Adapting
the theme to Greek readers,
he named the king Pygmalion and spoke of the statue as a likeness of
Venus.
he named the king Pygmalion and spoke of the statue as a likeness of
Venus.
Ovid - 1934 - Metamorphoses in European Culture - v2
Nicander seems to have called him a grandson
of Amyclas and the son of a later king, Oebalus. This idea Ovid repeated
both in his own account of the story and later in his tale of Ajax (Bk.
13). Most authors regarded Hyacinthus as a native of Sparta. Ovid
followed them in his Metamorphoses, but in his Fasti spoke of him as
born in the village of Therapne, to the southeast. Alexandrian authors
departed very much from the older conception of Hyacinthus. They
regarded him not as a god but as a mortal, and they described him not
as a mature man but as a boy who was loved by Apollo. The Manual
stated this idea explicitly.
In the Laconian festival there appears to have been no thought of
relating Hyacinthus to any particular flower. But Alexandrian authors
continually associated him with the blossom of a plant which they called
the hyacinth. Among the Greeks, this flower seems always to have been
popular. The Homeric Hymn to Ceres mentioned it as one of the blos-
soms gathered by Proserpina, and Theocritus noted in his Tenth Idyll
that violets and hyacinths were favorites for garlands. According to the
Alexandrian authors, Apollo metamorphosed blood of the dying youth
into the well known flower. In the Metamorphoses, Ovid accepted this
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
idea. In the Fasti he declared that Flora performed the act of trans-
formation.
Like the crocus and violet and other flowers which were said to
have originated from human blood, the hyacinth was described as having
a color which resembled the sanguine hue. Theocritus called both the
violet and the hyacinth black. Other writers mentioned a shade of
purple. The hyacinth was described as unusual in having petals marked
with white. These markings were thought to have the shape of Greek
letters, an idea noted by Theocritus. Certain authors identified them
as the two capitals alpha and iota. Taken together, they would spell
the Greek interjection AI, corresponding to our phrase "O dear! ", and
both Euphorion and the Elegy for Bion referred to them as recording
the distressed cries of Apollo after the death of his favorite.
Euphorion spoke of the markings of the hyacinth as identical also
with the first two letters of the name Ajax. They commemorated, he said,
both the favorite of Apollo and the great son of Telamon. Vergil in his
Third Eclogue mentioned the double significance but explained it in an-
other way. The flower, he implied, has two groups of markings. One of
them, in memory of Ajax, takes the form of the capital letters alpha and
iota; the other, in memory of Hyacinthus, takes the form of the Greek
capital upsilon with a rough breathing, which corresponds to our letters
Hy. Evidently the flower described by these ancient authors was dif-
ferent from any that we should call a hyacinth. Modern scholars are
inclined to identify it as a species of iris.
At least three Alexandrian authors recorded the tragic story. Of
Bion's account only a few lines survive. Bion mentioned the horror of
Apollo after the fatal accident, his resorting in vain to the art of the
physician, and his denouncing medicine as of no avail. Nicander's ac-
count it lost. He spoke of Apollo as mourning the death of his favorite,
and he related the story to the annual appearance of the flower and the
Spartan festival. From Nicander, Ovid took the outline of the tale.
A third Alexandrian author, whom we cannot identify, introduced
a new cause for the tragedy. A wind god, either Zephyr or Boreas, was
an unsuccessful rival of Apollo for the boy's favor. This god spitefully
turned the discus aside and killed the boy. The Alexandrian author
noted that Apollo reproached the wind god for his cruel deed. This ver-
sion appeared later in the work of Lucian and of Nonnus.
After Ovid had introduced the theme of Apollo's fondness for the
boy, he described the god as playing the usual part of a lover in Alex-
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? HYACINTHUS
andrian and Roman poetry. A lover was described as forsaking his
usual haunts for those of his beloved. Accordingly, Apollo forsook
Delphi, in order to frequent the valley of the Eurotas. Ovid alluded to
the fact that Sparta was unfortified in its great period.
A lover was described as giving up his usual pursuits for those of
his beloved. Apollo gave up playing the cither and shooting arrows. At
this point Ovid seems to have been following Nicander. According to
another version of the tale, Apollo took the opposite course. To win the
boy's favor, he used both music and archery. Vergil in the Sixth Eclogue
mentioned Eurotas as delighted with the songs of Apollo, and Philo-
stratus declared that the god promised to instruct his favorite in using
the lyre and the bow. Tibullus had counseled anyone desirous of pleas-
ing a boy, to engage with him in sports, such as hunting and athletic
games. Ovid in the Heroides had shown Phaedra expressing a desire to
do this for the sake of Hippolytus. He now showed Apollo taking a
similar course. Tibullus had advised often allowing the boy to carry off
the honors and always doing obsequious service. Ovid observed that
Apollo dutifully carried nets, held the dogs, and accompanied Hya-
cinthus over rugged spurs of the mountains. Ovid told briefly of Apollo's
courtship, because later he wished to dwell on the more remarkable idea
that Venus acted in a similar manner for the sake of Adonis.
Ovid imagined the contest with the discus as beginning at noon,
the tragic hour of Alexandrian poets. He mentioned the time by speak-
ing of the sun as in mid-course. In the tale of Phaethon (Bk. 2) Ovid
had spoken of Apollo as driving the car of the sun. This idea was ex-
cluded by the circumstances of the contest, and Ovid resorted to an
older belief that Titan was the charioteer.
Ovid supposed that first Apollo took position for throwing the
discus. Hyacinthus waited opposite the point where the missile was
expected to land, but at a safe distance to one side. Apollo displayed
both skill and strength and hurled the discus a remarkably long way
down the field. In actual contest this could not have been especially far.
The modern world's record is about a hundred and fifty-nine feet. But
Ovid described the discus as piercing the clouds in its mighty trajectory.
As it came down, the boy imprudently ran forward, in order to reach it
as soon as possible. The discus, falling on hard ground, gave an unex-
pected bounce and hit him in the face. Although Ovid's phrase was in-
definite, he evidently recalled the idea of mortal injury and speedy death.
Ovid imagined that Apollo had near by some materials for his art
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
of healing, and that with them he proceeded at once to the fallen boy.
Bion had observed that Apollo applied salves to the wound and tried
all remedies, but discovered that no medicine cures against the will of
the Fates. In the tale of Coronis (Bk. 2) Ovid had told of Apollo's rub-
bing the crumpled form of his wife -- to restore the normal circulation,
and of his vainly trying his art of medicine to conquer fate. He had
spoken of Cephalus as lifting Procris in his arms and endeavoring to
staunch the flow of blood. And in the tale of Daphne he spoke of Apollo
himself as afflicted with an incurable wound. All these circumstances
Ovid recalled in describing Apollo's attempt to revive Hyacinthus. The
god lifted the crumpled form in his arms. He tried rubbing, he en-
deavored to staunch the flow of blood, and he applied stimulating herbs.
His art was of no avail; the wound was beyond cure of medicine; and
later Ovid showed Apollo declaring that he must yield to the law of fate.
At this point Ovid remembered a famous comparison of a young
man's death to the drooping of a flower. The Iliad had mentioned the
idea when an arrow of Teucer mortally wounded a certain Gorgythion.
The poet continued: as in a garden a poppy bows its head to one side,
laden with seed and the rains of spring; so he bowed his head to one side,
laden with his helmet. Catullus, handling the same idea, altered both the
form and the nature of the comparison. He mentioned first the applica-
tion to his own theme, and he imagined the flower as suffering violence.
Lesbia's conduct, he said, had caused his love to die, as a flower at the
meadow's edge after it is uprooted by the passing plow. In two pas-
sages of the Aeneid, Vergil recalled ideas of the Iliad but used the method
of Catullus. He observed of the dying Euryalus that his neck, drooping,
lay back on his shoulders; as when a purple flower, cut underneath by
the plow, languishes dying or poppies with tired neck lower their heads,
when they are weighted with rain. And he observed that Pallas lay on
his bier, as a flower broken by a maiden's finger, either a soft violet or a
languishing hyacinth. Its luster remains no longer, while its beauty de-
parts, nor does mother earth nourish it and provide strength.
Ovid followed the Iliad in giving the comparison first, and he elab-
orated his details from Vergil. As when in a garden, he said, someone has
broken violets or a stiff poppy or lilies bristling with tawny stamens,
fainting suddenly, they droop their withered heads and no longer can
stand erect but with their tops gaze on the earth; so the boy's dying
face sank down, and his neck, not having strength to bear its own weight,
lay back on his shoulder.
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? HYACINTHUS
Although Nicander had spoken of Apollo's mourning for Hya-
cinthus, Ovid appears to have been the first to record a speech of lament.
The god blamed himself for shortening the boy's life but pleaded good
intentions. Regretting that he could neither restore life to his favorite
nor share his death, he predicted the boy's continual association with
his worship, as a new variety of flower. In accord with Euphorion, Ovid
showed Apollo observing that it should recall not only Hyacinthus but
at a later time Ajax, and that its petals were to be inscribed with
Apollo's lament. Ovid indicated a transformation of blood into the
flower, which was brighter than Tyrian dye and which resembled a lily,
except that a lily is white and this flower is purple. Description of a
newly created flower by likening it to some other blossom was habitual
with Ovid. He likened the heliotrope, into which Clytie had been trans-
formed, to a violet (Bk. 4) ; and later he compared the windflower, which
grew from blood of Adonis, to a blossom of the pomegranate. Ovid
mentioned Apollo's writing on the petals the words AI Al. Then, follow-
ing Nicander, he ended with the Spartan festival of the Hyacinthia.
In later times many authors recalled Ovid's tale. Marini repeated
it at some length in his Adonis. Statius, remembering Apollo's ability
with the discus, noted that one of his own contestants made a discus sail
through the clouds. Spenser mentioned, as the theme of a picture in the
House of Busyrane, Apollo lamenting the death of his favorite, and
added that Hyacinthus continues to live as a pansy. Spenser also men-
tioned the flower of Hyacinthus as appearing in the garden of Adonis.
Milton declared that Winter, who killed the Fair Infant, had no power
to commemorate her as Apollo commemorated Hyacinthus. In a Latin
poem, Nature and Old Age, Milton predicted that always the flower of
Phoebus should retain its fragrance and beauty. Camoens in his descrip-
tion of the Isle of Venus and Milton in Lycidas referred to the blossom
as inscribed with a word of lament. Pliny spoke of the white marks as
honoring both Hyacinthus and Ajax. Keats, forgetting the precise
nature of the metamorphosis, observed in his Endymion that his Indian
maiden proposed restoring the plant of Hyacinthus to its human form.
And Shakespeare in Venus and Adonis appears also to have forgotten
the precise nature of the change, for he declared that blood of Adonis
became a purple flower not inscribed, but checkered, with white.
Bosio used the classic tale as the theme of a painting.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
The Cerastae and the Propoetides
With the pride which Sparta felt as the native place of Hya-
cinthus, Ovid showed Orpheus contrasting the shame which Amathus
felt as the native place of heinous offenders. In Greek times, Amathus
was an important town on the island of Cyprus. Ovid alluded to its
fame as a center of rich copper mines. The town was well known also
for worship of Venus. Ovid applied to the island as a whole the name
Ophiusa (Land of Snakes). This title had been given to other Mediter-
ranean Isles, but Ovid was alone in attributing it to Cyprus.
Ovid mentioned two households which brought disgrace on Ama-
thus. We know them only from his account. Probably he had read their
story in the work of the Alexandrian historian Philostephanus.
The first household included certain big, brutal men. According to
Ovid, they were known as Cerastae, because horns protruded from their
brows. Apparently this idea of horned men was of Semitic origin, allied
to the idea of the Minotaur (Bk. 8) and of the horned Moses repre-
sented in a statue by Michelangelo. The Cerastae used to murder trav-
elers, presumably in order to rob them; and, to aggravate the crime,
they used to commit such murders on an altar dedicated to Jupiter,
Patron of Hospitality. Venus felt such horror at their conduct, said
Ovid, that she thought of abandoning Cyprus. But she considered it
wiser to end the evil by transforming the Cerastae, and, noting their
horns, she metamorphosed them into the shape of fierce bulls.
Another household included the sisters called Propoetides. They
refused to acknowledge Venus as a goddess. Like certain other offenders
against Venus, they incurred the punishment of abnormal lust (cf.
Byblis, Bk. 9), and they became prostitutes, reputed to have been the
earliest of their kind. In time they grew so hardened that by an easy
transition they were changed into flint.
Ovid willingly included the metamorphoses of the Cerastae and the
Propoetides, but he was interested in their stories chiefly as a means for
introducing the more important tale of Pygmalion.
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? PYGMALION
Pygmalion
From the tale of the Propoetides, Ovid showed Orpheus continuing
to that of Pygmalion.
The story grew out of a popular belief that a man may fall in love
with a woman's likeness in some work of art. The same belief underlies
the modern tradition of men who fell in love with Da "Vinci's painting
of the Mona Lisa and in despair were driven to suicide. It is related
often to some work of sculpture. According to Lucian, a certain young
man of Cnidus in Caria fell in love with the beautiful statue of Venus
by Praxiteles, which stood in the temple. According to a widespread
medieval tradition, a young man, who was engaged to marry, became
fascinated by another ancient statue of Venus and unwarily put the
future wedding ring on its finger. This medieval tale included a second
aspect of the popular belief, an idea that a woman's likeness may show
corresponding passion for the man. The statue of Venus withheld the
wedding ring, when the young man tried to regain it, and, after the
wedding, it entered the nuptial chamber and prevented him from ap-
proaching his bride. In some versions of the tale, the young man at last
obtained the ring and so overcame the opposition of the statue. But in
Merimee's Venus of IUe, the bronze arms of the statue embraced him and
crushed him to death.
Both aspects of the popular belief appeared in the Phoenician tale
of King Puni-Yathon and a likeness of the goddess Astarte. The king
fell in love with the work of sculpture, and the statue made some favor-
able response. At Carthage an early medallion associated the king and
the image of the divinity. Philostephanus recorded the tale in his His-
tory of Cyprus, which now is lost.
Adapting the theme to Greek readers,
he named the king Pygmalion and spoke of the statue as a likeness of
Venus. He noted that it stood in a temple of Idalium, a Cyprian town
famous for her worship. Although early examples of sculpture appear
always to have shown the goddess fully clothed, Philostephanus imag-
ined the likeness according to Alexandrian fashion and spoke of it as
representing a naked figure.
In adapting the account of Philostephanus, Ovid altered many
particulars. He described Pygmalion as merely a citizen of a town in
Cyprus. He said nothing of Idalium and implied that his events oc-
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
curred in Amathus. He spoke of the statue as representing a mortal
woman. And, although he showed Venus responding favorably to Pyg-
malion, it was only as a kind presiding deity. Ovid also related the story
to another idea -- that one who is deprived of congenial human society
may obtain some comfort by lavishing affection on a statue.
Euripides had introduced the idea in his Alcestis. When the queen
lay dying, King Admetus declared that he would have a sculptor make a
life-like image of her and lay it on a bed, as if she were sleeping. Then
he should gain the sad comfort of addressing it by her loved name and
of embracing it and fancying that he still held his wife. Euripides pre-
sented the idea as a project, which later events made unnecessary. Ovid
carried the idea further. In the Epistle of Laodamia he described a
similar plan as actually in operation. During the absence of Protesilaiis,
Laodamia comforted herself, so far as possible, by lavishing affection
on his waxen image. Ovid showed her adding that his image was so life-
like that, if it should speak, one would believe it to be Protesilaiis.
Ovid imagined Pygmalion as following a similar course. But his
problem required a somewhat different answer. Both Admetus and
Laodamia had found a congenial human partner. Pygmalion had not.
The notorious conduct of the Propoetides, said Ovid, had impressed him
with the vices of actual women and made him unwilling to marry any
woman of his acquaintance. Therefore the statue did not represent some
particular individual but an ideal of womanhood.
Ovid imagined that Pygmalion himself made the statue, an idea
which added greatly to the interest of the tale. But he ought to have
warned his readers that Pygmalion had some training as a sculptor.
Ovid described the statue as carved in white ivory, a material used fre-
quently in ancient sculpture. He imagined a life-size figure standing on
a low pedestal. Made in ivory, this would require skillful joining of
many pieces. Probably the ivory was laid as a veneer over some other
material. The face, said Ovid, appeared to be that of a living woman,
with a warmth of feelings which modesty held in restraint. In the Art of
Love, Ovid had observed that, if art is concealed, it has a more desirable
effect. He now remarked that Pygmalion's art by concealing itself at-
tained the effect of life. Even Pygmalion was deceived. Although he
went so far as repeatedly to touch the statue with his hand, he could not
believe that it was ivory. He fell in love with his own creation. He even
fancied that it returned his kisses and that the surface yielded under
pressure of his fingers.
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? PYGMALION
Up to this point, Ovid had been adapting the tale of Philoste-
phanus. Now, adding ideas of Euripides, he skillfully elaborated them.
Pygmalion embraced the statue and addressed loving words to it. He
also brought gifts which would be pleasing to a girl, and he arrayed the
loved figure in appropriate clothing and jewels. With such adornment
it was beautiful, yet unadorned it was equally beautiful. Pygmalion
laid the statue on a bed, which he had provided with coverlets of Tyrian
purple and soft pillows, and he called it his wife.
Ovid seems to have invented the incidents which followed. At the
next ensuing festival of Venus, Pygmalion brought a gift to the altar
and timidly prayed that his future wife might be--like his ivory maiden.
Venus, understanding his intent, gave a favorable omen. The altar fire
three times leaped high in air.
Pygmalion returned home, anxious to look again on the image.
Ovid implied that it lay in a room which opened on the inner court and
that, when Pygmalion bent over the couch, behind him the sky was
visible through the open doorway. As he kissed the loved figure, it
seemed to be warm; and, as he laid his hand on the breast, the ivory be-
came more and more soft and yielding. Unwisely Ovid tried to illustrate
the sensation by an experience of his stay in Athens. It was, he said,
as if bee's wax from Mt. Hymettus were warmed in the sun and then
were moulded by the thumb into numerous forms and grew more respon-
sive with use. Pygmalion, afraid to credit the evidence of his senses,
made repeated trials. It was real flesh, with a pulse beating under his
thumb. After pouring out gratitude to Venus, Pygmalion turned again
to the maiden. Feeling his kiss on her lips, she timidly opened her eyes
and beheld at the same time the sky and her lover.
Ovid's remarkable story attracted many authors of later times.
Dryden translated it, and a number of other poets alluded to it. Some
recalled Pygmalion's success as an artist. Petrarch complimented Mar-
tini's painting of Laura by declaring that it reminded him of Pygma-
lion's achievement and awakened the regret that he could not hope to
converse in a similar manner with the beautiful likeness. Chaucer in The
Physician's Tale and Thomson in The Castle of Indolence referred to
Pygmalion as a sculptor of superlative ability. Thomson in this pas-
sage spoke of the statue as carved in marble, an idea which appeared
often in modern times. Other modern authors recalled Pygmalion's fall-
ing in love with his work. Rousseau declared in the Confessions that he
himself felt a similar susceptibility. Cowper observed gloomily in his
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
Progress of Error that Pygmalion was an ancient example of people
who love their own productions. Shelley in his Witch of Atlas remem-
bered both Pygmalion's skill in creation and his passion for the com-
pleted work.
Others recalled the transformation of the image into a living
woman. Shakespeare referred to it vaguely in Measure for Measure.
Schiller in his lyric The Ideal described it inaccurately. He declared
that just as Pygmalion, embracing the statue, had given it feeling; so
he himself, embracing Nature, had brought inanimate objects to life.
And Petrarch in his Triumph of Love noted among the god's followers
Pygmalion and his living bride.
A number of authors retold the story. Gower in the Confessio
Amantis followed Ovid closely. But most authors handled the subject
with considerable freedom. Jean de Meun expanded Ovid's account very
much, and, while recording the gifts which Pygmalion brought the
statue, he included almost every item of feminine dress and ornament.
He also added the circumstance that Pygmalion was in doubt whether
the statue had become a woman, until she spoke. This detail he seems
to have taken from the Epistle of Laodamia. The idea that Pygmalion
was convinced by her speaking appeared often in the work of modern
authors. John Marston chose Pygmalion as the subject of his first
work, a long narrative poem. Gray in a Latin Ode to the Prince of Wales
retold the latter part of Ovid's tale. And Goethe treated the theme in
an early lyric.
During the third quarter of the eighteenth century Rousseau made
Pygmalion the hero of a play. He called the maiden Galatea, and in
time this name won general acceptance. During the nineteenth century,
twenty English poets retold the story. The greater number of them
treated it seriously, and of these the most important was William
Morris in The Eartlily Paradise. His graceful narrative was illustrated
with four pictures by Burne-Jones. A few poets made the innovation of
treating the subject as comedy. Chief among them was W. S. Gilbert in
a successful play. He retold the tale as follows. Pygmalion originally
had a wife and chose her as the model for a statue. The image became
a woman and fell in love with Pygmalion. But, finding that he preferred
his wife, she willingly was transformed again into her original marble.
Certain authors imitated Ovid in tales of their own. Shakespeare
used several of Ovid's important ideas for the beautiful closing scene of
A Winter's Tale, the meeting between Leontes and the reputed statue of
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? PYGMALION
Hermione. In a narrative called Drowne's Wooden Image Hawthorne
skillfully adapted Ovid's theme to the life of prerevolutionary Boston.
Hazlitt's transcript of personal experience called Liber Amoris or the
New Pygmalion and Shaw's comedy entitled Pygmalion associated the
ancient myth with an attempt at spiritual transformation. Both authors
pictured a man undertaking to develop a crude, ignorant young woman
into a lady and meanwhile falling in love with her. In both cases the
hero's attempt was a failure.
Ovid's tale interested a few modern artists. Boucher treated it in
painting, Donner in a lead relief, and Falconet and Rodin in statuary.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
Myerha
After speaking of Pygmalion's daughter Paphos, Ovid added that
she was the mother of Cinyras. Previous authors had indicated that
Cinyras had a different parentage, and the Manual had called him a
child of Sandocus and Celenderis. The Manual noted that Cinyras
married a daughter of Pygmalion named Metharme, and so became
Pygmalion's son-in-law. In describing him as Pygmalion's grandson,
Ovid appears to have followed an Alexandrian author whose work now
is lost, perhaps Philostephanus.
Apparently following the same author, Ovid spoke of Cinyras as
a native of Cyprus. All others had named as his birthplace the main-
land of Asia Minor. But some had noted that he lived at least for a
while on the island. The Iliad mentioned him as king of Cyprus, and
the Manual observed that he migrated there with part of his followers.
Most authors indicated that Cinyras was by inheritance a king. Ovid
had suggested the contrary, for he had implied that his grandfather,
Pygmalion, was only a citizen of Amathus. Ovid now implied that
Cinyras was a king but offered no explanation as to how he obtained
the crown. According to the Iliad, Cinyras was contemporary with the
beginning of the Trojan War. Ovid imagined that he lived several gen-
erations earlier.
The Manual had noted that Cinyras and his wife, Metharme, were
parents of Adonis. Theodorus agreed that Cinyras was the father but
differed in other respects. The mother, he said, was a child of Cinyras
named Myrrha, and he declared that she had illicit relations with her
father. Ovid followed this version. In the tale of Byblis (Bk. 9), Ovid
had treated the theme of immoral relations between brother and sister.
He now planned to treat similar relations of parent and child. Before
proceeding to the tale, Ovid showed Orpheus giving an elaborate apology.
The minstrel advised both daughters and fathers to avoid acquaintance
with the story or at least to remember the punishment which followed the
offense. A warning to daughters and fathers might come appropriately
from Ovid, who addressed human beings, but not from Orpheus, who
addressed an audience of trees and wild animals. But in either case, the
moral would be anything but impressive, for both Ovid's predecessors
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? MYRRHA
and Ovid himself described the fate of Myrrha as a great and enduring
honor.
Vergil in the Georgics had praised Italy as more desirable than
spice-bearing Panchaia in Arabia and had observed that Italy is un-
visited by such ravening beasts as the tiger or such a mythological
terror as Jason's armed crop. Propertius had pronounced the Roman
domain fortunate in its creditable history and, after noting its freedom
from monstrous animals, had rejoiced also in its freedom from mytho-
logical crimes, one of them the horror of Thyestes deceived and devour-
ing his children, a horror from which even the sun had fled. Following
both passages, Ovid showed Orpheus congratulating Thrace on its re-
moteness from the scene of Myrrha's heinous offense and adding that
Thrace need not envy Panchaia its incense, while Panchaia continues to
grow the myrrh tree. Creation of this new tree was not worth the dis-
grace involved. Ovid implied that Myrrha was transformed in the region
of Panchaia. Later he spoke of the event as occurring, less appro-
priately, in the neighboring region of Sabaea.
Cupid disclaimed any share in provoking Myrrha, Orpheus con-
tinued. She was incited by one of the Furies. Previous authors had at-
tributed Myrrha's abnormal passion to Venus. The goddess was offended
with Myrrha, they said, and she took this way of punishing her. Ovid
implied later that he accepted their idea. But, remembering that Juno
had employed a Fury to provoke the crime of Athamas (Bk. 4), he
seems to have imagined that Venus employed a similar agent to provoke
the crime of Myrrha.
He then showed Orpheus recounting the tale. Most authors had
called the heroine Smyrna, and, according to one author, Cinyras had
founded the port of Smyrna and named it after his daughter. Ovid
called the girl Myrrha, an unusual dialect form of the name, because
this form was related to myrrha and murra, the Latin words for myrrh.
Panyasis had recorded the earliest version of the tale which still
survives. The girl offended Venus, he said, by failing to honor her and
was punished with lust for her father. Panyasis called the father Thias,
king of Assyria. With the aid of her nurse, the girl contrived to de-
ceive him and indulge in illicit relations during twelve nights. After a
while the father discovered her guilt and attempted to kill her with a
sword. Overtaken in flight, she implored the gods to save her. They
transformed her into the myrrh tree, which Panyasis may have regarded
as native to Assyria. In time Adonis was born from the tree. This
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of Amyclas and the son of a later king, Oebalus. This idea Ovid repeated
both in his own account of the story and later in his tale of Ajax (Bk.
13). Most authors regarded Hyacinthus as a native of Sparta. Ovid
followed them in his Metamorphoses, but in his Fasti spoke of him as
born in the village of Therapne, to the southeast. Alexandrian authors
departed very much from the older conception of Hyacinthus. They
regarded him not as a god but as a mortal, and they described him not
as a mature man but as a boy who was loved by Apollo. The Manual
stated this idea explicitly.
In the Laconian festival there appears to have been no thought of
relating Hyacinthus to any particular flower. But Alexandrian authors
continually associated him with the blossom of a plant which they called
the hyacinth. Among the Greeks, this flower seems always to have been
popular. The Homeric Hymn to Ceres mentioned it as one of the blos-
soms gathered by Proserpina, and Theocritus noted in his Tenth Idyll
that violets and hyacinths were favorites for garlands. According to the
Alexandrian authors, Apollo metamorphosed blood of the dying youth
into the well known flower. In the Metamorphoses, Ovid accepted this
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
idea. In the Fasti he declared that Flora performed the act of trans-
formation.
Like the crocus and violet and other flowers which were said to
have originated from human blood, the hyacinth was described as having
a color which resembled the sanguine hue. Theocritus called both the
violet and the hyacinth black. Other writers mentioned a shade of
purple. The hyacinth was described as unusual in having petals marked
with white. These markings were thought to have the shape of Greek
letters, an idea noted by Theocritus. Certain authors identified them
as the two capitals alpha and iota. Taken together, they would spell
the Greek interjection AI, corresponding to our phrase "O dear! ", and
both Euphorion and the Elegy for Bion referred to them as recording
the distressed cries of Apollo after the death of his favorite.
Euphorion spoke of the markings of the hyacinth as identical also
with the first two letters of the name Ajax. They commemorated, he said,
both the favorite of Apollo and the great son of Telamon. Vergil in his
Third Eclogue mentioned the double significance but explained it in an-
other way. The flower, he implied, has two groups of markings. One of
them, in memory of Ajax, takes the form of the capital letters alpha and
iota; the other, in memory of Hyacinthus, takes the form of the Greek
capital upsilon with a rough breathing, which corresponds to our letters
Hy. Evidently the flower described by these ancient authors was dif-
ferent from any that we should call a hyacinth. Modern scholars are
inclined to identify it as a species of iris.
At least three Alexandrian authors recorded the tragic story. Of
Bion's account only a few lines survive. Bion mentioned the horror of
Apollo after the fatal accident, his resorting in vain to the art of the
physician, and his denouncing medicine as of no avail. Nicander's ac-
count it lost. He spoke of Apollo as mourning the death of his favorite,
and he related the story to the annual appearance of the flower and the
Spartan festival. From Nicander, Ovid took the outline of the tale.
A third Alexandrian author, whom we cannot identify, introduced
a new cause for the tragedy. A wind god, either Zephyr or Boreas, was
an unsuccessful rival of Apollo for the boy's favor. This god spitefully
turned the discus aside and killed the boy. The Alexandrian author
noted that Apollo reproached the wind god for his cruel deed. This ver-
sion appeared later in the work of Lucian and of Nonnus.
After Ovid had introduced the theme of Apollo's fondness for the
boy, he described the god as playing the usual part of a lover in Alex-
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? HYACINTHUS
andrian and Roman poetry. A lover was described as forsaking his
usual haunts for those of his beloved. Accordingly, Apollo forsook
Delphi, in order to frequent the valley of the Eurotas. Ovid alluded to
the fact that Sparta was unfortified in its great period.
A lover was described as giving up his usual pursuits for those of
his beloved. Apollo gave up playing the cither and shooting arrows. At
this point Ovid seems to have been following Nicander. According to
another version of the tale, Apollo took the opposite course. To win the
boy's favor, he used both music and archery. Vergil in the Sixth Eclogue
mentioned Eurotas as delighted with the songs of Apollo, and Philo-
stratus declared that the god promised to instruct his favorite in using
the lyre and the bow. Tibullus had counseled anyone desirous of pleas-
ing a boy, to engage with him in sports, such as hunting and athletic
games. Ovid in the Heroides had shown Phaedra expressing a desire to
do this for the sake of Hippolytus. He now showed Apollo taking a
similar course. Tibullus had advised often allowing the boy to carry off
the honors and always doing obsequious service. Ovid observed that
Apollo dutifully carried nets, held the dogs, and accompanied Hya-
cinthus over rugged spurs of the mountains. Ovid told briefly of Apollo's
courtship, because later he wished to dwell on the more remarkable idea
that Venus acted in a similar manner for the sake of Adonis.
Ovid imagined the contest with the discus as beginning at noon,
the tragic hour of Alexandrian poets. He mentioned the time by speak-
ing of the sun as in mid-course. In the tale of Phaethon (Bk. 2) Ovid
had spoken of Apollo as driving the car of the sun. This idea was ex-
cluded by the circumstances of the contest, and Ovid resorted to an
older belief that Titan was the charioteer.
Ovid supposed that first Apollo took position for throwing the
discus. Hyacinthus waited opposite the point where the missile was
expected to land, but at a safe distance to one side. Apollo displayed
both skill and strength and hurled the discus a remarkably long way
down the field. In actual contest this could not have been especially far.
The modern world's record is about a hundred and fifty-nine feet. But
Ovid described the discus as piercing the clouds in its mighty trajectory.
As it came down, the boy imprudently ran forward, in order to reach it
as soon as possible. The discus, falling on hard ground, gave an unex-
pected bounce and hit him in the face. Although Ovid's phrase was in-
definite, he evidently recalled the idea of mortal injury and speedy death.
Ovid imagined that Apollo had near by some materials for his art
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
of healing, and that with them he proceeded at once to the fallen boy.
Bion had observed that Apollo applied salves to the wound and tried
all remedies, but discovered that no medicine cures against the will of
the Fates. In the tale of Coronis (Bk. 2) Ovid had told of Apollo's rub-
bing the crumpled form of his wife -- to restore the normal circulation,
and of his vainly trying his art of medicine to conquer fate. He had
spoken of Cephalus as lifting Procris in his arms and endeavoring to
staunch the flow of blood. And in the tale of Daphne he spoke of Apollo
himself as afflicted with an incurable wound. All these circumstances
Ovid recalled in describing Apollo's attempt to revive Hyacinthus. The
god lifted the crumpled form in his arms. He tried rubbing, he en-
deavored to staunch the flow of blood, and he applied stimulating herbs.
His art was of no avail; the wound was beyond cure of medicine; and
later Ovid showed Apollo declaring that he must yield to the law of fate.
At this point Ovid remembered a famous comparison of a young
man's death to the drooping of a flower. The Iliad had mentioned the
idea when an arrow of Teucer mortally wounded a certain Gorgythion.
The poet continued: as in a garden a poppy bows its head to one side,
laden with seed and the rains of spring; so he bowed his head to one side,
laden with his helmet. Catullus, handling the same idea, altered both the
form and the nature of the comparison. He mentioned first the applica-
tion to his own theme, and he imagined the flower as suffering violence.
Lesbia's conduct, he said, had caused his love to die, as a flower at the
meadow's edge after it is uprooted by the passing plow. In two pas-
sages of the Aeneid, Vergil recalled ideas of the Iliad but used the method
of Catullus. He observed of the dying Euryalus that his neck, drooping,
lay back on his shoulders; as when a purple flower, cut underneath by
the plow, languishes dying or poppies with tired neck lower their heads,
when they are weighted with rain. And he observed that Pallas lay on
his bier, as a flower broken by a maiden's finger, either a soft violet or a
languishing hyacinth. Its luster remains no longer, while its beauty de-
parts, nor does mother earth nourish it and provide strength.
Ovid followed the Iliad in giving the comparison first, and he elab-
orated his details from Vergil. As when in a garden, he said, someone has
broken violets or a stiff poppy or lilies bristling with tawny stamens,
fainting suddenly, they droop their withered heads and no longer can
stand erect but with their tops gaze on the earth; so the boy's dying
face sank down, and his neck, not having strength to bear its own weight,
lay back on his shoulder.
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? HYACINTHUS
Although Nicander had spoken of Apollo's mourning for Hya-
cinthus, Ovid appears to have been the first to record a speech of lament.
The god blamed himself for shortening the boy's life but pleaded good
intentions. Regretting that he could neither restore life to his favorite
nor share his death, he predicted the boy's continual association with
his worship, as a new variety of flower. In accord with Euphorion, Ovid
showed Apollo observing that it should recall not only Hyacinthus but
at a later time Ajax, and that its petals were to be inscribed with
Apollo's lament. Ovid indicated a transformation of blood into the
flower, which was brighter than Tyrian dye and which resembled a lily,
except that a lily is white and this flower is purple. Description of a
newly created flower by likening it to some other blossom was habitual
with Ovid. He likened the heliotrope, into which Clytie had been trans-
formed, to a violet (Bk. 4) ; and later he compared the windflower, which
grew from blood of Adonis, to a blossom of the pomegranate. Ovid
mentioned Apollo's writing on the petals the words AI Al. Then, follow-
ing Nicander, he ended with the Spartan festival of the Hyacinthia.
In later times many authors recalled Ovid's tale. Marini repeated
it at some length in his Adonis. Statius, remembering Apollo's ability
with the discus, noted that one of his own contestants made a discus sail
through the clouds. Spenser mentioned, as the theme of a picture in the
House of Busyrane, Apollo lamenting the death of his favorite, and
added that Hyacinthus continues to live as a pansy. Spenser also men-
tioned the flower of Hyacinthus as appearing in the garden of Adonis.
Milton declared that Winter, who killed the Fair Infant, had no power
to commemorate her as Apollo commemorated Hyacinthus. In a Latin
poem, Nature and Old Age, Milton predicted that always the flower of
Phoebus should retain its fragrance and beauty. Camoens in his descrip-
tion of the Isle of Venus and Milton in Lycidas referred to the blossom
as inscribed with a word of lament. Pliny spoke of the white marks as
honoring both Hyacinthus and Ajax. Keats, forgetting the precise
nature of the metamorphosis, observed in his Endymion that his Indian
maiden proposed restoring the plant of Hyacinthus to its human form.
And Shakespeare in Venus and Adonis appears also to have forgotten
the precise nature of the change, for he declared that blood of Adonis
became a purple flower not inscribed, but checkered, with white.
Bosio used the classic tale as the theme of a painting.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
The Cerastae and the Propoetides
With the pride which Sparta felt as the native place of Hya-
cinthus, Ovid showed Orpheus contrasting the shame which Amathus
felt as the native place of heinous offenders. In Greek times, Amathus
was an important town on the island of Cyprus. Ovid alluded to its
fame as a center of rich copper mines. The town was well known also
for worship of Venus. Ovid applied to the island as a whole the name
Ophiusa (Land of Snakes). This title had been given to other Mediter-
ranean Isles, but Ovid was alone in attributing it to Cyprus.
Ovid mentioned two households which brought disgrace on Ama-
thus. We know them only from his account. Probably he had read their
story in the work of the Alexandrian historian Philostephanus.
The first household included certain big, brutal men. According to
Ovid, they were known as Cerastae, because horns protruded from their
brows. Apparently this idea of horned men was of Semitic origin, allied
to the idea of the Minotaur (Bk. 8) and of the horned Moses repre-
sented in a statue by Michelangelo. The Cerastae used to murder trav-
elers, presumably in order to rob them; and, to aggravate the crime,
they used to commit such murders on an altar dedicated to Jupiter,
Patron of Hospitality. Venus felt such horror at their conduct, said
Ovid, that she thought of abandoning Cyprus. But she considered it
wiser to end the evil by transforming the Cerastae, and, noting their
horns, she metamorphosed them into the shape of fierce bulls.
Another household included the sisters called Propoetides. They
refused to acknowledge Venus as a goddess. Like certain other offenders
against Venus, they incurred the punishment of abnormal lust (cf.
Byblis, Bk. 9), and they became prostitutes, reputed to have been the
earliest of their kind. In time they grew so hardened that by an easy
transition they were changed into flint.
Ovid willingly included the metamorphoses of the Cerastae and the
Propoetides, but he was interested in their stories chiefly as a means for
introducing the more important tale of Pygmalion.
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? PYGMALION
Pygmalion
From the tale of the Propoetides, Ovid showed Orpheus continuing
to that of Pygmalion.
The story grew out of a popular belief that a man may fall in love
with a woman's likeness in some work of art. The same belief underlies
the modern tradition of men who fell in love with Da "Vinci's painting
of the Mona Lisa and in despair were driven to suicide. It is related
often to some work of sculpture. According to Lucian, a certain young
man of Cnidus in Caria fell in love with the beautiful statue of Venus
by Praxiteles, which stood in the temple. According to a widespread
medieval tradition, a young man, who was engaged to marry, became
fascinated by another ancient statue of Venus and unwarily put the
future wedding ring on its finger. This medieval tale included a second
aspect of the popular belief, an idea that a woman's likeness may show
corresponding passion for the man. The statue of Venus withheld the
wedding ring, when the young man tried to regain it, and, after the
wedding, it entered the nuptial chamber and prevented him from ap-
proaching his bride. In some versions of the tale, the young man at last
obtained the ring and so overcame the opposition of the statue. But in
Merimee's Venus of IUe, the bronze arms of the statue embraced him and
crushed him to death.
Both aspects of the popular belief appeared in the Phoenician tale
of King Puni-Yathon and a likeness of the goddess Astarte. The king
fell in love with the work of sculpture, and the statue made some favor-
able response. At Carthage an early medallion associated the king and
the image of the divinity. Philostephanus recorded the tale in his His-
tory of Cyprus, which now is lost.
Adapting the theme to Greek readers,
he named the king Pygmalion and spoke of the statue as a likeness of
Venus. He noted that it stood in a temple of Idalium, a Cyprian town
famous for her worship. Although early examples of sculpture appear
always to have shown the goddess fully clothed, Philostephanus imag-
ined the likeness according to Alexandrian fashion and spoke of it as
representing a naked figure.
In adapting the account of Philostephanus, Ovid altered many
particulars. He described Pygmalion as merely a citizen of a town in
Cyprus. He said nothing of Idalium and implied that his events oc-
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
curred in Amathus. He spoke of the statue as representing a mortal
woman. And, although he showed Venus responding favorably to Pyg-
malion, it was only as a kind presiding deity. Ovid also related the story
to another idea -- that one who is deprived of congenial human society
may obtain some comfort by lavishing affection on a statue.
Euripides had introduced the idea in his Alcestis. When the queen
lay dying, King Admetus declared that he would have a sculptor make a
life-like image of her and lay it on a bed, as if she were sleeping. Then
he should gain the sad comfort of addressing it by her loved name and
of embracing it and fancying that he still held his wife. Euripides pre-
sented the idea as a project, which later events made unnecessary. Ovid
carried the idea further. In the Epistle of Laodamia he described a
similar plan as actually in operation. During the absence of Protesilaiis,
Laodamia comforted herself, so far as possible, by lavishing affection
on his waxen image. Ovid showed her adding that his image was so life-
like that, if it should speak, one would believe it to be Protesilaiis.
Ovid imagined Pygmalion as following a similar course. But his
problem required a somewhat different answer. Both Admetus and
Laodamia had found a congenial human partner. Pygmalion had not.
The notorious conduct of the Propoetides, said Ovid, had impressed him
with the vices of actual women and made him unwilling to marry any
woman of his acquaintance. Therefore the statue did not represent some
particular individual but an ideal of womanhood.
Ovid imagined that Pygmalion himself made the statue, an idea
which added greatly to the interest of the tale. But he ought to have
warned his readers that Pygmalion had some training as a sculptor.
Ovid described the statue as carved in white ivory, a material used fre-
quently in ancient sculpture. He imagined a life-size figure standing on
a low pedestal. Made in ivory, this would require skillful joining of
many pieces. Probably the ivory was laid as a veneer over some other
material. The face, said Ovid, appeared to be that of a living woman,
with a warmth of feelings which modesty held in restraint. In the Art of
Love, Ovid had observed that, if art is concealed, it has a more desirable
effect. He now remarked that Pygmalion's art by concealing itself at-
tained the effect of life. Even Pygmalion was deceived. Although he
went so far as repeatedly to touch the statue with his hand, he could not
believe that it was ivory. He fell in love with his own creation. He even
fancied that it returned his kisses and that the surface yielded under
pressure of his fingers.
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? PYGMALION
Up to this point, Ovid had been adapting the tale of Philoste-
phanus. Now, adding ideas of Euripides, he skillfully elaborated them.
Pygmalion embraced the statue and addressed loving words to it. He
also brought gifts which would be pleasing to a girl, and he arrayed the
loved figure in appropriate clothing and jewels. With such adornment
it was beautiful, yet unadorned it was equally beautiful. Pygmalion
laid the statue on a bed, which he had provided with coverlets of Tyrian
purple and soft pillows, and he called it his wife.
Ovid seems to have invented the incidents which followed. At the
next ensuing festival of Venus, Pygmalion brought a gift to the altar
and timidly prayed that his future wife might be--like his ivory maiden.
Venus, understanding his intent, gave a favorable omen. The altar fire
three times leaped high in air.
Pygmalion returned home, anxious to look again on the image.
Ovid implied that it lay in a room which opened on the inner court and
that, when Pygmalion bent over the couch, behind him the sky was
visible through the open doorway. As he kissed the loved figure, it
seemed to be warm; and, as he laid his hand on the breast, the ivory be-
came more and more soft and yielding. Unwisely Ovid tried to illustrate
the sensation by an experience of his stay in Athens. It was, he said,
as if bee's wax from Mt. Hymettus were warmed in the sun and then
were moulded by the thumb into numerous forms and grew more respon-
sive with use. Pygmalion, afraid to credit the evidence of his senses,
made repeated trials. It was real flesh, with a pulse beating under his
thumb. After pouring out gratitude to Venus, Pygmalion turned again
to the maiden. Feeling his kiss on her lips, she timidly opened her eyes
and beheld at the same time the sky and her lover.
Ovid's remarkable story attracted many authors of later times.
Dryden translated it, and a number of other poets alluded to it. Some
recalled Pygmalion's success as an artist. Petrarch complimented Mar-
tini's painting of Laura by declaring that it reminded him of Pygma-
lion's achievement and awakened the regret that he could not hope to
converse in a similar manner with the beautiful likeness. Chaucer in The
Physician's Tale and Thomson in The Castle of Indolence referred to
Pygmalion as a sculptor of superlative ability. Thomson in this pas-
sage spoke of the statue as carved in marble, an idea which appeared
often in modern times. Other modern authors recalled Pygmalion's fall-
ing in love with his work. Rousseau declared in the Confessions that he
himself felt a similar susceptibility. Cowper observed gloomily in his
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
Progress of Error that Pygmalion was an ancient example of people
who love their own productions. Shelley in his Witch of Atlas remem-
bered both Pygmalion's skill in creation and his passion for the com-
pleted work.
Others recalled the transformation of the image into a living
woman. Shakespeare referred to it vaguely in Measure for Measure.
Schiller in his lyric The Ideal described it inaccurately. He declared
that just as Pygmalion, embracing the statue, had given it feeling; so
he himself, embracing Nature, had brought inanimate objects to life.
And Petrarch in his Triumph of Love noted among the god's followers
Pygmalion and his living bride.
A number of authors retold the story. Gower in the Confessio
Amantis followed Ovid closely. But most authors handled the subject
with considerable freedom. Jean de Meun expanded Ovid's account very
much, and, while recording the gifts which Pygmalion brought the
statue, he included almost every item of feminine dress and ornament.
He also added the circumstance that Pygmalion was in doubt whether
the statue had become a woman, until she spoke. This detail he seems
to have taken from the Epistle of Laodamia. The idea that Pygmalion
was convinced by her speaking appeared often in the work of modern
authors. John Marston chose Pygmalion as the subject of his first
work, a long narrative poem. Gray in a Latin Ode to the Prince of Wales
retold the latter part of Ovid's tale. And Goethe treated the theme in
an early lyric.
During the third quarter of the eighteenth century Rousseau made
Pygmalion the hero of a play. He called the maiden Galatea, and in
time this name won general acceptance. During the nineteenth century,
twenty English poets retold the story. The greater number of them
treated it seriously, and of these the most important was William
Morris in The Eartlily Paradise. His graceful narrative was illustrated
with four pictures by Burne-Jones. A few poets made the innovation of
treating the subject as comedy. Chief among them was W. S. Gilbert in
a successful play. He retold the tale as follows. Pygmalion originally
had a wife and chose her as the model for a statue. The image became
a woman and fell in love with Pygmalion. But, finding that he preferred
his wife, she willingly was transformed again into her original marble.
Certain authors imitated Ovid in tales of their own. Shakespeare
used several of Ovid's important ideas for the beautiful closing scene of
A Winter's Tale, the meeting between Leontes and the reputed statue of
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? PYGMALION
Hermione. In a narrative called Drowne's Wooden Image Hawthorne
skillfully adapted Ovid's theme to the life of prerevolutionary Boston.
Hazlitt's transcript of personal experience called Liber Amoris or the
New Pygmalion and Shaw's comedy entitled Pygmalion associated the
ancient myth with an attempt at spiritual transformation. Both authors
pictured a man undertaking to develop a crude, ignorant young woman
into a lady and meanwhile falling in love with her. In both cases the
hero's attempt was a failure.
Ovid's tale interested a few modern artists. Boucher treated it in
painting, Donner in a lead relief, and Falconet and Rodin in statuary.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
Myerha
After speaking of Pygmalion's daughter Paphos, Ovid added that
she was the mother of Cinyras. Previous authors had indicated that
Cinyras had a different parentage, and the Manual had called him a
child of Sandocus and Celenderis. The Manual noted that Cinyras
married a daughter of Pygmalion named Metharme, and so became
Pygmalion's son-in-law. In describing him as Pygmalion's grandson,
Ovid appears to have followed an Alexandrian author whose work now
is lost, perhaps Philostephanus.
Apparently following the same author, Ovid spoke of Cinyras as
a native of Cyprus. All others had named as his birthplace the main-
land of Asia Minor. But some had noted that he lived at least for a
while on the island. The Iliad mentioned him as king of Cyprus, and
the Manual observed that he migrated there with part of his followers.
Most authors indicated that Cinyras was by inheritance a king. Ovid
had suggested the contrary, for he had implied that his grandfather,
Pygmalion, was only a citizen of Amathus. Ovid now implied that
Cinyras was a king but offered no explanation as to how he obtained
the crown. According to the Iliad, Cinyras was contemporary with the
beginning of the Trojan War. Ovid imagined that he lived several gen-
erations earlier.
The Manual had noted that Cinyras and his wife, Metharme, were
parents of Adonis. Theodorus agreed that Cinyras was the father but
differed in other respects. The mother, he said, was a child of Cinyras
named Myrrha, and he declared that she had illicit relations with her
father. Ovid followed this version. In the tale of Byblis (Bk. 9), Ovid
had treated the theme of immoral relations between brother and sister.
He now planned to treat similar relations of parent and child. Before
proceeding to the tale, Ovid showed Orpheus giving an elaborate apology.
The minstrel advised both daughters and fathers to avoid acquaintance
with the story or at least to remember the punishment which followed the
offense. A warning to daughters and fathers might come appropriately
from Ovid, who addressed human beings, but not from Orpheus, who
addressed an audience of trees and wild animals. But in either case, the
moral would be anything but impressive, for both Ovid's predecessors
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? MYRRHA
and Ovid himself described the fate of Myrrha as a great and enduring
honor.
Vergil in the Georgics had praised Italy as more desirable than
spice-bearing Panchaia in Arabia and had observed that Italy is un-
visited by such ravening beasts as the tiger or such a mythological
terror as Jason's armed crop. Propertius had pronounced the Roman
domain fortunate in its creditable history and, after noting its freedom
from monstrous animals, had rejoiced also in its freedom from mytho-
logical crimes, one of them the horror of Thyestes deceived and devour-
ing his children, a horror from which even the sun had fled. Following
both passages, Ovid showed Orpheus congratulating Thrace on its re-
moteness from the scene of Myrrha's heinous offense and adding that
Thrace need not envy Panchaia its incense, while Panchaia continues to
grow the myrrh tree. Creation of this new tree was not worth the dis-
grace involved. Ovid implied that Myrrha was transformed in the region
of Panchaia. Later he spoke of the event as occurring, less appro-
priately, in the neighboring region of Sabaea.
Cupid disclaimed any share in provoking Myrrha, Orpheus con-
tinued. She was incited by one of the Furies. Previous authors had at-
tributed Myrrha's abnormal passion to Venus. The goddess was offended
with Myrrha, they said, and she took this way of punishing her. Ovid
implied later that he accepted their idea. But, remembering that Juno
had employed a Fury to provoke the crime of Athamas (Bk. 4), he
seems to have imagined that Venus employed a similar agent to provoke
the crime of Myrrha.
He then showed Orpheus recounting the tale. Most authors had
called the heroine Smyrna, and, according to one author, Cinyras had
founded the port of Smyrna and named it after his daughter. Ovid
called the girl Myrrha, an unusual dialect form of the name, because
this form was related to myrrha and murra, the Latin words for myrrh.
Panyasis had recorded the earliest version of the tale which still
survives. The girl offended Venus, he said, by failing to honor her and
was punished with lust for her father. Panyasis called the father Thias,
king of Assyria. With the aid of her nurse, the girl contrived to de-
ceive him and indulge in illicit relations during twelve nights. After a
while the father discovered her guilt and attempted to kill her with a
sword. Overtaken in flight, she implored the gods to save her. They
transformed her into the myrrh tree, which Panyasis may have regarded
as native to Assyria. In time Adonis was born from the tree. This
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