cycnus acted in a fit of sudden
resentment. Ovid gave the mother a different transformation, suggested
probably by that of the nymph Cyane (Bk. 5). Cycnus, he said, leaped
over a cliff. His mother, believing that he had perished, lamented until
she dissolved into a lake. And the name of this lake Ovid altered to
Hyrie, in harmony with the new event.
The idea that Phyllius might capture a wild Aetolian lion was by
no means improbable. During early prehistoric times lions were common
*The youth, whose name was Hermochares, first won Diana's assistance by the
following means. He wrote on an apple the oath, "I swear by Diana that I will marry
no one but Hermochares"; and left the fruit on an altar of the goddess. Ctesylla,
finding the apple, read the oath aloud and was regarded as under obligation to fulfill
it. Hermochares afterwards approached Alcidamas and obtained his promise, sanc-
tioned with an oath by Apollo. In the version of Nicander, these events occurred at
Carthaea, but the death and transformation took place either at the neighboring town
of Iulis or at Athens. Ovid, simplifying the account, imagined all the events as hap-
pening at Carthaea. He may have dismissed the tale briefly, because in the Heroides
he already had told a similar, but more attractive story of Acontius and Cydippe.
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? PELIAS AND MEDEA'S FLIGHT TO ATHENS
in many parts of southern Europe. During the Heroic Age they prob-
ably were to be found at least occasionally in all parts of Greece, for in
the southern district of Argolis tradition localized the adventure of
Hercules with the Nemean lion (cf. Bk. 9). And as late as the fifth cen-
tury B. C. , Herodotus tells us, they still were abundant in Macedonia
and northern Greece, including the whole region of Aetolia, and the lions
of Macedonia made havoc among the camels which bore supplies for the
great army of Xerxes. Although Cycnus lived in Aetolia, Ovid spoke of
his leaping into a vale of Tempe because the name Tempe was trans-
ferred from the Thessalian vale to other valleys of similar nature.
Not far from the lake of Hyrie, Medea could see the village of
Pleuron. There lived at one time Combe, mother of the Aetolian Curetes.
For some reason the Curetes tried to kill their mother, and she escaped
them by transformation into a bird.
Medea now was approaching the Isthmus of Corinth, a narrow,
dark strip of land dividing the luminous waters of the Corinthian Gulf
on the west from those of the Saronic Gulf on the east. Near the head of
the Saronic Gulf she could see plainly the fertile island of Calaurea,
where once a king and queen were metamorphosed into birds. Much
farther ahead and a little to the right, Medea could discern the white
peak of Mt. Cyllene in southern Greece. Within the shadow of this moun-
tain a certain Menephron afterwards committed incest with his mother.
Ovid described the guilty pair as acting in the manner of wild beasts. He
may have alluded to a mistaken idea that such animals are in the habit
of breeding with their near kindred. But probably he referred to a tra-
dition that Menephron and his mother had been transformed into wild
beasts.
Looking back over her right shoulder, Medea still could see clearly
the region of Thebes in Boeotia. There she observed the river god
Cephisus lamenting because Apollo had metamorphosed his grandson
into a seal. She saw, too, Eumelus grieving for his son Botres. Boeus
had recorded the tale as follows. While Eumelus was offering an animal
to Apollo, the child ate the creature's brain. In sudden anger Eumelus
killed him with a firebrand. Apollo, to lessen the father's remorse,
changed the son into a bird called the bee-eater.
But now Medea's dragons had finished the course and were descend-
ing to Corinth and the springs of Pirene. Here in early times men were
said to have been created from mushrooms.
Ovid could assume that his countrymen knew the traditional route
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
of Medea from Iolcus to Corinth. By associating it with these many
picturesque events, he gave the journey novelty and interest. But even
for his contemporaries, a number of the allusions must have been obscure
both in themselves and in their relation to Medea's flight, and for readers
unacquainted with Greek literature they were utterly bewildering.
Ovid was coming now to the most famous event in the whole tradi-
tion of Medea. It grew out of the same world-wide fairy tale which had
provided so many of the incidents in Colchis. After mentioning the
young hero's return with the enchanter's daughter, the fairy tale re-
corded that for some reason the hero forgot his many obligations to her
and arranged to marry a princess of his own country. Only at the last
moment did he recall his obligations and go back to his wife. A similar
episode occurred in the Greek tradition of Jason and Medea.
But, instead of noting that Jason returned of his own accord, the
story introduced another idea of fairy lore, the belief that a magician
could burn his enemy alive by inducing him to put on a fair-seeming robe.
In the German fairy tale of Faithful John, an enemy sent the king a
wedding robe of gold and silver, and a loyal servant preserved the king's
life by destroying the robe. If the king had put it on, he would have been
consumed with magic fire. The idea of a fatal robe occurred also in the
old Greek myth of the death of Hercules (cf. Bk. 9). In the tradition of
Medea the Colchian princess used a garment of this kind to prevent the
second marriage of Jason. She destroyed her rival with a magic wedding
robe.
Then Medea fled from Corinth. Jason followed her and became
reconciled to her. This continued to be the usual version of the tale; but
very early certain authorities imagined a different ending. Jason, they
said, did not follow Medea but resided a while in Corinth. Then one day
he fell asleep near the ship Argo, and the stern of the ship broke loose
and crushed him. Some added that Medea, knowing the ship would break
apart, treacherously persuaded him to sleep on the fatal spot.
Referring to the events in Corinth, The Taking of Oechalia men-
tioned further particulars. Medea not only destroyed the princess but
also poisoned her father, Creon. To escape the angry Corinthians, she
fled with her infants to Juno's temple. There, since the boys could not
accompany her on foot, she left them, and herself departed to Athens.
Jason's influence she thought would suffice to protect her children. But
Creon's relatives murdered the boys and then reported that Medea had
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? PELIAS AND MEDEA'S FLIGHT TO ATHENS
killed them. This account was repeated afterwards in the Manual.
Simonides, alluding to the tale, called Medea's rival Glauke.
Euripides in his tragedy Medea retold the story with remarkable
originality and power. Medea, he said, had received Jason's promise that
he always would be faithful to her. In her opinion he violated the oath
by planning to marry another woman, and he also proved indifferent to
the manifold benefits which she had conferred on him. Jason thought
otherwise. By Athenian law in the time of Euripides, a marriage was
not recognized between a Greek and a barbarian. Euripides imagined
that a similar law existed in Corinth at the time of Jason. Therefore his
wife and children would have no legal rights. But an alliance with the
heiress to the throne might allow Jason to provide for them. Jason
planned to marry Glauke and retain Medea as his concubine, an arrange-
ment which even Medea admitted was possible. In this way he hoped both
to keep his promise and to protect his family. Medea insisted on her own
interpretation of the oath and became so violent that Creon imposed on
her a sentence of banishment. At this time King Aegeus of Athens hap-
pened to pass through Corinth on his way to Troezen in southern Greece.
He arranged to have Medea take refuge in Athens and promised on his
return to marry her. Euripides then recorded the death of Glauke, add-
ing that Creon perished in a similar manner when he tried to save her.
Tradition had supposed that Medea escaped on foot and so could not
take her children. Euripides imagined that she fled in a dragon car but
still could not take them, presumably because they would not be accept-
able to Aegeus. Tradition supposed the Corinthians murdered the chil-
dren. Euripides declared that Medea herself killed them. She did this,
he said, because'she thought it better than leaving them to the mercy of
the Corinthians. But earlier in the play, he showed her threatening to
kill them in order to avenge herself on Jason, and this idea became dom-
inant in most later treatments of the story.
The Manual, repeating the tale, agreed in the main with Euripides.
But it declared that, when Jason planned to marry Glauke, he divorced
Medea. Diodorus added that the fire destroyed not only the royal familv
but also the palace. Greek painters dealt several times with the myth.
Timomachus in a famous picture showed Medea about to kill her sons.
Other painters treated the subject in two Pompeiian frescoes.
The Roman poets found the story of great interest. In the Culex
and the Eighth Eclogue, Vergil mentioned the horror of Medea's killing
her children. Horace thought the event too repulsive for presentation
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
on the stage. Propertius alluded to it as a notorious result of female
lust. Both Horace and Propertius alluded more than once to the death
of Creon's daughter, and Propertius called her Creiisa. Afterwards this
was her usual designation.
Ovid found Medea's adventures at Corinth a theme of continual
interest. His tragedy Medea seems to have presented the story in full.
Probably it recorded the burning of Creon's palace and attributed
the murder of the children wholly to the desire for revenge, for both ideas
appeared in all Ovid's later treatments of the theme. In the Heroides
Ovid dealt often with Medea's misfortunes at Corinth. The Epistle
of Helen described her as left forlorn in a strange land; the Epistle of
Hypsipyle ended with a curse predicting the evils to befall her; the
Epistle of Medea showed chiefly her ineffectual reproaches of Jason.
Theocritus and Horace had implied that even the power of magic might
be unable to protect an enchantress from the torture of unrequited love.
Ovid called attention to this fact in his Epistle of Medea and again both
in the Art of Love and in the Remedies for Love. In the Fasti Ovid noted
that King Aegeus gave Medea ceremonial purification after the murder
of her children. In the Tristia Ovid longed for the dragon car which
allowed her to escape from Corinth.
After treating the events so fully elsewhere, Ovid thought it enough
in the Metamorphoses to indicate them as briefly as possible. He added,
however, a suggestion that Aegeus was to incur punishment for receiving
the guilty Medea. Regarding the fate of Jason, Ovid said nothing. But
evidently he rejected the idea that Jason was soon to perish, for later he
spoke of him as joining in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar (Bk. 8).
Medea's arrival in Athens gave Ovid occasion for-mentioning two
little known stories of transformation, which had been localized in the
city. One of them Boeus had told as follows. Not long after the found-
ing of Athens, the king and queen, who were named Periphas and Phene,
won such admiration among their people as to receive honors appro-
priate only for Jupiter and Juno. Jupiter planned at first to destroy
them, but at Apollo's intercession he allowed them to be transformed,
Periphas becoming an eagle and Phene an osprey. The second tale was
told as follows by Theodoras. An Athenian named Sciron accused his
daughter of being immoral and pushed her into the sea; but the gods,
aware of her innocence, metamorphosed the girl into a halcyon. Ovid
merely alluded to these transformations, reserving an account of the
halcyon for the remarkable tale of Ceyx (Bk. 11).
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? PELIAS AND MEDEA'S FLIGHT TO ATHENS
During later times Ovid's tale of Pelias and Medea's flight to
Athens interested several prominent authors. Hobbes in his Leviathan
spoke of radical reformers as children hewing their father to pieces in
the hope of giving him long life and perfect health. Burke repeated the
comparison in his French Revolution. William Morris followed Ovid's
account of the death of Pelias in the course of his Life and Death of
Jason. To Goethe, Ovid's mention of Telchins at Rhodes appears to
have suggested a passage introducing Telchins in the Second Part of
Faust.
Indirectly, the adventures at Corinth appear to have been far more
important. Ovid's account in the Metamorphoses was the first one read
by men of later times, and it encouraged them to seek further informa-
tion elsewhere. Of all ancient treatments of the theme the best was
the Medea of Euripides, but the most accessible and influential was the
Medea of Seneca. The story was retold by an extraordinary number of
modern dramatists, of whom the chief were Corneille and Grillparzer;
it influenced plays dealing with other themes, such as Lessing's tragedy,
Miss Sara Sampson; and it was retold in narrative poetry by William
Morris.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
The Origin of Aconite
Medea resided with Aegeus for a considerable time. Euripides im-
plied that her residence began a little earlier than the birth of Theseus
and continued until Theseus became a man. Others, including the author
of the Manual, regarded the time as much less, but sufficiently long for
Medea to bear Aegeus a son named Medus. Ovid probably accepted this
idea, although he did not mention the son. All authorities agreed that
Medea's residence ended with the coming of Theseus.
Regarding the parentage of this hero, there were two different ac-
counts. According to an ode of Bacchylides, his father was the god
Neptune and his mother was Aethra, daughter of King Pittheus of
Troezen. The Manual repeated this idea, and Ovid afterwards men-
tioned it in the opening lines of his Ninth Book. But usually Theseus
was regarded as a son of Aegeus. Bacchylides himself implied this in
another of his odes.
Euripides in his Medea mentioned the circumstances. Aegeus, he
said, was for a long time without a son to inherit the throne. When his
wife died, he appealed for counsel to the Delphic Oracle. The reply was
so obscure that he visited Pittheus in order to have it interpreted. Be-
lieving that it was the oracle's intention to have Aethra bear Aegeus a
son, Pittheus arranged for this ; and, although her son would be illegiti-
mate, the understanding was that he should inherit the throne of Athens.
The Manual repeated this account and noted further circumstances.
Aegeus took care that during the childhood of Theseus his parentage
should remain a secret. Aethra was to rear her son quietly at Troezen
until he should acquire strength sufficient to push away a certain boulder.
Under this he was to find a pair of sandals and a sword bearing on its
ivory hilt an emblem of the Athenian royal family. He was then to visit
Athens and make himself known to his father. The Manual did not as-
sign a motive for his concealment. Plutarch observed afterwards that
Aegeus feared treachery from the sons of his brother Pallas, who had
begun arrogantly to assume their own future inheritance of the throne.
Believing that his readers were acquainted with the story, Ovid observed
only that Theseus was not known to his father.
Of the journey to Athens, Bacchylides gave the first account.
Leaving Troezen, Theseus and some attendants proceeded on foot round
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? THE ORIGIN OF ACONITE
Ihe head of the Saronic Gulf. Bacchylides then indicated a number of
monsters and human malefactors whom they subdued along the way.
Arriving in Athens, Theseus presented the ivory sword hilt and was wel-
comed by his father. This version of the journey appeared often in
Greek art. Greek authors usually spoke of the young hero as traveling
alone. Alluding to the victories of Theseus, Ovid noted that he brought
peace to the Isthmus of Corinth, but he reserved until later an account
of the journey.
Bacchylides implied that Theseus had no difficulty in making him-
self known. Sophocles in his Aegeus gave a different account. The sor-
ceress Medea, he said, was now queen and, knowing who Theseus was, she
planned to destroy him. Presumably she hoped that she might obtain
succession to the crown for her own son, Medus. Persuading Aegeus that
his unknown visitor was liable to plot against him, she arranged to have
the king entertain Theseus with a banquet and give him a cup of poison.
Theseus received the cup from his father; but, as he raised it to his lips,
Aegeus noticed the emblem on the ivory sword hilt. In horror, the king
dashed the cup to the floor. This tale was repeated by the Manual. Ovid
retold it also. But, in order to explain the nature of the poison, he intro-
duced another story.
Many peoples have supposed that a formidable dog guards the ap-
proaches to the World of the Dead. In Greek literature the Iliad first
mentioned this idea. According to some peoples, the dog must be fed or
otherwise propitiated before he will allow any traveler to enter the
land of spirits. According to a few peoples, he must be made temporarily
incapable of fighting. In a tradition of the Sarawak Indians the soul
was obliged to drop into the creature's mouth a bead large enough to
choke him and give time for escape. And Vergil imagined that, before
Aeneas could enter Hades, Sibylla had to give the dog a somniferous
cake. But, according to most peoples, the animal would allow properly
qualified persons to enter unopposed, and this was the usual opinion of
the Greeks.
In Hindu mythology this dog was named Carvara (Dark of Hue).
The Theogony called him Cerberus. The Hindus thought of him as
three-headed. The Theogony described him as possessing fifty heads,
and Pindar gave him a hundred; but Greek and Roman authors usually
mentioned three. The Theogony and most subsequent authors named as
his parents the monsters Typhoeus and Echidna. But in the tale of
Orpheus, Ovid called him a son of Medusa. The Theogony made the
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
earliest mention of his formidable baying. According to the Manual,
Cerberus had along his spine the heads of serpents, and his tail was a
dragon's body ending in a dragon's head. The Manual added that in
moments of excitement he not only bayed but uttered a loud hiss from
the serpent heads. In the Culex and the Aeneid, Vergil mentioned also a
mane of serpents, an idea repeated often by other Roman poets.
According to the Iliad, Hercules was required to bring back this
formidable dog from Erebus, and with the aid of Athena he was success-
ful. The Odyssey added that Mercury, too, gave aid, and it described the
task as the most difficult which could be assigned. Bacchylides told the
story, and Sophocles made the capture of Cerberus the theme of a satyr
drama. He showed Hercules descending through the cavern of Taenerus,
at the southern limit of Greece, an idea repeated by many authors.
In the Trachinian Women, Sophocles mentioned the capture of Cerberus
as one of the major labors of Hercules, and afterwards it was included
in every list.
Aristophanes noted in the Frogs that Hercules overcame the dog
by choking him. Euripides referred in the Hercules Furens to still other
circumstances. Before undertaking the quest, he said, Hercules became
initiated into the mysteries of Eleusis (cf. Proserpina, Bk. 5) and so
protected himself from the dangers of Hades. For the journey back
Hercules followed a route which brought him to Hermione in Boeotia.
The Manual added further circumstances. Apparently Hercules did
not find Cerberus at the entrance of Hades. He visited Pluto and ob-
tained leave to capture the dog, provided that he should use no weapons.
Covered by the Nemean lion skin, he then went in quest of Cerberus and
seized him in his arms. The dog fought savagely and bit the hero with
his dragon tail. But Hercules subdued him and led him off without fur-
ther resistance. According to the Manual, Hercules returned to the
upper world near the city of Troezen. After showing the monster to
Eurystheus, he restored him to Hades. Greek artists dealt often with the
famous tale. Many sculptured reliefs treated the initiation of Hercules
into the mysteries; forty extant vase paintings show his capture of
Cerberus. *
The event was associated at one time or another with every part of
Greece having a supposed entrance to Hades. The Boeotians transferred
it also to their colony of Heraclea in Pontus. Xenophon observed in his
*Seneca, in Hercules Furens, gave the best account of the adventure. His narra-
tive inspired the descriptions of Cerberus by Dante and Spenser and also Shake-
speare's allusion to the myth in Love's Labour's Lost.
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? THE ORIGIN OF ACONITE
Anabasis that Hercules was reported to have emerged with the dog from
a gloomy cavern of the neighboring Mt. Achemsius. Repeating this idea,
Euphorion added other circumstances. Alarmed at the unfamiliar beams
of day, Cerberus renewed the struggle and foamed at all his mouths. The
foam, descending to the ground, became a poisonous plant, which is
called aconite because it flourishes on sharp, bare crags (aconae). The
aconite has many varieties, but Euphorion probably thought of one
having few leaves and a mass of white flowers.
It was poison made from aconite, said Ovid, with which Medea
hoped to destroy Theseus. Ovid observed that she brought the poison
from the Scythian shore, meaning probably that she obtained it from
Heraclea before sailing in the Argo. Ovid then repeated the chief de-
tails of Euphorion's account. In order to drag Cerberus out, he said,
Hercules used adamantine chains, and in the tale of Orpheus he spoke of
their being fastened about the middle one of the three necks. In the tale
of Athamas (Bk. 4) Ovid already had mentioned the foam of Cerberus
as one of the poisons used by Tisiphone.
While telling of Hercules and Cerberus, Ovid altered the usual se-
quence of events. Greek authors had regarded Hercules and Theseus as
contemporaries and had supposed that, when Hercules went in quest of
Cerberus, Theseus was a prisoner in the Lower World. Some years after
Theseus arrived in Athens, they said, Theseus and his friend Pirithoiis
tried to abduct Proserpina. Failing in the attempt, the two adventurers
were bound fast with chains, and they continued to be imprisoned in the
Lower World until the descent of Hercules. Having no occasion to tell
of Theseus and Pirithoiis in Hades, Ovid assumed that Hercules was
much older than Theseus and had captured Cerberus at least several
years before Theseus arrived in Athens. He then associated the quest of
Cerberus with the familiar tale of Medea's plot against Theseus and so
gave the tale added novelty and interest.
After the failure of Medea's plot, the Manual continued, Theseus
drove Medea and Medus from Athens. They departed, presumably in a
ship, and made their way to Colchis. Finding that Aeetes had been de-
throned by his brother, Medea restored him to power and spent the rest
of her life in Colchis. Apollonius had noted that after death she became
the wife of Achilles and dwelt in the Elysian Fields. The Manual re-
peated this account, changing their residence to Isles of the Blest.
Ovid did not speak of Medea's later career. He was content with "re-
cording a more impressive departure from Athens. Realizing that her
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
punishment was likely to be death, he said, Medea left the city in a storm
which her enchantment had raised. Apparently she rose in her dragon
car and vanished among the swift moving clouds.
Ariosto afterwards recalled Ovid's tale of the plot against Theseus.
When Marfisa narrowly escaped combat with the disguised Rogero, she
felt horror, he said, like that of Aegeus when he almost poisoned his son.
Hawthorne in The Wonder Book told of Medea's plot against Theseus
and of her escape in the dragon car. Spenser described Sir Calidore
dragging the Blatant Beast as proceeding
Like as whylome that strong Tirynthian swain
Brought forth with him the dreadfull dog of hell
Against his will, fast bound in yron chain
And roaring horribly; did him compell
To see the hatefull sun.
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? DEEDS OF THESEUS AND PREPARATIONS OF MINOS
Deeds of Theseus and Preparations of Minos
Ovid's long account of Jason and Medea had brought him again to
the mythical history of Athens. He now continued with this history and
with related stories until the second tale of his Ninth Book.
After Aegeus had so narrowly escaped poisoning Theseus, Ovid
imagined that he held a festival of joy for the preservation of his son.
Athenians of all ranks took part and sang impromptu songs in honor of
the heroic prince. This gave Ovid a chance to mention the achievements
of Theseus before he established himself at Athens.
The traditional account had grown up chiefly in Attica and had
been influenced by the older myth of Hercules. Both Hercules and
Theseus were famous for destroying human malefactors and formidable
beasts. Greek tradition supposed that Theseus performed many of these
heroic feats in the course of his journey to Athens. It recorded them
somewhat as follows.
Theseus chose a road which led him westwards along the shore of
the Saronic Gulf. At Epidaurus, Periphetes, a son of Vulcan, was in the
habit of murdering travelers with his iron club. Theseus killed him and
took the club as his own weapon. On the Isthmus of Corinth another
villain named Sinis used to kill travelers by means of pine trees. Bending
a large tree until the crown touched the earth, he set his victim on the
top and released the tree, which sprang back and shot the traveler high
in the air. Theseus destroyed Sinis by the same device of a pine tree,
and then proceeded north over the Isthmus into the region of Megaris.
Near Crommyon, on the northern shore of the Gulf, the country was
harried by a formidable sow. Typhoeus and Echidna had been the par-
ents of the animal and an old woman named Phaea had reared it and
called it after herself. Theseus destroyed this creature also and then
followed the shore eastwards in the direction of Megara.
At the Scironian Cliffs, his way took him along a shelf of rock high
above the waves. Here the robber Sciron used to make the traveler wash
his feet and during the process to kick him off into the sea, where a turtle
waited to devour him. Hurling Sciron over the cliff, Theseus proceeded
to Eleusis. There he wrestled with the tyrant Cercyon, defeated him, and
put him to death. Leaving the shore, he then traveled up the course of
the Attic river Cephisus. At Erineus he encountered still another male-
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
factor, whose real name seems to have been Polypemon but whose crimes
had won him the title of Procrustes (the Stretcher). This villain used
forcibly to aiake the traveler fit one of his two beds. If his victim was
short, Procrustes laid him on the longer bed and hammered him out. If
the victim was tall, Procrustes laid him on the shorter bed and cut off the
superfluous length. Theseus killed Procrustes and then proceeded with-
out further adventure to Athens. *
Sappho had alluded to Theseus, and Bacchylides mentioned a num-
ber of his exploits. The Manual gave a brief, orderly account of them
all. Greek artists often treated the story. Vase painters pictured the
victories over Phaea and Sciron. Sculpture of the Athenian Treasury
at Delphi portrayed the death of Periphetes, Sciron, and Cercyon, and
a carving at the Theseum in Athens showed Sciron being hurled into the
sea, but it replaced the usual hungry turtle with a crab. Ovid himself
mentioned several of the hero's exploits both in the Epistle of Phyllis
and in the Ibis.
The heroic deeds of Theseus had not ended with his arrival in
Athens. Hercules, as one of his labors, had transported to the mainland
of Greece a savage Cretan bull. He released the animal near Thebes.
After wandering to many parts of Greece, the bull established itself in
the vicinity of Marathon, a day's journey north of Athens, and for a
long while caused terror and havoc in the neighboring country. Theseus,
when he had made the journey from Troezen, went almost immediately
in quest of the bull and captured it. He then led the animal to Athens
and offered it as a sacrifice to the gods. Callimachus in the Hecale told
of this adventure, indicating that Theseus undertook it on his own initia-
tive. The Manual associated the adventure with the plots of Medea. In
order to destroy the young hero, she persuaded Aegeus first to send him
against the bull and then to offer him poison. It was the account in the
Manual which Ovid followed by implication in his Metamorphoses.
All these achievements of Theseus Ovid mentioned, but without at-
tempting to record them in the usual order. For most of the adventures
he followed the narrative in the Manual. In the case of Sciron, he added
further details, suggested probably by an Alexandrian account which is
now lost. Neither the land nor the sea, he observed, was willing to hold
*This was the usual ancient account of the journey. But some authorities de-
scribed differently the methods of Sinis and Procrustes. Sinis, they declared, used
to fasten his victim to two pines, which rent him asunder as they sprang back, and
Procrustes fitted all travelers to one bed.
Phyllius by imposing a series of difficult tasks. At his command Phyllius
brought him first a lion, then some formidable vultures, then a savage
bull. And the denouement was unusual. Cycnus plunged into the lake
Conope; his mother, grief-stricken, followed his example; and Apollo
saved their lives by transforming them into swans. Because of this event
the name of the water afterwards was changed to Swan Lake.
Ovid, retelling the tale, confined himself to the parts which were
unusual, and he considerably improved it. He made more plausible the
boy's attempted suicide. Displeased at the continued evasion of Cycnus,
he said, Phyllius withheld the bull, and Cycnus acted in a fit of sudden
resentment. Ovid gave the mother a different transformation, suggested
probably by that of the nymph Cyane (Bk. 5). Cycnus, he said, leaped
over a cliff. His mother, believing that he had perished, lamented until
she dissolved into a lake. And the name of this lake Ovid altered to
Hyrie, in harmony with the new event.
The idea that Phyllius might capture a wild Aetolian lion was by
no means improbable. During early prehistoric times lions were common
*The youth, whose name was Hermochares, first won Diana's assistance by the
following means. He wrote on an apple the oath, "I swear by Diana that I will marry
no one but Hermochares"; and left the fruit on an altar of the goddess. Ctesylla,
finding the apple, read the oath aloud and was regarded as under obligation to fulfill
it. Hermochares afterwards approached Alcidamas and obtained his promise, sanc-
tioned with an oath by Apollo. In the version of Nicander, these events occurred at
Carthaea, but the death and transformation took place either at the neighboring town
of Iulis or at Athens. Ovid, simplifying the account, imagined all the events as hap-
pening at Carthaea. He may have dismissed the tale briefly, because in the Heroides
he already had told a similar, but more attractive story of Acontius and Cydippe.
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? PELIAS AND MEDEA'S FLIGHT TO ATHENS
in many parts of southern Europe. During the Heroic Age they prob-
ably were to be found at least occasionally in all parts of Greece, for in
the southern district of Argolis tradition localized the adventure of
Hercules with the Nemean lion (cf. Bk. 9). And as late as the fifth cen-
tury B. C. , Herodotus tells us, they still were abundant in Macedonia
and northern Greece, including the whole region of Aetolia, and the lions
of Macedonia made havoc among the camels which bore supplies for the
great army of Xerxes. Although Cycnus lived in Aetolia, Ovid spoke of
his leaping into a vale of Tempe because the name Tempe was trans-
ferred from the Thessalian vale to other valleys of similar nature.
Not far from the lake of Hyrie, Medea could see the village of
Pleuron. There lived at one time Combe, mother of the Aetolian Curetes.
For some reason the Curetes tried to kill their mother, and she escaped
them by transformation into a bird.
Medea now was approaching the Isthmus of Corinth, a narrow,
dark strip of land dividing the luminous waters of the Corinthian Gulf
on the west from those of the Saronic Gulf on the east. Near the head of
the Saronic Gulf she could see plainly the fertile island of Calaurea,
where once a king and queen were metamorphosed into birds. Much
farther ahead and a little to the right, Medea could discern the white
peak of Mt. Cyllene in southern Greece. Within the shadow of this moun-
tain a certain Menephron afterwards committed incest with his mother.
Ovid described the guilty pair as acting in the manner of wild beasts. He
may have alluded to a mistaken idea that such animals are in the habit
of breeding with their near kindred. But probably he referred to a tra-
dition that Menephron and his mother had been transformed into wild
beasts.
Looking back over her right shoulder, Medea still could see clearly
the region of Thebes in Boeotia. There she observed the river god
Cephisus lamenting because Apollo had metamorphosed his grandson
into a seal. She saw, too, Eumelus grieving for his son Botres. Boeus
had recorded the tale as follows. While Eumelus was offering an animal
to Apollo, the child ate the creature's brain. In sudden anger Eumelus
killed him with a firebrand. Apollo, to lessen the father's remorse,
changed the son into a bird called the bee-eater.
But now Medea's dragons had finished the course and were descend-
ing to Corinth and the springs of Pirene. Here in early times men were
said to have been created from mushrooms.
Ovid could assume that his countrymen knew the traditional route
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
of Medea from Iolcus to Corinth. By associating it with these many
picturesque events, he gave the journey novelty and interest. But even
for his contemporaries, a number of the allusions must have been obscure
both in themselves and in their relation to Medea's flight, and for readers
unacquainted with Greek literature they were utterly bewildering.
Ovid was coming now to the most famous event in the whole tradi-
tion of Medea. It grew out of the same world-wide fairy tale which had
provided so many of the incidents in Colchis. After mentioning the
young hero's return with the enchanter's daughter, the fairy tale re-
corded that for some reason the hero forgot his many obligations to her
and arranged to marry a princess of his own country. Only at the last
moment did he recall his obligations and go back to his wife. A similar
episode occurred in the Greek tradition of Jason and Medea.
But, instead of noting that Jason returned of his own accord, the
story introduced another idea of fairy lore, the belief that a magician
could burn his enemy alive by inducing him to put on a fair-seeming robe.
In the German fairy tale of Faithful John, an enemy sent the king a
wedding robe of gold and silver, and a loyal servant preserved the king's
life by destroying the robe. If the king had put it on, he would have been
consumed with magic fire. The idea of a fatal robe occurred also in the
old Greek myth of the death of Hercules (cf. Bk. 9). In the tradition of
Medea the Colchian princess used a garment of this kind to prevent the
second marriage of Jason. She destroyed her rival with a magic wedding
robe.
Then Medea fled from Corinth. Jason followed her and became
reconciled to her. This continued to be the usual version of the tale; but
very early certain authorities imagined a different ending. Jason, they
said, did not follow Medea but resided a while in Corinth. Then one day
he fell asleep near the ship Argo, and the stern of the ship broke loose
and crushed him. Some added that Medea, knowing the ship would break
apart, treacherously persuaded him to sleep on the fatal spot.
Referring to the events in Corinth, The Taking of Oechalia men-
tioned further particulars. Medea not only destroyed the princess but
also poisoned her father, Creon. To escape the angry Corinthians, she
fled with her infants to Juno's temple. There, since the boys could not
accompany her on foot, she left them, and herself departed to Athens.
Jason's influence she thought would suffice to protect her children. But
Creon's relatives murdered the boys and then reported that Medea had
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? PELIAS AND MEDEA'S FLIGHT TO ATHENS
killed them. This account was repeated afterwards in the Manual.
Simonides, alluding to the tale, called Medea's rival Glauke.
Euripides in his tragedy Medea retold the story with remarkable
originality and power. Medea, he said, had received Jason's promise that
he always would be faithful to her. In her opinion he violated the oath
by planning to marry another woman, and he also proved indifferent to
the manifold benefits which she had conferred on him. Jason thought
otherwise. By Athenian law in the time of Euripides, a marriage was
not recognized between a Greek and a barbarian. Euripides imagined
that a similar law existed in Corinth at the time of Jason. Therefore his
wife and children would have no legal rights. But an alliance with the
heiress to the throne might allow Jason to provide for them. Jason
planned to marry Glauke and retain Medea as his concubine, an arrange-
ment which even Medea admitted was possible. In this way he hoped both
to keep his promise and to protect his family. Medea insisted on her own
interpretation of the oath and became so violent that Creon imposed on
her a sentence of banishment. At this time King Aegeus of Athens hap-
pened to pass through Corinth on his way to Troezen in southern Greece.
He arranged to have Medea take refuge in Athens and promised on his
return to marry her. Euripides then recorded the death of Glauke, add-
ing that Creon perished in a similar manner when he tried to save her.
Tradition had supposed that Medea escaped on foot and so could not
take her children. Euripides imagined that she fled in a dragon car but
still could not take them, presumably because they would not be accept-
able to Aegeus. Tradition supposed the Corinthians murdered the chil-
dren. Euripides declared that Medea herself killed them. She did this,
he said, because'she thought it better than leaving them to the mercy of
the Corinthians. But earlier in the play, he showed her threatening to
kill them in order to avenge herself on Jason, and this idea became dom-
inant in most later treatments of the story.
The Manual, repeating the tale, agreed in the main with Euripides.
But it declared that, when Jason planned to marry Glauke, he divorced
Medea. Diodorus added that the fire destroyed not only the royal familv
but also the palace. Greek painters dealt several times with the myth.
Timomachus in a famous picture showed Medea about to kill her sons.
Other painters treated the subject in two Pompeiian frescoes.
The Roman poets found the story of great interest. In the Culex
and the Eighth Eclogue, Vergil mentioned the horror of Medea's killing
her children. Horace thought the event too repulsive for presentation
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
on the stage. Propertius alluded to it as a notorious result of female
lust. Both Horace and Propertius alluded more than once to the death
of Creon's daughter, and Propertius called her Creiisa. Afterwards this
was her usual designation.
Ovid found Medea's adventures at Corinth a theme of continual
interest. His tragedy Medea seems to have presented the story in full.
Probably it recorded the burning of Creon's palace and attributed
the murder of the children wholly to the desire for revenge, for both ideas
appeared in all Ovid's later treatments of the theme. In the Heroides
Ovid dealt often with Medea's misfortunes at Corinth. The Epistle
of Helen described her as left forlorn in a strange land; the Epistle of
Hypsipyle ended with a curse predicting the evils to befall her; the
Epistle of Medea showed chiefly her ineffectual reproaches of Jason.
Theocritus and Horace had implied that even the power of magic might
be unable to protect an enchantress from the torture of unrequited love.
Ovid called attention to this fact in his Epistle of Medea and again both
in the Art of Love and in the Remedies for Love. In the Fasti Ovid noted
that King Aegeus gave Medea ceremonial purification after the murder
of her children. In the Tristia Ovid longed for the dragon car which
allowed her to escape from Corinth.
After treating the events so fully elsewhere, Ovid thought it enough
in the Metamorphoses to indicate them as briefly as possible. He added,
however, a suggestion that Aegeus was to incur punishment for receiving
the guilty Medea. Regarding the fate of Jason, Ovid said nothing. But
evidently he rejected the idea that Jason was soon to perish, for later he
spoke of him as joining in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar (Bk. 8).
Medea's arrival in Athens gave Ovid occasion for-mentioning two
little known stories of transformation, which had been localized in the
city. One of them Boeus had told as follows. Not long after the found-
ing of Athens, the king and queen, who were named Periphas and Phene,
won such admiration among their people as to receive honors appro-
priate only for Jupiter and Juno. Jupiter planned at first to destroy
them, but at Apollo's intercession he allowed them to be transformed,
Periphas becoming an eagle and Phene an osprey. The second tale was
told as follows by Theodoras. An Athenian named Sciron accused his
daughter of being immoral and pushed her into the sea; but the gods,
aware of her innocence, metamorphosed the girl into a halcyon. Ovid
merely alluded to these transformations, reserving an account of the
halcyon for the remarkable tale of Ceyx (Bk. 11).
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? PELIAS AND MEDEA'S FLIGHT TO ATHENS
During later times Ovid's tale of Pelias and Medea's flight to
Athens interested several prominent authors. Hobbes in his Leviathan
spoke of radical reformers as children hewing their father to pieces in
the hope of giving him long life and perfect health. Burke repeated the
comparison in his French Revolution. William Morris followed Ovid's
account of the death of Pelias in the course of his Life and Death of
Jason. To Goethe, Ovid's mention of Telchins at Rhodes appears to
have suggested a passage introducing Telchins in the Second Part of
Faust.
Indirectly, the adventures at Corinth appear to have been far more
important. Ovid's account in the Metamorphoses was the first one read
by men of later times, and it encouraged them to seek further informa-
tion elsewhere. Of all ancient treatments of the theme the best was
the Medea of Euripides, but the most accessible and influential was the
Medea of Seneca. The story was retold by an extraordinary number of
modern dramatists, of whom the chief were Corneille and Grillparzer;
it influenced plays dealing with other themes, such as Lessing's tragedy,
Miss Sara Sampson; and it was retold in narrative poetry by William
Morris.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
The Origin of Aconite
Medea resided with Aegeus for a considerable time. Euripides im-
plied that her residence began a little earlier than the birth of Theseus
and continued until Theseus became a man. Others, including the author
of the Manual, regarded the time as much less, but sufficiently long for
Medea to bear Aegeus a son named Medus. Ovid probably accepted this
idea, although he did not mention the son. All authorities agreed that
Medea's residence ended with the coming of Theseus.
Regarding the parentage of this hero, there were two different ac-
counts. According to an ode of Bacchylides, his father was the god
Neptune and his mother was Aethra, daughter of King Pittheus of
Troezen. The Manual repeated this idea, and Ovid afterwards men-
tioned it in the opening lines of his Ninth Book. But usually Theseus
was regarded as a son of Aegeus. Bacchylides himself implied this in
another of his odes.
Euripides in his Medea mentioned the circumstances. Aegeus, he
said, was for a long time without a son to inherit the throne. When his
wife died, he appealed for counsel to the Delphic Oracle. The reply was
so obscure that he visited Pittheus in order to have it interpreted. Be-
lieving that it was the oracle's intention to have Aethra bear Aegeus a
son, Pittheus arranged for this ; and, although her son would be illegiti-
mate, the understanding was that he should inherit the throne of Athens.
The Manual repeated this account and noted further circumstances.
Aegeus took care that during the childhood of Theseus his parentage
should remain a secret. Aethra was to rear her son quietly at Troezen
until he should acquire strength sufficient to push away a certain boulder.
Under this he was to find a pair of sandals and a sword bearing on its
ivory hilt an emblem of the Athenian royal family. He was then to visit
Athens and make himself known to his father. The Manual did not as-
sign a motive for his concealment. Plutarch observed afterwards that
Aegeus feared treachery from the sons of his brother Pallas, who had
begun arrogantly to assume their own future inheritance of the throne.
Believing that his readers were acquainted with the story, Ovid observed
only that Theseus was not known to his father.
Of the journey to Athens, Bacchylides gave the first account.
Leaving Troezen, Theseus and some attendants proceeded on foot round
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? THE ORIGIN OF ACONITE
Ihe head of the Saronic Gulf. Bacchylides then indicated a number of
monsters and human malefactors whom they subdued along the way.
Arriving in Athens, Theseus presented the ivory sword hilt and was wel-
comed by his father. This version of the journey appeared often in
Greek art. Greek authors usually spoke of the young hero as traveling
alone. Alluding to the victories of Theseus, Ovid noted that he brought
peace to the Isthmus of Corinth, but he reserved until later an account
of the journey.
Bacchylides implied that Theseus had no difficulty in making him-
self known. Sophocles in his Aegeus gave a different account. The sor-
ceress Medea, he said, was now queen and, knowing who Theseus was, she
planned to destroy him. Presumably she hoped that she might obtain
succession to the crown for her own son, Medus. Persuading Aegeus that
his unknown visitor was liable to plot against him, she arranged to have
the king entertain Theseus with a banquet and give him a cup of poison.
Theseus received the cup from his father; but, as he raised it to his lips,
Aegeus noticed the emblem on the ivory sword hilt. In horror, the king
dashed the cup to the floor. This tale was repeated by the Manual. Ovid
retold it also. But, in order to explain the nature of the poison, he intro-
duced another story.
Many peoples have supposed that a formidable dog guards the ap-
proaches to the World of the Dead. In Greek literature the Iliad first
mentioned this idea. According to some peoples, the dog must be fed or
otherwise propitiated before he will allow any traveler to enter the
land of spirits. According to a few peoples, he must be made temporarily
incapable of fighting. In a tradition of the Sarawak Indians the soul
was obliged to drop into the creature's mouth a bead large enough to
choke him and give time for escape. And Vergil imagined that, before
Aeneas could enter Hades, Sibylla had to give the dog a somniferous
cake. But, according to most peoples, the animal would allow properly
qualified persons to enter unopposed, and this was the usual opinion of
the Greeks.
In Hindu mythology this dog was named Carvara (Dark of Hue).
The Theogony called him Cerberus. The Hindus thought of him as
three-headed. The Theogony described him as possessing fifty heads,
and Pindar gave him a hundred; but Greek and Roman authors usually
mentioned three. The Theogony and most subsequent authors named as
his parents the monsters Typhoeus and Echidna. But in the tale of
Orpheus, Ovid called him a son of Medusa. The Theogony made the
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
earliest mention of his formidable baying. According to the Manual,
Cerberus had along his spine the heads of serpents, and his tail was a
dragon's body ending in a dragon's head. The Manual added that in
moments of excitement he not only bayed but uttered a loud hiss from
the serpent heads. In the Culex and the Aeneid, Vergil mentioned also a
mane of serpents, an idea repeated often by other Roman poets.
According to the Iliad, Hercules was required to bring back this
formidable dog from Erebus, and with the aid of Athena he was success-
ful. The Odyssey added that Mercury, too, gave aid, and it described the
task as the most difficult which could be assigned. Bacchylides told the
story, and Sophocles made the capture of Cerberus the theme of a satyr
drama. He showed Hercules descending through the cavern of Taenerus,
at the southern limit of Greece, an idea repeated by many authors.
In the Trachinian Women, Sophocles mentioned the capture of Cerberus
as one of the major labors of Hercules, and afterwards it was included
in every list.
Aristophanes noted in the Frogs that Hercules overcame the dog
by choking him. Euripides referred in the Hercules Furens to still other
circumstances. Before undertaking the quest, he said, Hercules became
initiated into the mysteries of Eleusis (cf. Proserpina, Bk. 5) and so
protected himself from the dangers of Hades. For the journey back
Hercules followed a route which brought him to Hermione in Boeotia.
The Manual added further circumstances. Apparently Hercules did
not find Cerberus at the entrance of Hades. He visited Pluto and ob-
tained leave to capture the dog, provided that he should use no weapons.
Covered by the Nemean lion skin, he then went in quest of Cerberus and
seized him in his arms. The dog fought savagely and bit the hero with
his dragon tail. But Hercules subdued him and led him off without fur-
ther resistance. According to the Manual, Hercules returned to the
upper world near the city of Troezen. After showing the monster to
Eurystheus, he restored him to Hades. Greek artists dealt often with the
famous tale. Many sculptured reliefs treated the initiation of Hercules
into the mysteries; forty extant vase paintings show his capture of
Cerberus. *
The event was associated at one time or another with every part of
Greece having a supposed entrance to Hades. The Boeotians transferred
it also to their colony of Heraclea in Pontus. Xenophon observed in his
*Seneca, in Hercules Furens, gave the best account of the adventure. His narra-
tive inspired the descriptions of Cerberus by Dante and Spenser and also Shake-
speare's allusion to the myth in Love's Labour's Lost.
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? THE ORIGIN OF ACONITE
Anabasis that Hercules was reported to have emerged with the dog from
a gloomy cavern of the neighboring Mt. Achemsius. Repeating this idea,
Euphorion added other circumstances. Alarmed at the unfamiliar beams
of day, Cerberus renewed the struggle and foamed at all his mouths. The
foam, descending to the ground, became a poisonous plant, which is
called aconite because it flourishes on sharp, bare crags (aconae). The
aconite has many varieties, but Euphorion probably thought of one
having few leaves and a mass of white flowers.
It was poison made from aconite, said Ovid, with which Medea
hoped to destroy Theseus. Ovid observed that she brought the poison
from the Scythian shore, meaning probably that she obtained it from
Heraclea before sailing in the Argo. Ovid then repeated the chief de-
tails of Euphorion's account. In order to drag Cerberus out, he said,
Hercules used adamantine chains, and in the tale of Orpheus he spoke of
their being fastened about the middle one of the three necks. In the tale
of Athamas (Bk. 4) Ovid already had mentioned the foam of Cerberus
as one of the poisons used by Tisiphone.
While telling of Hercules and Cerberus, Ovid altered the usual se-
quence of events. Greek authors had regarded Hercules and Theseus as
contemporaries and had supposed that, when Hercules went in quest of
Cerberus, Theseus was a prisoner in the Lower World. Some years after
Theseus arrived in Athens, they said, Theseus and his friend Pirithoiis
tried to abduct Proserpina. Failing in the attempt, the two adventurers
were bound fast with chains, and they continued to be imprisoned in the
Lower World until the descent of Hercules. Having no occasion to tell
of Theseus and Pirithoiis in Hades, Ovid assumed that Hercules was
much older than Theseus and had captured Cerberus at least several
years before Theseus arrived in Athens. He then associated the quest of
Cerberus with the familiar tale of Medea's plot against Theseus and so
gave the tale added novelty and interest.
After the failure of Medea's plot, the Manual continued, Theseus
drove Medea and Medus from Athens. They departed, presumably in a
ship, and made their way to Colchis. Finding that Aeetes had been de-
throned by his brother, Medea restored him to power and spent the rest
of her life in Colchis. Apollonius had noted that after death she became
the wife of Achilles and dwelt in the Elysian Fields. The Manual re-
peated this account, changing their residence to Isles of the Blest.
Ovid did not speak of Medea's later career. He was content with "re-
cording a more impressive departure from Athens. Realizing that her
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
punishment was likely to be death, he said, Medea left the city in a storm
which her enchantment had raised. Apparently she rose in her dragon
car and vanished among the swift moving clouds.
Ariosto afterwards recalled Ovid's tale of the plot against Theseus.
When Marfisa narrowly escaped combat with the disguised Rogero, she
felt horror, he said, like that of Aegeus when he almost poisoned his son.
Hawthorne in The Wonder Book told of Medea's plot against Theseus
and of her escape in the dragon car. Spenser described Sir Calidore
dragging the Blatant Beast as proceeding
Like as whylome that strong Tirynthian swain
Brought forth with him the dreadfull dog of hell
Against his will, fast bound in yron chain
And roaring horribly; did him compell
To see the hatefull sun.
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? DEEDS OF THESEUS AND PREPARATIONS OF MINOS
Deeds of Theseus and Preparations of Minos
Ovid's long account of Jason and Medea had brought him again to
the mythical history of Athens. He now continued with this history and
with related stories until the second tale of his Ninth Book.
After Aegeus had so narrowly escaped poisoning Theseus, Ovid
imagined that he held a festival of joy for the preservation of his son.
Athenians of all ranks took part and sang impromptu songs in honor of
the heroic prince. This gave Ovid a chance to mention the achievements
of Theseus before he established himself at Athens.
The traditional account had grown up chiefly in Attica and had
been influenced by the older myth of Hercules. Both Hercules and
Theseus were famous for destroying human malefactors and formidable
beasts. Greek tradition supposed that Theseus performed many of these
heroic feats in the course of his journey to Athens. It recorded them
somewhat as follows.
Theseus chose a road which led him westwards along the shore of
the Saronic Gulf. At Epidaurus, Periphetes, a son of Vulcan, was in the
habit of murdering travelers with his iron club. Theseus killed him and
took the club as his own weapon. On the Isthmus of Corinth another
villain named Sinis used to kill travelers by means of pine trees. Bending
a large tree until the crown touched the earth, he set his victim on the
top and released the tree, which sprang back and shot the traveler high
in the air. Theseus destroyed Sinis by the same device of a pine tree,
and then proceeded north over the Isthmus into the region of Megaris.
Near Crommyon, on the northern shore of the Gulf, the country was
harried by a formidable sow. Typhoeus and Echidna had been the par-
ents of the animal and an old woman named Phaea had reared it and
called it after herself. Theseus destroyed this creature also and then
followed the shore eastwards in the direction of Megara.
At the Scironian Cliffs, his way took him along a shelf of rock high
above the waves. Here the robber Sciron used to make the traveler wash
his feet and during the process to kick him off into the sea, where a turtle
waited to devour him. Hurling Sciron over the cliff, Theseus proceeded
to Eleusis. There he wrestled with the tyrant Cercyon, defeated him, and
put him to death. Leaving the shore, he then traveled up the course of
the Attic river Cephisus. At Erineus he encountered still another male-
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK SEVEN
factor, whose real name seems to have been Polypemon but whose crimes
had won him the title of Procrustes (the Stretcher). This villain used
forcibly to aiake the traveler fit one of his two beds. If his victim was
short, Procrustes laid him on the longer bed and hammered him out. If
the victim was tall, Procrustes laid him on the shorter bed and cut off the
superfluous length. Theseus killed Procrustes and then proceeded with-
out further adventure to Athens. *
Sappho had alluded to Theseus, and Bacchylides mentioned a num-
ber of his exploits. The Manual gave a brief, orderly account of them
all. Greek artists often treated the story. Vase painters pictured the
victories over Phaea and Sciron. Sculpture of the Athenian Treasury
at Delphi portrayed the death of Periphetes, Sciron, and Cercyon, and
a carving at the Theseum in Athens showed Sciron being hurled into the
sea, but it replaced the usual hungry turtle with a crab. Ovid himself
mentioned several of the hero's exploits both in the Epistle of Phyllis
and in the Ibis.
The heroic deeds of Theseus had not ended with his arrival in
Athens. Hercules, as one of his labors, had transported to the mainland
of Greece a savage Cretan bull. He released the animal near Thebes.
After wandering to many parts of Greece, the bull established itself in
the vicinity of Marathon, a day's journey north of Athens, and for a
long while caused terror and havoc in the neighboring country. Theseus,
when he had made the journey from Troezen, went almost immediately
in quest of the bull and captured it. He then led the animal to Athens
and offered it as a sacrifice to the gods. Callimachus in the Hecale told
of this adventure, indicating that Theseus undertook it on his own initia-
tive. The Manual associated the adventure with the plots of Medea. In
order to destroy the young hero, she persuaded Aegeus first to send him
against the bull and then to offer him poison. It was the account in the
Manual which Ovid followed by implication in his Metamorphoses.
All these achievements of Theseus Ovid mentioned, but without at-
tempting to record them in the usual order. For most of the adventures
he followed the narrative in the Manual. In the case of Sciron, he added
further details, suggested probably by an Alexandrian account which is
now lost. Neither the land nor the sea, he observed, was willing to hold
*This was the usual ancient account of the journey. But some authorities de-
scribed differently the methods of Sinis and Procrustes. Sinis, they declared, used
to fasten his victim to two pines, which rent him asunder as they sprang back, and
Procrustes fitted all travelers to one bed.
