Four centuries later this
expedition
became the theme of an enormous
work by the Greek poet Nonnus.
work by the Greek poet Nonnus.
Ovid - 1934 - Metamorphoses in European Culture - v1
Probably his version owed
much to Euripides; but he seems to have been original at least while
treating the madness of the king, for Vergil in the Aeneid referred to
Pentheus as seeing double and being terrified by the Furies. Horace
alluded to the . story more than once. And Propertius referred both
to Pentheus and the mariners.
Ovid mentioned Pentheus briefly in the Tristia and in the Ibis. For
the Metamorphoses he evidently took suggestions from all his impor-
tant predecessors. But he so altered and rearranged the details as
to give a most unfavorable impression of Pentheus. This gave the
account unity and a more powerful effect. Later Ovid was to use the
same method even more successfully in the tale of Erisychthon (Bk. 8).
During the early part of the story, Ovid profited chiefly by the
work of Euripides. But while following the general movement of the
plav, he arranged every detail with regard to the predetermined effect.
He introduced the king as the godless Pentheus and showed him heap-
ing uncalled for abuse on the blind Tiresias. Unlike Euripides, Ovid
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? PENTHEVS
represented Pentheus as alone in his impious opposition. All the rest
hastened to do Bacchus honor. Instead of giving the king a reason-
able ground for his conduct, Ovid represented him as making vague
charges that Bacchus was effeminate and an imposter. And he re-
corded that the king's uncle and all the counsellors remonstrated,
with no result except to augment his angry obstinacy.
In the speech of Pentheus Ovid showed the king praising the oppo-
sition given Bacchus by Acrisius ruler of Argos. This event the
Manual narrated as occurring after the death of Pentheus. But Ovid
ignored the difficulty in order to score a rhetorical point. Ovid al-
lowed Pentheus to declare also that the older Thebans had come from
Tyre. In this he followed the Manual, forgetting that in his own
account only Cadmus had survived the encounter with the snake.
Following Euripides, Ovid had the king's attendants bring in a
prisoner and he even hinted that this was really the god. But Ovid
made the prisoner ostensibly a Lydian priest of Bacchus, named
Acoetes. Recalling both Menander and Theocritus, Ovid showed
Acoetes' father as the typical fisherman of Alexandrian poetry--
always hopeful and always poor.
As a warning for Pentheus, Nicander had caused Tiresias to repeat
the tale of Bacchus and the Mariners. Ovid gave it instead to the
former sea captain Acoetes and thus gained the advantage of narra-
tive by an eye witness. In order to attain a still more lively effect,
Ovid tried, like the Manual, to have his geography precise. But he
felt unable to make the point of departure Icaria. Tradition brought
the god there only much later. Accordingly he showed the sailors
meeting with Bacchus in the island of Chios. If they intended to pro-
ceed from there to some port on the Asiatic coast, it was not probable
that they would pass within view of Naxos, an island near the middle
of the Aegean Sea. But regarding this matter Ovid could assume
that the Romans would not inquire too curiously.
In the tale of the mariners Ovid pursued his former policy. He was
careful to discredit as much as possible the opponents of Bacchus.
Acoetes he described as a lawful tradesman, so that for the time at
least the rest were not pirates. But evidently they were in other
respects an impious and flagitious lot. Ovid identified Acoetes with
the pious helmsman of Nicander's version, but he made him at the
same time the captain. By flouting his wishes, the crew incurred the
additional guilt of mutiny. Nicander had shown them abducting the
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK III
god. by force. The Manual had shown them breaking their solemn
promi|e to land him in Naxos. Ovid made them guilty of both offenses.
On each occasion he showed Acoetes protesting and endeavoring to
prevent their evil conduct and the crew not only deriding their com-
mander but overcoming him by violence. Ovid then added a most
reasonable but unavailing remonstrance by the god himself. He made
it as plain as possible that the god's opponents were guilty of deliber-
ate, repeated and heinous wrong doing. And with the Manual, he
showed them unrepentant to the last.
For the miraculous escape of Bacchus, Ovid retained what was best
in the accounts of both Nicander and the Manual. Both the god and
the ship kept their original form. Ivy with clusters of berries twined
about the oars and masts, and the sailors in terror leaped overboard to
become dolphins. But Ovid invented the god's appearing with a crown
of ivy berries on his head and surrounded by the shapes of tigers,
lynxes, and panthers. Following Nicander he described the trans-
formation elaborately. The passage was a fine close for a spirited
narrative. But Ovid erred in making the dolphin scaly.
After listening to this adventure, Pentheus might have objected
with some justice either that the tale was unsubstantiated or that his
own opposition to Bacchus was quite different from that of the muti-
nous sailors. But Ovid was careful not to let him appear so reason-
able. He showed him angrily ordering that Acoetes should be dragged
away to a death by torture. Then, profiting by the example of
Euripides, Ovid told of the prisoner's magical release.
When Pentheus went forth unattended to spy on the Bacchanals,
Euripides had imagined him deluded by madness. And both Euripides
and Theocritus had spoken of his attempting to conceal himself. Ovid,
preferring the implication of the Manual, showed him moved by sheer
wickedness and folly and proceeding rashly without any precaution.
Such conduct was less probable but would avoid any possible sym-
pathy for the king.
While recording the death of Pentheus, Ovid wisely profited by
details from both Euripides and Theocritus. But he added further
details and marked the stages of the action more carefully. Both
Euripides and Theocritus had shown Pentheus offering some alarmed
remonstrance; but Ovid heightened the previous unfavorable impres-
sion by adding that Pentheus admitted his guilt and became abject
with fear.
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? PENTHEUS
For so gross an offender Ovid thought apparently that the punish-
ment was justified. With Euripides he showed that the women mis-
took Pentheus for a dangerous beast. But he did not imply that they
ever regretted their crime. Since Pentheus was not only their king
but also their near kinsman, such regret would have seemed more
probable as well as more humane. To this mistake Ovid added another
which was more conspicuous. In the beginning he had shown all the
Thebans except Pentheus hastening to do Bacchus honor. He now
returned abruptly to the traditional account ancj declared that the
people were converted by the fate of their king.
On the whole Ovid's version was more easily understood and more
effective than those of his predecessors. It was also far more accessible
to the majority of readers. Lucan referred only to Euripides and
Seneca ignored Ovid while telling in his Oedipus of both Pentheus and
the mariners. But all other writers mentioned the subject with ref-
erence to the Metamorphoses.
Spenser compared the Souldan's wife, Adicia, to the mad Agave.
Milton used the adventure with the mariners as the occasion for
Bacchus' meeting with Circe and becoming the father of Comus. He
mentioned Ovid's detail of the ivy crown as characteristic of the god
at this time.
While recording the attempt of the Theban elders to dissuade Pen-
theus, Ovid had likened the King to a gently murmuring stream which
grows violent when impeded by a dam. Though hardly appropriate
for the conduct of Pentheus, the comparison inspired a charming pas-
sage in Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona:
The current that with gentle murmur glides,
Thou know'st, being stopped, impatiently doth rage;
But, when his fair course is not hindered,
He makes sweet music with enamelled stones,
Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge
He overtaketh in his pilgrimage,
And so by many winding nooks he strays,
With willing sport to the wild ocean.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK III
For the Third Book, Ovid dealt almost entirely with themes long
familiar and often treated by Greek literature. Some of the tales had
become known also through Greek art. This material was even better
known to the ancients than the material which Ovid had chosen for
his First Book. Yet with Roman authors it had been far less popu-
lar. Only Pentheus had received any careful treatment. To Ovid
therefore the credit is due for transmitting this part of Greek culture
to the medieval and modern world.
In contrast with the tales of the Second Book, those of the Third
had been related closely to one another and had often attracted
poets of marked ability. The problem was not one of inventing order
and creating interest, but of improving what was already good and of
giving to what was familiar an effect of novelty. This Ovid attempted
with remarkable success. '
As before, Ovid relied chiefly on versions written during Alexan-
drian times. The Manual became far more valuable than it had been
hitherto and furnished at least the outline for almost every story.
Nicander was less prominent. Yet almost always he could supply
poetic details and a striking event, and he was probably Ovid's chief
model for the very important myth of Narcissus. In certain tales
Euripides proved especially helpful; in others Ovid profited by the
example of Theocritus and Bion. Catullus made a valuable contribu-
tion to the treatment of Narcissus and Vergil to that of Semele. As
usual Ovid borrowed often, but with judgment. He omitted much that
was unsuitable; heightened what was effective; and improved almost
every tale with striking ideas of his own. And always his style was
distinguished by beauty and vigor.
In medieval times, the Third Book awakened unusual enthusiasm.
The myth of Cadmus became a favorite in Provence; the myths of
Actaeon and Narcissus were even longer and more widely admired.
The Renaissance showed great interest in almost the entire book. And
many of the stories continued to be important, even during the eras
which followed.
Among individual authors, this book attracted a large, and a re-
markably varied company. Prominent among those not usually show-
ing fondness for Ovid were Rousseau, Schiller, and Tennyson. An
especially interesting effect appeared in the work of Tasso and Shelley.
Dante, Camoens, and Shakespeare recalled many tales. Spenser used
almost every story, often for important passages of his own. Addison
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? PENTHEUS
translated the entire book, adding valuable criticism. From boyhood
to age Milton admired all the chief tales and he profited by them in
great passages of Comus and Paradise Lost.
Most of the tales have interested modern painters, and Actaeon,
Semele, and Narcissus have attracted an unusual number, although
masterpieces were few. The myth of Narcissus interested sculptors
also and even bore a minor part in the history of opera.
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? BOOK FOUR
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? BOOK FOUR
The Daughters of Minyas
At the close of the Third Book Ovid had mentioned the general
acceptance of Bacchus in his native Thebes. The Fourth Book
opened with a brief account of the festival in his honor. This per-
mitted Ovid to describe the god's appearance. In older Greek art
Bacchus had been represented as a bearded man crowned with ivy or
grape leaves and swathed in a long tunic. But in the time of Praxiteles
he acquired a more voluptuous form. Painting and sculpture repre-
sented him as a soft young man in scanty attire, and Euripides appears
to have followed the newer conception in his famous play. Profiting by
this idea, Ovid described the god as a very young man endowed with
almost maidenly beauty and with perennial youth.
In accord with religious practice, Ovid showed the worshipers trying
to enumerate all the many titles of their god. By using such a cata-
logue, they hoped to include any title of which he might be particularly
fond. And this gave Ovid a chance to mention the extraordinary tra-
dition of his having two mothers. It was natural likewise for the wor-
shipers to recall famous exploits of the god. Among these was the
conquest of Asia. Euripides had extended it as far as the eastern
limits of Persia. But the subsequent expedition of Alexander the
Great into India suggested a mythical conquest extending to the
remote and picturesque shores of the Ganges. The new myth allowed
Greek poets to compliment Alexander by likening his achievements to
those of his divine predecessor, and Vergil had paid a similar tribute
to the Emperor Augustus. Ovid found the Indian expedition recorded
briefly in the Manual and gladly mentioned it in his own account.
Four centuries later this expedition became the theme of an enormous
work by the Greek poet Nonnus.
Ovid added also a sketch of the strange procession which was sup-
posed to accompany Bacchus. A longer and more brilliant descrip-
tion he reserved for his myth of Ariadne in the Fasti.
While describing the Bacchic festival, Ovid needed only to improve
on hints in the Manual. But he made this festival the occasion for
introducing a story of three sisters who defied the god and incurred
a memorable punishment.
Both the names and the story varied with different accounts.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK IV
Originally the three girls were said to have been natives of Argos.
When Bacchus visited the city, they deliberately remained at home
weaving, instead of going forth to welcome the god. As punishment,
Bacchus drove them mad and caused them to draw lots and devour
one of their children. The story was told by Corinna, a poetess
reputed to have been the teacher of Pindar, and by Aeschylus in a
play called the Xantriae. It was commemorated by a festival called
the Agriona, held annually in Argos and other Greek cities.
Nicander gave the myth a quite different form. He localized it in
Orchomenus, an ancient city perhaps a day's journey to the north-
west of Thebes. The three girls, he said, were daughters of Minyas,
the supposed founder of Orchomenus, and their names were Leucippe,
Leuconoe, and Alcithoe. Nicander assigned also a different punish-
ment. Bacchus, he said, first appeared in a variety of alarming
shapes and transformed their woven fabric into a fruitful vine, then
metamorphosed the girls themselves--one of them into a bat, another
into a duck, and the third into an owl.
Following Nicander, Ovid called the sisters daughters of Minyas.
But he transferred their adventure to the well known city of Thebes.
He imagined it as occurring immediately after the triumph of Bacchus
over Pentheus. In the previous tale, Ovid had described Pentheus as
wicked and godless. By a prudent contrast, he represented the daugh-
ters of Minyas as ordinarily industrious and pious. They did honor to
Minerva, patroness of household arts, and admitted that a real god
would have power to do anything. But they refused to acknowledge
the divinity of Bacchus. In the account of their punishment, Ovid
followed Nicander; but he simplified and improved the conclusion by
turning all three girls into bats.
Ovid's tale of the three sisters interested a number of later authors.
La Fontaine repeated it in his poem The Daughters of Minyas. Both
Camoens in the Lusiad and Milton in the Animadversions remembered
Ovid's statement that Bacchus had two mothers; and Camoens de-
scribed the god's Indian expedition as sculptured on the Palace of
Calicut. In Alexander's Feast Dryden followed. Ovid while picturing
a triumph of Bacchus and especially in the repeated line
Bacchus ever fair and ever young.
Titian seems to have used Ovid's triumph of Bacchus for his paint-
ing.
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? PYRAMUS AND THISBE
Ovid's innovation was not confined to introducing a story about the
daughters of Minyas. He imagined that, while weaving, the three
girls entertained themselves by telling other stories. . These tales,
although of great interest and very appropriate for Ovid's general
purpose, would not enter easily into the sequence of his poem. They
did not belong naturally to any definite time, or to any organized
cycle such as the mythical history of Thebes, and they were quite
unrelated to one another. But they could be told by a group of
people whiling away a comparatively idle hour. In a similar manner
Ovid was able afterwards to introduce tales recounted by a group of
heroes detained in the residence of Achelous (Bk. 8) and other tales
by the Greek heroes besieging Troy (Bk. 12). The number and length
of the stories told by the daughters of Minyas served the further
purpose of emphasizing their neglect of Bacchus and preparing for
their punishment. A similar effect Ovid was to obtain later by assign-
ing a number of tales to Orpheus (Bks. 10 and 11).
The stories which Ovid gave the . daughters of Minyas comprised
three groups--one told by each sister. Every group began with a
rather short introductory passage and then proceeded to a tale of
some length. Introducing the first and third groups, Ovid alluded
to a number of myths each containing a metamorphosis; introducing
the second group, he told briefly the adultery of Mars and Venus.
Almost all the stories, both short and long, were localized in Asia
Minor, and all the longer stories dealt with love. Almost all the stories
appear to have entered Greek literature during Alexandrian times.
Some of them Ovid probably found in the work of Nicander. The rest
he seems to have taken from a lost Alexandrian collection of oriental
tales which later was to furnish him the myth of Latona and the
Lycian rustics (Bk. 6) and the celebrated idyl of Philemon and
Baucis (Bk. 8). In the first and the third groups, Ovid caused the
daughters of Minyas to indicate that the longer tales were new--to
themselves and probably also to Ovid's Roman contemporaries.
Pyramus and Thisbe
Leucippe, the first narrator, Ovid pictured as weighing the merits
of four mythical stories, all of them localized in regions of Asia Minor
little known to the Greeks and Romans. Three of them she rejected as
well known; the fourth she told as something quite new.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK IV
Of the three tales which Leucippe rejected, the first dealt with
Atargatis, a Syrian goddess of love who was supposed to appear in
the shape of a dove or a fish. Her divine lover was Hadad. From
her the Greeks derived their goddess Venus, and her lover hecame the
celebrated Adonis (cf. Bk. 10). But the Greeks knew her also as an
unfamiliar goddess of the Semites, whom they called Dercetis. She
was believed at one time to have loved a mortal and to have borne him
a daughter, who afterwards became the Assyrian queen Semiramis.
But, ashamed of loving one so far beneath her, she destroyed the
youth; exposed her daughter; and absconded in the shape of a fish.
To this tradition Ovid alluded, localizing the event vaguely in Pales-
tine.
The second tale related to the daughter, Semiramis. According to
tradition, doves had fed the babe until she was found and adopted by
a shepherd. In time Semiramis was reported to have married Ninus,
king of Babylon, and to have commemorated him with a tomb, which
Ovid was to mention in the subsequent tale of Pyramus. At length
she became a dove and vanished from human sight. Ovid mentioned
her frequenting white towers because the ancients thought buildings
of this color specially attractive to doves.
The third myth had been recorded first by Nearchus, a general of
Alexander, who brought the conqueror's fleet from the Indus back to
the Euphrates. He told of a Naiad who transformed her lovers into
fishes and incurred a like fate herself. To Tasso Ovid's allusion sug-
gested a remarkable incident in which Armida metamorphosed
Gugliemo into a fish.
The fourth story, which Leucippe told at length, was the famous
myth of Pyramus and Thisbe. Originally the tale ran to the following
effect: Pyramus and Thisbe were young lovers dwelling in the central
part of Asia Minor. Finding their parents opposed to their marriage,
they planned to flee covertly. The plan miscarried and both perished.
Pyramus became a large river coursing southward to the coast of
Cilicia, Thisbe a neighboring spring. This version was mentioned
long after by Nonnus.
An unknown Alexandrian author contemporary with Nicander
transferred the myth northeastward to Babylon and gave it a different
ending. Blood of the dying Pyramus, he said, darkened the fruit of a
mulberry tree, and Thisbe prayed that the berries might retain their
new color as a perpetual reminder of the event. She herself did not
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? PYRAMUS AND THISBE
experience a metamorphosis. This version appeared in a Pompeian
fresco of Thisbe's death.
Ovid retold the tale with admirable brevity and beauty. In a few
words he named the lovers; indicated the setting; and mentioned their
affection, which was occasioned by proximity and grew stronger with
parental opposition. Then he recorded the discovery of a hidden
fissure in the wall dividing their houses and the naive converse of the
lovers until nightfall. Indicating with a few poetic touches the return
of day, he outlined their plan to escape that night and meet under a
tall mulberry tree by the tomb of Ninus. Although concise, he de-
scribed the scene graphically.
Thisbe, he said, arrived safely at the tree but fled at the approach
of a lioness, leaving behind her cloak. The lioness, fresh from devour-
ing cattle, rent and stained it with her bloody jaws. The incident
was probable and effective, but Ovid made it less credible by adding
that first the lioness drank abundantly from a nearby spring.
Pyramus, arriving soon after, discovered the bloody cloak and the
tracks of the beast. Imagining that Thisbe had perished, he held him-
self to blame and imprudently resolved to kill himself at once. Fatally
wounded by his sword, he lay struggling under the mulberry tree, and
his blood soaking into the earth passed upwards through the roots to
darken the snow white berries overhead. The idea was plausible and
striking. But for more graphic effect, Ovid added that the blood
spurted also, like water from a lead pipe, and shot high enough to
sprinkle the fruit of the tall tree? a detail which was neither probable
nor happy. If
Thisbe returned timidly and was at first doubtful whether this
could really be the appointed place. In the uncertain moonlight and
at a time of great agitation, her doubt was very natural. But Ovid
imagined that she was perplexed by the altered color of the mulberries.
For the conclusion of the tale, it was essential that Thisbe should
notice the change. Yet Ovid introduced the discovery under improb-
able circumstances. Thisbe would have neither light nor leisure for
so nice an observation. Ovid then described effectively her terror at
seeing her dying lover and her frantic efforts to rouse him. And he
added that on hearing her loved name, Pyramus opened his eyes;
recognized her; and sank to death. Ovid recorded effectively the final
request of Thisbe; her death on her lover's sword; and the burial of the
unfortunate lovers in a common urn.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK IV
In this tale Ovid found a theme of perennial interest. His treat-
ment was good, not only in the main incidents but in many beautiful
details. The faults were confined to non-essentials. And Ovid's was
the only lengthy account which still survived in medieval and modern
times.
The Roman mythographer Hyginus repeated the tale briefly, fol-
lowing Ovid's version.
In medieval Latin the story soon attracted attention. A German
named Wibert, writing near the middle of the eleventh century, quoted
in his Life of Leo Ovid's words to the effect that the more a fire is
covered the hotter it burns. Two unknown Latin poets retold the
story in the thirteenth century. And Gower repeated it in his Con-
fessio Amantis.
Meanwhile the tale of Pyramus had attracted vernacular poets of
northern France. About the middle of the twelfth century an un-
known author made a free translation of it. Chretien de Troyes used
the tale repeatedly. In his Erec he showed the hero believing mis-
takenly that his lady was dead and planning suicide; in his Lancelot
he showed both hero and heroine making the mistake and preparing
to die. But in both cases Chretien avoided a tragic ending. For his
Yvain Chretien adapted many of Ovid's incidents in the following
curious form: Yvain arrived at a certain large tree, shading a spring
and not far from a small building. Fainting with grief and weariness,
he accidentally wounded himself. His tame lion, coming upon him,
believed him dead and ran on the sword. Yvain, reviving, guessed the
cause of the faithful creature's death and would have killed himself
for grief. But Lunete, calling from the building, diverted his atten-
tion. He discovered that she was imprisoned but he was able to con-
verse with her through a fissure in the wall. ^
Not long after Chretien's time, Jean Bonnard retold Ovid's myth
while translating the tale of Susanna. A lost Book of Pyramus re-
peated the story at some length and probably in the manner of con-
temporary Arthurian romance. Towards the middle of the thirteenth
century an unknown poet told the story again, with needless elabora-
tion of incident and much supersubtle analysis of love. He gave
special attention to the converse of the lovers through the wall, ex-
panding twenty-eight lines of Ovid to six hundred of his own! And
the incident of the dying Pyramus opening his eyes to look on Thisbe
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? PYRAMUS AND THISBE
inspired a similar incident in a fourteenth century treatment of Nar-
cissus.
The tale of Pyramus was popular also outside France. Lesser
poets repeated it in German and Dutch. In all countries of western
Europe, the story was taught in the schools and became a theme for
rhetorical exercises of the clergy. It was repeated orally by unedu-
cated and spread slowly eastward until at length de Remusat found
it circulating even in China.
Dante shared the interest of his time. In his treatise on Monarchy
he went quite out of his way to cite the lines where Ovid mentioned
Ninus and Semiramis. He returned to the myth twice in his Purgatorio.
When Vergil reminded him that beyond the flames was Beatrice,
Dante responded to her dear name as promptly as the dying Pyramus
fo that of Thisbe. And a few cantos later Beatrice explained to
Dante that he failed to discern the meaning of a sacred tree because
vain thoughts darkened his mind as the blood of Pyramus darkened
the mulberries. Boccacio told of Pyramus in his Fiametta and again
in his treatise, Famous Women. Petrarch mentioned Pyramus and
Thisbe in his Triumph of Love.
Chaucer found the subject of special interest. In the Merchant's
Tale he cited the discovery of the hidden fissure in the wall and com-
mended Ovid for observing how skilfully lovers find a way. The
Parliament of Fowls referred to the story as painted on the walls of a
temple of Venus. And in the Legend of Good Women Chaucer named
Thisbe among famous beauties of old and later retold the story in full.
He expanded Ovid's account pleasantly, treating with even more deli-
cacy the terror and laments of the unhappy lovers; but he was unduly
anxious to show that women are the more loyal. The darkening of
the mulberries he carefully omitted.
Boiardo and Camoens both associated the mulberry with Ovid's
tragic story. Tasso remembered that nearness and early association
caused the love of Pyramus and Thisbe and attributed the same ex-
perience to his Aminta and Silvia. In his Jerusalem Delivered the inci-
dent of Pyramus opening his eyes reappeared effectively when Erminia
met with the wounded and unconscious Tancred. And Tasso retold
Ovid's entire story more than once in his minor writings.
Castillejo treated the myth of Pyramus in narrative verse. Monte-
mayor treated it in prose.
much to Euripides; but he seems to have been original at least while
treating the madness of the king, for Vergil in the Aeneid referred to
Pentheus as seeing double and being terrified by the Furies. Horace
alluded to the . story more than once. And Propertius referred both
to Pentheus and the mariners.
Ovid mentioned Pentheus briefly in the Tristia and in the Ibis. For
the Metamorphoses he evidently took suggestions from all his impor-
tant predecessors. But he so altered and rearranged the details as
to give a most unfavorable impression of Pentheus. This gave the
account unity and a more powerful effect. Later Ovid was to use the
same method even more successfully in the tale of Erisychthon (Bk. 8).
During the early part of the story, Ovid profited chiefly by the
work of Euripides. But while following the general movement of the
plav, he arranged every detail with regard to the predetermined effect.
He introduced the king as the godless Pentheus and showed him heap-
ing uncalled for abuse on the blind Tiresias. Unlike Euripides, Ovid
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? PENTHEVS
represented Pentheus as alone in his impious opposition. All the rest
hastened to do Bacchus honor. Instead of giving the king a reason-
able ground for his conduct, Ovid represented him as making vague
charges that Bacchus was effeminate and an imposter. And he re-
corded that the king's uncle and all the counsellors remonstrated,
with no result except to augment his angry obstinacy.
In the speech of Pentheus Ovid showed the king praising the oppo-
sition given Bacchus by Acrisius ruler of Argos. This event the
Manual narrated as occurring after the death of Pentheus. But Ovid
ignored the difficulty in order to score a rhetorical point. Ovid al-
lowed Pentheus to declare also that the older Thebans had come from
Tyre. In this he followed the Manual, forgetting that in his own
account only Cadmus had survived the encounter with the snake.
Following Euripides, Ovid had the king's attendants bring in a
prisoner and he even hinted that this was really the god. But Ovid
made the prisoner ostensibly a Lydian priest of Bacchus, named
Acoetes. Recalling both Menander and Theocritus, Ovid showed
Acoetes' father as the typical fisherman of Alexandrian poetry--
always hopeful and always poor.
As a warning for Pentheus, Nicander had caused Tiresias to repeat
the tale of Bacchus and the Mariners. Ovid gave it instead to the
former sea captain Acoetes and thus gained the advantage of narra-
tive by an eye witness. In order to attain a still more lively effect,
Ovid tried, like the Manual, to have his geography precise. But he
felt unable to make the point of departure Icaria. Tradition brought
the god there only much later. Accordingly he showed the sailors
meeting with Bacchus in the island of Chios. If they intended to pro-
ceed from there to some port on the Asiatic coast, it was not probable
that they would pass within view of Naxos, an island near the middle
of the Aegean Sea. But regarding this matter Ovid could assume
that the Romans would not inquire too curiously.
In the tale of the mariners Ovid pursued his former policy. He was
careful to discredit as much as possible the opponents of Bacchus.
Acoetes he described as a lawful tradesman, so that for the time at
least the rest were not pirates. But evidently they were in other
respects an impious and flagitious lot. Ovid identified Acoetes with
the pious helmsman of Nicander's version, but he made him at the
same time the captain. By flouting his wishes, the crew incurred the
additional guilt of mutiny. Nicander had shown them abducting the
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK III
god. by force. The Manual had shown them breaking their solemn
promi|e to land him in Naxos. Ovid made them guilty of both offenses.
On each occasion he showed Acoetes protesting and endeavoring to
prevent their evil conduct and the crew not only deriding their com-
mander but overcoming him by violence. Ovid then added a most
reasonable but unavailing remonstrance by the god himself. He made
it as plain as possible that the god's opponents were guilty of deliber-
ate, repeated and heinous wrong doing. And with the Manual, he
showed them unrepentant to the last.
For the miraculous escape of Bacchus, Ovid retained what was best
in the accounts of both Nicander and the Manual. Both the god and
the ship kept their original form. Ivy with clusters of berries twined
about the oars and masts, and the sailors in terror leaped overboard to
become dolphins. But Ovid invented the god's appearing with a crown
of ivy berries on his head and surrounded by the shapes of tigers,
lynxes, and panthers. Following Nicander he described the trans-
formation elaborately. The passage was a fine close for a spirited
narrative. But Ovid erred in making the dolphin scaly.
After listening to this adventure, Pentheus might have objected
with some justice either that the tale was unsubstantiated or that his
own opposition to Bacchus was quite different from that of the muti-
nous sailors. But Ovid was careful not to let him appear so reason-
able. He showed him angrily ordering that Acoetes should be dragged
away to a death by torture. Then, profiting by the example of
Euripides, Ovid told of the prisoner's magical release.
When Pentheus went forth unattended to spy on the Bacchanals,
Euripides had imagined him deluded by madness. And both Euripides
and Theocritus had spoken of his attempting to conceal himself. Ovid,
preferring the implication of the Manual, showed him moved by sheer
wickedness and folly and proceeding rashly without any precaution.
Such conduct was less probable but would avoid any possible sym-
pathy for the king.
While recording the death of Pentheus, Ovid wisely profited by
details from both Euripides and Theocritus. But he added further
details and marked the stages of the action more carefully. Both
Euripides and Theocritus had shown Pentheus offering some alarmed
remonstrance; but Ovid heightened the previous unfavorable impres-
sion by adding that Pentheus admitted his guilt and became abject
with fear.
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? PENTHEUS
For so gross an offender Ovid thought apparently that the punish-
ment was justified. With Euripides he showed that the women mis-
took Pentheus for a dangerous beast. But he did not imply that they
ever regretted their crime. Since Pentheus was not only their king
but also their near kinsman, such regret would have seemed more
probable as well as more humane. To this mistake Ovid added another
which was more conspicuous. In the beginning he had shown all the
Thebans except Pentheus hastening to do Bacchus honor. He now
returned abruptly to the traditional account ancj declared that the
people were converted by the fate of their king.
On the whole Ovid's version was more easily understood and more
effective than those of his predecessors. It was also far more accessible
to the majority of readers. Lucan referred only to Euripides and
Seneca ignored Ovid while telling in his Oedipus of both Pentheus and
the mariners. But all other writers mentioned the subject with ref-
erence to the Metamorphoses.
Spenser compared the Souldan's wife, Adicia, to the mad Agave.
Milton used the adventure with the mariners as the occasion for
Bacchus' meeting with Circe and becoming the father of Comus. He
mentioned Ovid's detail of the ivy crown as characteristic of the god
at this time.
While recording the attempt of the Theban elders to dissuade Pen-
theus, Ovid had likened the King to a gently murmuring stream which
grows violent when impeded by a dam. Though hardly appropriate
for the conduct of Pentheus, the comparison inspired a charming pas-
sage in Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona:
The current that with gentle murmur glides,
Thou know'st, being stopped, impatiently doth rage;
But, when his fair course is not hindered,
He makes sweet music with enamelled stones,
Giving a gentle kiss to every sedge
He overtaketh in his pilgrimage,
And so by many winding nooks he strays,
With willing sport to the wild ocean.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK III
For the Third Book, Ovid dealt almost entirely with themes long
familiar and often treated by Greek literature. Some of the tales had
become known also through Greek art. This material was even better
known to the ancients than the material which Ovid had chosen for
his First Book. Yet with Roman authors it had been far less popu-
lar. Only Pentheus had received any careful treatment. To Ovid
therefore the credit is due for transmitting this part of Greek culture
to the medieval and modern world.
In contrast with the tales of the Second Book, those of the Third
had been related closely to one another and had often attracted
poets of marked ability. The problem was not one of inventing order
and creating interest, but of improving what was already good and of
giving to what was familiar an effect of novelty. This Ovid attempted
with remarkable success. '
As before, Ovid relied chiefly on versions written during Alexan-
drian times. The Manual became far more valuable than it had been
hitherto and furnished at least the outline for almost every story.
Nicander was less prominent. Yet almost always he could supply
poetic details and a striking event, and he was probably Ovid's chief
model for the very important myth of Narcissus. In certain tales
Euripides proved especially helpful; in others Ovid profited by the
example of Theocritus and Bion. Catullus made a valuable contribu-
tion to the treatment of Narcissus and Vergil to that of Semele. As
usual Ovid borrowed often, but with judgment. He omitted much that
was unsuitable; heightened what was effective; and improved almost
every tale with striking ideas of his own. And always his style was
distinguished by beauty and vigor.
In medieval times, the Third Book awakened unusual enthusiasm.
The myth of Cadmus became a favorite in Provence; the myths of
Actaeon and Narcissus were even longer and more widely admired.
The Renaissance showed great interest in almost the entire book. And
many of the stories continued to be important, even during the eras
which followed.
Among individual authors, this book attracted a large, and a re-
markably varied company. Prominent among those not usually show-
ing fondness for Ovid were Rousseau, Schiller, and Tennyson. An
especially interesting effect appeared in the work of Tasso and Shelley.
Dante, Camoens, and Shakespeare recalled many tales. Spenser used
almost every story, often for important passages of his own. Addison
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? PENTHEUS
translated the entire book, adding valuable criticism. From boyhood
to age Milton admired all the chief tales and he profited by them in
great passages of Comus and Paradise Lost.
Most of the tales have interested modern painters, and Actaeon,
Semele, and Narcissus have attracted an unusual number, although
masterpieces were few. The myth of Narcissus interested sculptors
also and even bore a minor part in the history of opera.
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? BOOK FOUR
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? BOOK FOUR
The Daughters of Minyas
At the close of the Third Book Ovid had mentioned the general
acceptance of Bacchus in his native Thebes. The Fourth Book
opened with a brief account of the festival in his honor. This per-
mitted Ovid to describe the god's appearance. In older Greek art
Bacchus had been represented as a bearded man crowned with ivy or
grape leaves and swathed in a long tunic. But in the time of Praxiteles
he acquired a more voluptuous form. Painting and sculpture repre-
sented him as a soft young man in scanty attire, and Euripides appears
to have followed the newer conception in his famous play. Profiting by
this idea, Ovid described the god as a very young man endowed with
almost maidenly beauty and with perennial youth.
In accord with religious practice, Ovid showed the worshipers trying
to enumerate all the many titles of their god. By using such a cata-
logue, they hoped to include any title of which he might be particularly
fond. And this gave Ovid a chance to mention the extraordinary tra-
dition of his having two mothers. It was natural likewise for the wor-
shipers to recall famous exploits of the god. Among these was the
conquest of Asia. Euripides had extended it as far as the eastern
limits of Persia. But the subsequent expedition of Alexander the
Great into India suggested a mythical conquest extending to the
remote and picturesque shores of the Ganges. The new myth allowed
Greek poets to compliment Alexander by likening his achievements to
those of his divine predecessor, and Vergil had paid a similar tribute
to the Emperor Augustus. Ovid found the Indian expedition recorded
briefly in the Manual and gladly mentioned it in his own account.
Four centuries later this expedition became the theme of an enormous
work by the Greek poet Nonnus.
Ovid added also a sketch of the strange procession which was sup-
posed to accompany Bacchus. A longer and more brilliant descrip-
tion he reserved for his myth of Ariadne in the Fasti.
While describing the Bacchic festival, Ovid needed only to improve
on hints in the Manual. But he made this festival the occasion for
introducing a story of three sisters who defied the god and incurred
a memorable punishment.
Both the names and the story varied with different accounts.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK IV
Originally the three girls were said to have been natives of Argos.
When Bacchus visited the city, they deliberately remained at home
weaving, instead of going forth to welcome the god. As punishment,
Bacchus drove them mad and caused them to draw lots and devour
one of their children. The story was told by Corinna, a poetess
reputed to have been the teacher of Pindar, and by Aeschylus in a
play called the Xantriae. It was commemorated by a festival called
the Agriona, held annually in Argos and other Greek cities.
Nicander gave the myth a quite different form. He localized it in
Orchomenus, an ancient city perhaps a day's journey to the north-
west of Thebes. The three girls, he said, were daughters of Minyas,
the supposed founder of Orchomenus, and their names were Leucippe,
Leuconoe, and Alcithoe. Nicander assigned also a different punish-
ment. Bacchus, he said, first appeared in a variety of alarming
shapes and transformed their woven fabric into a fruitful vine, then
metamorphosed the girls themselves--one of them into a bat, another
into a duck, and the third into an owl.
Following Nicander, Ovid called the sisters daughters of Minyas.
But he transferred their adventure to the well known city of Thebes.
He imagined it as occurring immediately after the triumph of Bacchus
over Pentheus. In the previous tale, Ovid had described Pentheus as
wicked and godless. By a prudent contrast, he represented the daugh-
ters of Minyas as ordinarily industrious and pious. They did honor to
Minerva, patroness of household arts, and admitted that a real god
would have power to do anything. But they refused to acknowledge
the divinity of Bacchus. In the account of their punishment, Ovid
followed Nicander; but he simplified and improved the conclusion by
turning all three girls into bats.
Ovid's tale of the three sisters interested a number of later authors.
La Fontaine repeated it in his poem The Daughters of Minyas. Both
Camoens in the Lusiad and Milton in the Animadversions remembered
Ovid's statement that Bacchus had two mothers; and Camoens de-
scribed the god's Indian expedition as sculptured on the Palace of
Calicut. In Alexander's Feast Dryden followed. Ovid while picturing
a triumph of Bacchus and especially in the repeated line
Bacchus ever fair and ever young.
Titian seems to have used Ovid's triumph of Bacchus for his paint-
ing.
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? PYRAMUS AND THISBE
Ovid's innovation was not confined to introducing a story about the
daughters of Minyas. He imagined that, while weaving, the three
girls entertained themselves by telling other stories. . These tales,
although of great interest and very appropriate for Ovid's general
purpose, would not enter easily into the sequence of his poem. They
did not belong naturally to any definite time, or to any organized
cycle such as the mythical history of Thebes, and they were quite
unrelated to one another. But they could be told by a group of
people whiling away a comparatively idle hour. In a similar manner
Ovid was able afterwards to introduce tales recounted by a group of
heroes detained in the residence of Achelous (Bk. 8) and other tales
by the Greek heroes besieging Troy (Bk. 12). The number and length
of the stories told by the daughters of Minyas served the further
purpose of emphasizing their neglect of Bacchus and preparing for
their punishment. A similar effect Ovid was to obtain later by assign-
ing a number of tales to Orpheus (Bks. 10 and 11).
The stories which Ovid gave the . daughters of Minyas comprised
three groups--one told by each sister. Every group began with a
rather short introductory passage and then proceeded to a tale of
some length. Introducing the first and third groups, Ovid alluded
to a number of myths each containing a metamorphosis; introducing
the second group, he told briefly the adultery of Mars and Venus.
Almost all the stories, both short and long, were localized in Asia
Minor, and all the longer stories dealt with love. Almost all the stories
appear to have entered Greek literature during Alexandrian times.
Some of them Ovid probably found in the work of Nicander. The rest
he seems to have taken from a lost Alexandrian collection of oriental
tales which later was to furnish him the myth of Latona and the
Lycian rustics (Bk. 6) and the celebrated idyl of Philemon and
Baucis (Bk. 8). In the first and the third groups, Ovid caused the
daughters of Minyas to indicate that the longer tales were new--to
themselves and probably also to Ovid's Roman contemporaries.
Pyramus and Thisbe
Leucippe, the first narrator, Ovid pictured as weighing the merits
of four mythical stories, all of them localized in regions of Asia Minor
little known to the Greeks and Romans. Three of them she rejected as
well known; the fourth she told as something quite new.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK IV
Of the three tales which Leucippe rejected, the first dealt with
Atargatis, a Syrian goddess of love who was supposed to appear in
the shape of a dove or a fish. Her divine lover was Hadad. From
her the Greeks derived their goddess Venus, and her lover hecame the
celebrated Adonis (cf. Bk. 10). But the Greeks knew her also as an
unfamiliar goddess of the Semites, whom they called Dercetis. She
was believed at one time to have loved a mortal and to have borne him
a daughter, who afterwards became the Assyrian queen Semiramis.
But, ashamed of loving one so far beneath her, she destroyed the
youth; exposed her daughter; and absconded in the shape of a fish.
To this tradition Ovid alluded, localizing the event vaguely in Pales-
tine.
The second tale related to the daughter, Semiramis. According to
tradition, doves had fed the babe until she was found and adopted by
a shepherd. In time Semiramis was reported to have married Ninus,
king of Babylon, and to have commemorated him with a tomb, which
Ovid was to mention in the subsequent tale of Pyramus. At length
she became a dove and vanished from human sight. Ovid mentioned
her frequenting white towers because the ancients thought buildings
of this color specially attractive to doves.
The third myth had been recorded first by Nearchus, a general of
Alexander, who brought the conqueror's fleet from the Indus back to
the Euphrates. He told of a Naiad who transformed her lovers into
fishes and incurred a like fate herself. To Tasso Ovid's allusion sug-
gested a remarkable incident in which Armida metamorphosed
Gugliemo into a fish.
The fourth story, which Leucippe told at length, was the famous
myth of Pyramus and Thisbe. Originally the tale ran to the following
effect: Pyramus and Thisbe were young lovers dwelling in the central
part of Asia Minor. Finding their parents opposed to their marriage,
they planned to flee covertly. The plan miscarried and both perished.
Pyramus became a large river coursing southward to the coast of
Cilicia, Thisbe a neighboring spring. This version was mentioned
long after by Nonnus.
An unknown Alexandrian author contemporary with Nicander
transferred the myth northeastward to Babylon and gave it a different
ending. Blood of the dying Pyramus, he said, darkened the fruit of a
mulberry tree, and Thisbe prayed that the berries might retain their
new color as a perpetual reminder of the event. She herself did not
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? PYRAMUS AND THISBE
experience a metamorphosis. This version appeared in a Pompeian
fresco of Thisbe's death.
Ovid retold the tale with admirable brevity and beauty. In a few
words he named the lovers; indicated the setting; and mentioned their
affection, which was occasioned by proximity and grew stronger with
parental opposition. Then he recorded the discovery of a hidden
fissure in the wall dividing their houses and the naive converse of the
lovers until nightfall. Indicating with a few poetic touches the return
of day, he outlined their plan to escape that night and meet under a
tall mulberry tree by the tomb of Ninus. Although concise, he de-
scribed the scene graphically.
Thisbe, he said, arrived safely at the tree but fled at the approach
of a lioness, leaving behind her cloak. The lioness, fresh from devour-
ing cattle, rent and stained it with her bloody jaws. The incident
was probable and effective, but Ovid made it less credible by adding
that first the lioness drank abundantly from a nearby spring.
Pyramus, arriving soon after, discovered the bloody cloak and the
tracks of the beast. Imagining that Thisbe had perished, he held him-
self to blame and imprudently resolved to kill himself at once. Fatally
wounded by his sword, he lay struggling under the mulberry tree, and
his blood soaking into the earth passed upwards through the roots to
darken the snow white berries overhead. The idea was plausible and
striking. But for more graphic effect, Ovid added that the blood
spurted also, like water from a lead pipe, and shot high enough to
sprinkle the fruit of the tall tree? a detail which was neither probable
nor happy. If
Thisbe returned timidly and was at first doubtful whether this
could really be the appointed place. In the uncertain moonlight and
at a time of great agitation, her doubt was very natural. But Ovid
imagined that she was perplexed by the altered color of the mulberries.
For the conclusion of the tale, it was essential that Thisbe should
notice the change. Yet Ovid introduced the discovery under improb-
able circumstances. Thisbe would have neither light nor leisure for
so nice an observation. Ovid then described effectively her terror at
seeing her dying lover and her frantic efforts to rouse him. And he
added that on hearing her loved name, Pyramus opened his eyes;
recognized her; and sank to death. Ovid recorded effectively the final
request of Thisbe; her death on her lover's sword; and the burial of the
unfortunate lovers in a common urn.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK IV
In this tale Ovid found a theme of perennial interest. His treat-
ment was good, not only in the main incidents but in many beautiful
details. The faults were confined to non-essentials. And Ovid's was
the only lengthy account which still survived in medieval and modern
times.
The Roman mythographer Hyginus repeated the tale briefly, fol-
lowing Ovid's version.
In medieval Latin the story soon attracted attention. A German
named Wibert, writing near the middle of the eleventh century, quoted
in his Life of Leo Ovid's words to the effect that the more a fire is
covered the hotter it burns. Two unknown Latin poets retold the
story in the thirteenth century. And Gower repeated it in his Con-
fessio Amantis.
Meanwhile the tale of Pyramus had attracted vernacular poets of
northern France. About the middle of the twelfth century an un-
known author made a free translation of it. Chretien de Troyes used
the tale repeatedly. In his Erec he showed the hero believing mis-
takenly that his lady was dead and planning suicide; in his Lancelot
he showed both hero and heroine making the mistake and preparing
to die. But in both cases Chretien avoided a tragic ending. For his
Yvain Chretien adapted many of Ovid's incidents in the following
curious form: Yvain arrived at a certain large tree, shading a spring
and not far from a small building. Fainting with grief and weariness,
he accidentally wounded himself. His tame lion, coming upon him,
believed him dead and ran on the sword. Yvain, reviving, guessed the
cause of the faithful creature's death and would have killed himself
for grief. But Lunete, calling from the building, diverted his atten-
tion. He discovered that she was imprisoned but he was able to con-
verse with her through a fissure in the wall. ^
Not long after Chretien's time, Jean Bonnard retold Ovid's myth
while translating the tale of Susanna. A lost Book of Pyramus re-
peated the story at some length and probably in the manner of con-
temporary Arthurian romance. Towards the middle of the thirteenth
century an unknown poet told the story again, with needless elabora-
tion of incident and much supersubtle analysis of love. He gave
special attention to the converse of the lovers through the wall, ex-
panding twenty-eight lines of Ovid to six hundred of his own! And
the incident of the dying Pyramus opening his eyes to look on Thisbe
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? PYRAMUS AND THISBE
inspired a similar incident in a fourteenth century treatment of Nar-
cissus.
The tale of Pyramus was popular also outside France. Lesser
poets repeated it in German and Dutch. In all countries of western
Europe, the story was taught in the schools and became a theme for
rhetorical exercises of the clergy. It was repeated orally by unedu-
cated and spread slowly eastward until at length de Remusat found
it circulating even in China.
Dante shared the interest of his time. In his treatise on Monarchy
he went quite out of his way to cite the lines where Ovid mentioned
Ninus and Semiramis. He returned to the myth twice in his Purgatorio.
When Vergil reminded him that beyond the flames was Beatrice,
Dante responded to her dear name as promptly as the dying Pyramus
fo that of Thisbe. And a few cantos later Beatrice explained to
Dante that he failed to discern the meaning of a sacred tree because
vain thoughts darkened his mind as the blood of Pyramus darkened
the mulberries. Boccacio told of Pyramus in his Fiametta and again
in his treatise, Famous Women. Petrarch mentioned Pyramus and
Thisbe in his Triumph of Love.
Chaucer found the subject of special interest. In the Merchant's
Tale he cited the discovery of the hidden fissure in the wall and com-
mended Ovid for observing how skilfully lovers find a way. The
Parliament of Fowls referred to the story as painted on the walls of a
temple of Venus. And in the Legend of Good Women Chaucer named
Thisbe among famous beauties of old and later retold the story in full.
He expanded Ovid's account pleasantly, treating with even more deli-
cacy the terror and laments of the unhappy lovers; but he was unduly
anxious to show that women are the more loyal. The darkening of
the mulberries he carefully omitted.
Boiardo and Camoens both associated the mulberry with Ovid's
tragic story. Tasso remembered that nearness and early association
caused the love of Pyramus and Thisbe and attributed the same ex-
perience to his Aminta and Silvia. In his Jerusalem Delivered the inci-
dent of Pyramus opening his eyes reappeared effectively when Erminia
met with the wounded and unconscious Tancred. And Tasso retold
Ovid's entire story more than once in his minor writings.
Castillejo treated the myth of Pyramus in narrative verse. Monte-
mayor treated it in prose.
