Almost all the longer tales of the Tenth Book
attracted
modern
painters, and five of them attracted sculptors.
painters, and five of them attracted sculptors.
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? HIPPOMENES AND ATALANTA
showing the winner crowned with a wreathe. He imagined a circular
course, about which he may have supposed that the contestants ran sev-
eral times. The total distance was considerable, requiring not only
speed but endurance.
Following the Manual, Ovid observed that many suitors contended
for Atalanta. He spoke at first as if she ran only on one occasion, but
later he agreed with the Manual that there were a number of such occa-
sions. The Manual had left it ambiguous whether Atalanta contended
with more than one suitor at a time. Ovid gave the impression that at
least in one race she contended with a number. Just before this race, he
said, the hero arrived.
Ovid called the youth Hippomenes. He imagined him as a stranger
unacquainted with Atalanta, who chanced to be near the place and who
attended out of curiosity. This gave Ovid an opportunity to empha-
size the girl's charm. At first, he said, Hippomenes called the suitors
foolish for risking their lives to get a wife. But, when Atalanta ap-
peared, Hippomenes withdrew his rash opinion. Recalling the work of
Greek artists, Ovid observed that Atalanta laid aside her clothing; and,
recalling the Catalogues, he noted that she wore colored ribbons, which
fluttered at her knees and ankles. He declared that Atalanta, the swift
racer, had a beauty like that of Venus, an idea which would seem im-
probable. Hippomenes began to fear lest one of the other youths might
win the race. He decided that, if all of them should fail, he would try
his own fortune.
Ovid described Atalanta's appearance in running. He spoke of her
hair as tossed over her white shoulders and of a flush that suffused her
tender skin. He likened it to the hue which a purple awning reflects
over a marble court. This illustration from Roman life of Ovid's day
was neither happy in itself nor appropriate for Venus to use in the prim-
itive times of Adonis. Atalanta won the race, and the young men with
groans paid the penalty.
Then Hippomenes boldly challenged Atalanta to race with him.
He declared that she would incur no disgrace, whatever the result, for
his father was Megareus of Onchestus and his great grandfather was
Neptune, and he was worthy of his divine origin. Ovid probably found
this ancestry in the work of an Alexandrian predecessor. Theocritus
and Catullus had hinted that Atalanta felt willing to be vanquished by
Hippomenes. Ovid imagined that she loved him at first sight. He
showed her, like many of his other heroines, debating the problem in a
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
soliloquy, and he imagined that Venus was able to repeat every word.
In the case of Atalanta the soliloquy was less effective than usual, for a
number of reasons. In the beginning of the speech, Ovid allowed the
reader to suppose that her words were addressed to Hippomenes. For a
simple, athletic maiden vacillation seemed out of character. And Ovid
increased the difficulty by allowing her words to sound weak and silly.
In the course of her meditation Atalanta praised the girlish beauty of
Hippomenes and even desired that he might win, but declared that for
her, marriage was forbidden by an evil fate. Ovid observed that she was
so naive as to love without realizing it.
While she pondered the matter, her father and the other spectators
called insistently for the race. Apparently no one thought it unfair to
have her run twice in so short a time. Hippomenes prayed Venus to
favor the love that she herself had kindled. Venus heard with approval.
Ovid gave a new account of the golden apples. In the middle part of
Cyprus lay a district rich in copper and in fertility of soil, which was
called the Field of Tamasus. It was sacred to Venus. Philostephanus
appears to have added that in the field was a tree with golden apples.
Ovid imagined that here Venus gathered the fruit. He described the tree
as itself golden, like the tree of the Hesperides (Bk. 4). When Hippo-
menes prayed to Venus, he said, the goddess chanced to be carrying
three of the apples. Without revealing herself to anyone else, she gave
them to Hippomenes and told him their use.
In describing the race Ovid recalled the work of epic poets and
especially the Iliad and the Aeneid. As in Vergil's account of the boat
race, the signal was given with a trumpet. The Iliad had mentioned
certain horses of Erichthonius, whose father was the North Wind, and
had told how they would run over standing grain without breaking down
the ears or would run over the topmost waves of the hoary sea. Apol-
lonius had told how the Argonaut Euphemus used to run over the waves
of the gray sea, not wetting his swift feet but just dipping the tips of
his toes. Vergil, recalling both the Iliad and Apollonius, had attributed
similar lightness and swiftness to Camilla. But he stated the idea more
cautiously. She might have flown over the tops of standing grain and
not bruised the tender ears or sped over the mid sea, poised on the swell-
ing wave, and not dipped her swift feet in the flood. Ovid ascribed the
same ability to his hero and heroine. But in stating the thought he was
even more cautious than Vergil, and he reversed the order of ideas. You
would think, he said, that Hippomenes and Atalanta could run over the
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? HIPPOMENES AND ATALANTA
sea with dry feet or pass lightly over the ripened heads of standing
grain.
The Catalogues had shown Schoeneus favorable to Hippomenes.
Perhaps for this reason Ovid imagined the spectators in general as
favoring him. He showed them urging him on, and he echoed the words
which Vergil had shown Mnestheus using to his oarsmen in the boat
race. Ovid described this encouragement as welcome not only to Hip-
pomenes but also to Atalanta. He declared that often she delayed pass-
ing the youth; and, contrary to probability, he added that, while run-
ning with extraordinary swiftness, she gazed long at his face, then reluc-
tantly drew ahead of him.
Ovid imagined that, so far as possible, Hippomenes relied on his
fleetness of foot and that, repeatedly, after falling behind, he overtook
Atalanta. But, when he still was far from the goal, his strength began
to fail; and dry, panting breath came from his weary throat. In this
last detail Ovid once more echoed Vergil's account of the boat race.
Hippomenes resorted to his golden apples. As Ovid pictured the
race, this required skill. Hippomenes must throw each apple obliquely
forward at such an angle as to have it pass in front of Atalanta, attract
her attention, and then draw her away to the side. He succeeded with the
first apple, and the spectators applauded as he gained the lead. Ata-
lanta passed him again. He threw the second apple, once more with
success. But she recovered the lead.
In the foot race of the Iliad, Ulysses had prayed Athena to help
him overtake Ajax Oi'leus, and Athena had defeated Ajax -- by causing
him to slip and fall. Ovid showed Hippomenes praying to Venus, as he
threw the last apple, and Venus defeating Atalanta. When the maiden
hesitated to follow the apple, Venus constrained her to pursue it far to
the side. And that was not all. Atalanta might well have found three
apples in her hands an encumbrance, and three golden apples a consid-
erable weight. But Venus gave the last apple a preternatural heaviness.
With this advantage Hippomenes won the race.
In the reply given by the oracle, Ovid had associated Atalanta's
race with the future violation of the sanctuary. He now introduced a
further connection. He stated that Hippomenes showed no gratitude
to Venus and that Venus resolved to make him a warning example. She
incited him to profane the sanctuary. Ovid spoke of a shrine which had
been established by Echion, one of the original settlers of Thebes. It
included wooden images of several deities.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
In telling of Medusa (Bk. 4), Ovid had observed that she profaned
a shrine of Athena. The goddess, he said, turned away her eyes in
horror, and she punished the offense by transforming Medusa's hair
into snakes and by using Medusa's head as the Aegis of her shield. Ovid
decided to imitate this tale and to associate Hippomenes and Atalanta
permanently with the offended deity.
Instead of Jupiter, he imagined the goddess Cybele. Her worship
had originated in Asia Minor, a region which Assyrian monuments and
early Greek epics had described as infested with lions. Greek authors
and artists often had imagined her as drawn in a car by two or more of
these animals, and afterwards Ovid in his account of the Trojan ships
(Bk. 14) mentioned lions as transporting her even through the air.
Lucretius and Varro had explained Cybele's lion car as representing
her power of taming even the wildest creatures. This idea Ovid noted
in the Fasti. But in his tale of Atalanta he explained the lion car as a
means of punishing Hippomenes and Atalanta, and he added that Cybele
regarded the punishment as more grievous than death. Evidently re-
calling some work of art, Ovid described the transformation in detail.
The Greek artist had shown two lions with manes. And, although Ovid
implied clearly that Atalanta became a lioness, he gave her a mane.
In later times both Landor and William Morris retold the tale of
Atalanta, taking a few circumstances from Ovid. According to Landor,
the maiden ignored the first and second apples but stopped for the third.
Petrarch in his Triumph of Love referred to Atalanta as vanquished by
three golden apples and a beautiful face, Boiardo mentioned her rac-
ing, and Shakespeare referred in As You Like It to her nimble heels.
Guido Reni treated the story in a famous painting. The subject
attracted also the French artist Paynter and the sculptors Gaspard
Coustou, de Paultre, Inj albert, and Derwent Wood.
*******
Most of the longer stories in Ovid's Tenth Book had been of early
origin and had attracted a number of Greek authors and artists. And
many of these tales had interested Ovid's Roman predecessors. But the
tales of Pygmalion and of Atalanta's metamorphosis were of Alexan-
drian origin and were little known. Of the seven lesser tales only that of
Erigone was either old or familiar. Ovid contrasted stories well known
to his Roman audience with stories which were new. Readers of medieval
times found available some earlier Roman accounts of Orpheus and
Ganymede and versions of Orpheus and Eurydice by Roman authors
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? BOOK TEN
after Ovid's time. But Ovid gave the tales of Hyacinthus and Myrrha
their fame, and he saved from oblivion the important tale of the sculptor
Pygmalion.
In choosing his material from earlier versions, Ovid made some use
of the Iliad for the tale of Ganymede and of the Catalogues for that of
Atalanta's race. Otherwise he followed predecessors of Alexandrian
and Roman times. Phanocles helped him repeatedly in the first half of
the book; Philostephanus, the Manual, and Nicander became important
in the second half. Theocritus, Euphorion, Bion, and Theodorus each
proved valuable for one or more tales. For incidents in the stories of
Eurydice, Ganymede, and Atalanta's race, and for three minor tales,
Ovid relied on Alexandrian authors whom we cannot identify. Greek
artists contributed to the stories of Orpheus calling together his audi-
ence and to both stories of Atalanta. Cinna suggested part of the tale
of Myrrha, and Vergil was a very important source in the earlier part
of the book. Ovid used his own account of Medusa for his version of
Atalanta transformed. To the Alexandrians and their Roman follow-
ers the themes of the entire book would have been congenial.
In improving this material, Ovid took suggestions from many
authors, a number of them the greatest of ancient times. The Iliad
provided him with details from the thr^e stories of Hyacinthus, Myrrha,
and Atalanta's race. Sophocles contributed to the tale of Myrrha,
Euripides to the stories of Myrrha and Pygmalion. Aratus furnished
the prologue to the tale of Ganymede. Ovid took suggestions often from
the earlier Roman poets. Horace added valuable incidents to the tales
of Eurydice and Adonis, Propertius contributed to the tales of Eury-
dice and Myrrha, Vergil offered improvements either of incident or of
phrase in almost every important tale and in the lesser narrative of Cy-
parissus. And oftener than in any previous book Ovid profited by his
own earlier work -- the Heroides, the Art of Love, and at least nine
tales of the Metamorphoses. He contrived to do this both unobtrusively
and with good effect.
In handling the chief problems of the book, Ovid was unusually
successful. He introduced novelty into the familiar tales of Ganymede
and Adonis; he reconciled conflicting versions of his predecessors in
the stories of Myrrha, Adonis, and Atalanta ; and with remarkable skill
he varied the account of Eurydice from that of Vergil and the story of
Myrrha from his own earlier tale of Byblis.
He solved also the formidable problem of giving many separate
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
tales a plausible connection. As Ovid found his material, it had no re-
lation to the proceeding books of his poem, and most of the tales had no
relation to one another. There was only a rather close connection be-
tween the two stories about Orpheus and a vague association of the tales
about Pygmalion, Myrrha, and Adonis.
Ovid invented the transition from his Ninth Book to the tales
about Orpheus and included the other important tales in a song of the
minstrel. Then he sought further connection. By contrasting one tale
with another, he related the stories of Ganymede, Hyacinthus, and the
Cerastae and Propoetides. He invented a relation between the story of
the Propoetides and that of Pygmalion, and he caused Venus to tell
Adonis the two stories about Atalanta. Ovid succeeded also in finding
an appropriate background for the minor tales. He introduced a plaus-
ible relation between his account of Orpheus assembling an audience and
the metamorphoses of Attis and Cyparissus and also between the trans-
formation of Adonis and that of Menthe, and he contrived to associate
with the dismay of Orpheus two accounts of petrifaction.
The first half of Book Ten attracted a number of later Roman
authors. The book as a whole interested men of the middle ages and the
modern period. Of the nine longer tales, seven won attention during the
centuries that followed. Of the lesser tales only two were remembered
for their own sake, those of Attis and Cyparissus. But the tale of the
Propoetides was mentioned sometimes in relation to Pygmalion.
Among authors who rarely noticed the Metamorphoses, the Tenth
Book attracted a remarkable number. They included Calpurnius Sicu-
lus, Marston, Congreve, Thomson, Fielding, Freneau, William Hazlitt,
Bulwer Lytton, and W. S. Gilbert. Petrarch, Camoens, Gray, and
Cowper made frequent allusions to this book. Single tales had an im-
portant effect first on Celtic and other medieval romance, and then on
the work of such leading authors as Chretien de Troyes, Jean de Meun,
Rousseau, Alfieri, and Hawthorne. More than one tale became impor-
tant in the poetry of Chaucer, Lope de Vega, Goethe, and William Mor-
ris. Many tales proved valuable to Spenser, Shakespeare, and Marini.
But the most persuasive effect occurred in the work of Milton. It began
with his earliest prose and still continued in his Paradise Regained.
Almost all the longer tales of the Tenth Book attracted modern
painters, and five of them attracted sculptors. But masterpieces were
few. The tale of Adonis had an interesting effect on modern science, and
the tale of Eurydice became exceedingly important in the history of
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? BIBLIOGRAPHY
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? BIBLK
Works read or consulted since
Addison, Julia DeWolp
Anthony, E. W.
Antoninus Liberalis
Ariosto, Lodovico
Avery, Mary Myrtle
Bacon, Janet Ruth
Baker, George Pierce
Batrachomyomachia
Billiard, R.
Boethius, A. M. S.
Braune, Julius
Bush, Douglas
Butler, H. E.
Chamberlin, H. H.
Chateaubriand, Rene de
Chinard, Gilbert
Classical Journal, 1927
Darembourg, Charles
Dennis, John
GRAPHY
he publication of the First Volume
The Classic Myths in Art
A History of Mosaics
Partheni Libellus, Antonini Liberalis
MsTqAopqicoaetov Suvayw-f^ by Ed-
gar Martini
Orlando Furioso
Use of Direct Speech in Ovid's Meta-
morphoses
The Voyage of the Argonauts
Shakespeare's Development as a Dra-
matist
French Edition by J. Berger de Xiv-
rey
L'Agriculture dans l'Antiquite d'ap-
res les Georgiques de Vergile
Consolation of Philosophy
Nonnos und Ovid
Classical Mythology and the Renais-
sance Tradition
Classical Mythology and the Roman-
tic Tradition
Post Augustan Poetry
Late Spring (A Translation of Theoc-
ritus)
Last Flowers (Translations of Mos-
chus, Bion, and Hermesianax)
Tradition of the Trees, The (unpub-
lished)
Atala et Rene
Quelque Origines de Bene (Publica-
tions of the Modern Language
Association, March, 1928)
Articles on the Georgics and Caesar
and the Roman Poets
Dictionnaire des Antiquites Grecques
et Romaines
Miscellany Poems
877
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? BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ditmaes, Raymond L.
Ebert, Adolf
Encyclopedia Italiana, La
Encyclopedia Britannica, The
Erasmus, Desiderius
Fairbanks, Arthur
Fairclough, H. R.
Fripp, Edgar
Graf, Arturo
Grimm, Jakob L. C.
Harrison, Jane Ellen
Hadzsitts, G. D.
Halliday, W. R.
Harrington, K. P.
Heinze, R.
Hyginus, Caius Julius
Keller, Otto
KlTTREDGE, G. L.
Klimmer, Wolfgang
Lafaye, Georges
Lang, Andrew
Lonnrot, Elias
Lowell, Amy
McPeek, James A. S.
Moore, George Foot
Murray, A. S.
Reptiles of the World
Snakes of the World
Der Anachronismus in Ovids Meta-
morphosen
Edition of 1935
Edition of 1939
The Praise of Folly
Mythology of Greece and Rome
Love of Nature among the Greeks and
Romans
Shakespeare's Use of Ovid's Meta-
morphoses (Shakespeare Essays,
1930)
Roma nella Memoria del Medio Evo
Kinder und Hausmarchen
Mythology
Prolegomena
Lucretius and his Influence
Sappho and her Influence
Greek and Roman Folklore
Catullus and his Influence
Vergils Epische Technik
Hygini Fabulae by H. J. Rose, 1934
Die Antike Tierwelt
Thiere des Classischen Altertums
Witchcraft in Old and New England
Die Anordnung des Stoffes in der Er-
sten Vier Biicher von Ovids Meta-
morphoses
Catulle et ses Modeles
Les Metamorphoses, Texte et Traduc-
tion, 1930
Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus
The Kalevala by W. F. Kirby
John Keats
Catullus in Strange and Distant Brit-
ain
History of Religion
The Sculpture of the Parthenon
? ? 378
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? BIBLIOGRAPHY
NlCANDER
Nonnus Panopolitanus
Oldham, John
Pascal, Carlo
Pease, A. S.
Plesent, Charles
Plato
Plutarch
pontus de tyard
Rand, E. K.
Ribbeck, Otto
Roscher, W. H.
Rose, H. J.
Sandys, J. B.
SCHEIDEWEILER, F.
SCHELUDKO, 0.
Schultze, G.
Scott, John
Seneca, L. A.
Slater, D. A.
Stoll, B. A.
Symonds, John A.
Tennyson-Turner, Charles
Thompson, D. W.
Tillyard, E. M.
Verral, A. D.
Walpole, Horace
Nicandrei Theriaca et Alexipharmaka
by Otto Schneider (includes tales
by Liberalis, taken from the Het-
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Les Dionysiacques by the Comte de
Marcellus
Dionysiaca (Books 1-35) by W. H. D.
Rouse
Satires upon the Jesuits
Letteratura Latina Medievale
Publii Vergili Aeneidos liber quartus
Le Culex. fitude sur l'Alexandrian-
isme Latin
Dialogues in the Loeb Edition
The Republic by Paul Shorey
Lives by A. H. Clough
Oeuvres Poetiques
Catullus and the Augustans
Geschichte der Romischen Dichtung
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(Dionysiaca)
Handbook of Greek Mythology
A Short History of Classical Scholar-
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Euphorionis Fragmenta
Ovid und die Trobadors (Zeitschrift
fur Romanische Philologie, Vol.
54, 1934)
Euphorionea
Homer and his Influence
Tragedies by F. J. Miller
Ovid in the Metamorphoses
Shakespeare Studies
Studies of the Greek Poets
Collected Sonnets
Glossary of Greek Birds
Milton's Private Correspondence and
Academic Exercises
The Medea of Euripides
The Mysterious Mother
? ? 379
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? BIBLIOGRAPHY
WulaiNer, P. E. De Publii Terentii Varronis Atacini
Vita et Scriptis
Xenophon The Anabasis by W. W. Goodwin and
J. W. White
The Anabasis by Paul Masqueray
Zinsser, Hans Rats, Lice, and History
*******
I take pleasure in acknowledging also the help of the following
friends, each of whom read a large part of the present volume and offered
valuable suggestions:
J. Harry Hooper,
Minister of the historic First Parish, Hingham, Massachusetts
WlNSLOW H. LOVELAND,
Professor of English at Boston University
Fred B. Lund, M. D. ,
Overseer of the Classical Department, Harvard University
Maurice W. Parker,
Dramatic Coach and Musician
Mary Richardson,
of Hingham
W. L. Richardson,
Author of Literature of the World
380
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? REVIEWS AND OPINIONS
Ovid's Metamorphoses in European Culture
VOLUME ONE, Treating Books One to Five (inclusive)
By Wilmon Brewer
The companion volume to Ovid's Metamorphoses
in blank verse, by Brookes More
The first survey to make a comprehensive study of the Metamorphoses
in relation to the entire history of western culture. Evidences of its influ-
ence are to be found in tapestry, painting, sculpture, and opera, as well
as in the work of a host of major and minor poets. -- The Evansville
Courier-J ournal.
Mr. Brewer's critique will prove an eye-opener to the average reader
of today. The influence of Ovid on European culture is definitely shown
by illustration. Here is an excellent opportunity to find profitable en-
joyment. -- The Knickerbocker.
Mr. Brewer has supplied material of much historical and critical
interest. The volume begins by telling the story of Ovid's life. It relates
his work to that of his Greek and Roman predecessors, then recounts the
influence of Ovid on writers who followed. Complete data is given for
each book and each story in the book: the origin of the tale, Ovid's treat-
ment of it, subsequnt use of the tale by classic, medieval, and modern
poets and prose writers of Europe. This comprehensive survey, which
has its own clarity of style and contains much new material, is a fine
piece of scholarly work in itself, as well as a fit commentary on Brookes
More's excellent translation. -- The Louisville Courier-Journal.
The adventures of the gods and men who people the Metamorphoses
of Ovid have interested readers for centuries. It is interesting to note the
varied reactions of succeeding ages to these tales of strange predicaments
and amazing mutations. -- The Dallas Times Herald.
Wilmon Brewer traces for us the influence of the Metamorphoses
on the major poets, including Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, and Goethe.
Certainly his treatise is of sound scholarship and deep interest. -- William
Zehv in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
381
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? REVIEWS AND OPINIONS
The lover of literature and art who is not familiar with Ovid is in-
adequately equipped to understand such writers as Petrarch, Marlowe,
Corneille, or Pope and such artists as Tintoretto or Botticelli or Titian or
Rubens. -- The Providence Sunday Journal.
The biography of the Roman poet and a study of the great influence
of Ovid's masterpiece on literature and art, which accompanies the trans-
lation, is by Wilmon Brewer, who in a very scholarly and thought-pro-
voking style has succeeded eminently in renewing modern interest in this
most picturesque poet of Rome's great Augustan era.
You cannot have escaped contacts with this gentle Roman and his
mythological tales in your literary and artistic wanderings. From the
literary dawns of Dante, Boccaccio, and Chaucer, down to the great poets
of the Georgian and Victorian periods, the influence of Ovid has left
illuminated trails. In painting and sculpture the gods and goddesses and
the episodes of love human and divine of Ovid's Metamorphoses have
been perpetuated in classic masterpieces.
Pew of the great poets have escaped his touch. Spenser in his Faerie
Queene borrowed liberally from Ovid's pages, Shakespeare took from him
his Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and his Merchant of Venice
sparkles with Ovidian allusions. Ben Jonson translated the book in part,
and it was a favorite -- and a storehouse of mythical legend -- for Milton.
The winged foosteps of Ovid are clearly traceable throughout Paradise
Lost. And these are only a few of the many references to the enduring
influence of this familiar epic that Wilmon Brewer has traced in his intro-
ductory survey. -- The Kansas City Times.
The book should be read with pleasure not only by the scholarly few
but by a large company of those who care for beautiful things presented
faultlessly. It is most informing and has opened up many matters of
great interest. It will put classical scholars much in debt, especially be-
cause of the care taken to show Ovid's influence through the centuries
and in all countries. The work is very carefully written, with good
organization and with ease and clarity of style. The format, too, is pleas-
ing to a degree, and the typography leaves nothing to be desired. --
William L. Richardson: Author of Literature of the World; Editor of
World Writers.
The volume of illustrative comment is very interesting. It is packed
with information, scientifically arranged and presented in a pleasing
style -- S. G. Owen: Leading English authority on Ovid; Editor of
Ovid's Tristia; Author of Ovid and Romance.
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? REVIEWS AND OPINIONS
What you are doing for Ovid and the Metamorphoses is a work that
I have long wanted to see done in just the complete way in which you are
doing it.
? HIPPOMENES AND ATALANTA
showing the winner crowned with a wreathe. He imagined a circular
course, about which he may have supposed that the contestants ran sev-
eral times. The total distance was considerable, requiring not only
speed but endurance.
Following the Manual, Ovid observed that many suitors contended
for Atalanta. He spoke at first as if she ran only on one occasion, but
later he agreed with the Manual that there were a number of such occa-
sions. The Manual had left it ambiguous whether Atalanta contended
with more than one suitor at a time. Ovid gave the impression that at
least in one race she contended with a number. Just before this race, he
said, the hero arrived.
Ovid called the youth Hippomenes. He imagined him as a stranger
unacquainted with Atalanta, who chanced to be near the place and who
attended out of curiosity. This gave Ovid an opportunity to empha-
size the girl's charm. At first, he said, Hippomenes called the suitors
foolish for risking their lives to get a wife. But, when Atalanta ap-
peared, Hippomenes withdrew his rash opinion. Recalling the work of
Greek artists, Ovid observed that Atalanta laid aside her clothing; and,
recalling the Catalogues, he noted that she wore colored ribbons, which
fluttered at her knees and ankles. He declared that Atalanta, the swift
racer, had a beauty like that of Venus, an idea which would seem im-
probable. Hippomenes began to fear lest one of the other youths might
win the race. He decided that, if all of them should fail, he would try
his own fortune.
Ovid described Atalanta's appearance in running. He spoke of her
hair as tossed over her white shoulders and of a flush that suffused her
tender skin. He likened it to the hue which a purple awning reflects
over a marble court. This illustration from Roman life of Ovid's day
was neither happy in itself nor appropriate for Venus to use in the prim-
itive times of Adonis. Atalanta won the race, and the young men with
groans paid the penalty.
Then Hippomenes boldly challenged Atalanta to race with him.
He declared that she would incur no disgrace, whatever the result, for
his father was Megareus of Onchestus and his great grandfather was
Neptune, and he was worthy of his divine origin. Ovid probably found
this ancestry in the work of an Alexandrian predecessor. Theocritus
and Catullus had hinted that Atalanta felt willing to be vanquished by
Hippomenes. Ovid imagined that she loved him at first sight. He
showed her, like many of his other heroines, debating the problem in a
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
soliloquy, and he imagined that Venus was able to repeat every word.
In the case of Atalanta the soliloquy was less effective than usual, for a
number of reasons. In the beginning of the speech, Ovid allowed the
reader to suppose that her words were addressed to Hippomenes. For a
simple, athletic maiden vacillation seemed out of character. And Ovid
increased the difficulty by allowing her words to sound weak and silly.
In the course of her meditation Atalanta praised the girlish beauty of
Hippomenes and even desired that he might win, but declared that for
her, marriage was forbidden by an evil fate. Ovid observed that she was
so naive as to love without realizing it.
While she pondered the matter, her father and the other spectators
called insistently for the race. Apparently no one thought it unfair to
have her run twice in so short a time. Hippomenes prayed Venus to
favor the love that she herself had kindled. Venus heard with approval.
Ovid gave a new account of the golden apples. In the middle part of
Cyprus lay a district rich in copper and in fertility of soil, which was
called the Field of Tamasus. It was sacred to Venus. Philostephanus
appears to have added that in the field was a tree with golden apples.
Ovid imagined that here Venus gathered the fruit. He described the tree
as itself golden, like the tree of the Hesperides (Bk. 4). When Hippo-
menes prayed to Venus, he said, the goddess chanced to be carrying
three of the apples. Without revealing herself to anyone else, she gave
them to Hippomenes and told him their use.
In describing the race Ovid recalled the work of epic poets and
especially the Iliad and the Aeneid. As in Vergil's account of the boat
race, the signal was given with a trumpet. The Iliad had mentioned
certain horses of Erichthonius, whose father was the North Wind, and
had told how they would run over standing grain without breaking down
the ears or would run over the topmost waves of the hoary sea. Apol-
lonius had told how the Argonaut Euphemus used to run over the waves
of the gray sea, not wetting his swift feet but just dipping the tips of
his toes. Vergil, recalling both the Iliad and Apollonius, had attributed
similar lightness and swiftness to Camilla. But he stated the idea more
cautiously. She might have flown over the tops of standing grain and
not bruised the tender ears or sped over the mid sea, poised on the swell-
ing wave, and not dipped her swift feet in the flood. Ovid ascribed the
same ability to his hero and heroine. But in stating the thought he was
even more cautious than Vergil, and he reversed the order of ideas. You
would think, he said, that Hippomenes and Atalanta could run over the
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? HIPPOMENES AND ATALANTA
sea with dry feet or pass lightly over the ripened heads of standing
grain.
The Catalogues had shown Schoeneus favorable to Hippomenes.
Perhaps for this reason Ovid imagined the spectators in general as
favoring him. He showed them urging him on, and he echoed the words
which Vergil had shown Mnestheus using to his oarsmen in the boat
race. Ovid described this encouragement as welcome not only to Hip-
pomenes but also to Atalanta. He declared that often she delayed pass-
ing the youth; and, contrary to probability, he added that, while run-
ning with extraordinary swiftness, she gazed long at his face, then reluc-
tantly drew ahead of him.
Ovid imagined that, so far as possible, Hippomenes relied on his
fleetness of foot and that, repeatedly, after falling behind, he overtook
Atalanta. But, when he still was far from the goal, his strength began
to fail; and dry, panting breath came from his weary throat. In this
last detail Ovid once more echoed Vergil's account of the boat race.
Hippomenes resorted to his golden apples. As Ovid pictured the
race, this required skill. Hippomenes must throw each apple obliquely
forward at such an angle as to have it pass in front of Atalanta, attract
her attention, and then draw her away to the side. He succeeded with the
first apple, and the spectators applauded as he gained the lead. Ata-
lanta passed him again. He threw the second apple, once more with
success. But she recovered the lead.
In the foot race of the Iliad, Ulysses had prayed Athena to help
him overtake Ajax Oi'leus, and Athena had defeated Ajax -- by causing
him to slip and fall. Ovid showed Hippomenes praying to Venus, as he
threw the last apple, and Venus defeating Atalanta. When the maiden
hesitated to follow the apple, Venus constrained her to pursue it far to
the side. And that was not all. Atalanta might well have found three
apples in her hands an encumbrance, and three golden apples a consid-
erable weight. But Venus gave the last apple a preternatural heaviness.
With this advantage Hippomenes won the race.
In the reply given by the oracle, Ovid had associated Atalanta's
race with the future violation of the sanctuary. He now introduced a
further connection. He stated that Hippomenes showed no gratitude
to Venus and that Venus resolved to make him a warning example. She
incited him to profane the sanctuary. Ovid spoke of a shrine which had
been established by Echion, one of the original settlers of Thebes. It
included wooden images of several deities.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
In telling of Medusa (Bk. 4), Ovid had observed that she profaned
a shrine of Athena. The goddess, he said, turned away her eyes in
horror, and she punished the offense by transforming Medusa's hair
into snakes and by using Medusa's head as the Aegis of her shield. Ovid
decided to imitate this tale and to associate Hippomenes and Atalanta
permanently with the offended deity.
Instead of Jupiter, he imagined the goddess Cybele. Her worship
had originated in Asia Minor, a region which Assyrian monuments and
early Greek epics had described as infested with lions. Greek authors
and artists often had imagined her as drawn in a car by two or more of
these animals, and afterwards Ovid in his account of the Trojan ships
(Bk. 14) mentioned lions as transporting her even through the air.
Lucretius and Varro had explained Cybele's lion car as representing
her power of taming even the wildest creatures. This idea Ovid noted
in the Fasti. But in his tale of Atalanta he explained the lion car as a
means of punishing Hippomenes and Atalanta, and he added that Cybele
regarded the punishment as more grievous than death. Evidently re-
calling some work of art, Ovid described the transformation in detail.
The Greek artist had shown two lions with manes. And, although Ovid
implied clearly that Atalanta became a lioness, he gave her a mane.
In later times both Landor and William Morris retold the tale of
Atalanta, taking a few circumstances from Ovid. According to Landor,
the maiden ignored the first and second apples but stopped for the third.
Petrarch in his Triumph of Love referred to Atalanta as vanquished by
three golden apples and a beautiful face, Boiardo mentioned her rac-
ing, and Shakespeare referred in As You Like It to her nimble heels.
Guido Reni treated the story in a famous painting. The subject
attracted also the French artist Paynter and the sculptors Gaspard
Coustou, de Paultre, Inj albert, and Derwent Wood.
*******
Most of the longer stories in Ovid's Tenth Book had been of early
origin and had attracted a number of Greek authors and artists. And
many of these tales had interested Ovid's Roman predecessors. But the
tales of Pygmalion and of Atalanta's metamorphosis were of Alexan-
drian origin and were little known. Of the seven lesser tales only that of
Erigone was either old or familiar. Ovid contrasted stories well known
to his Roman audience with stories which were new. Readers of medieval
times found available some earlier Roman accounts of Orpheus and
Ganymede and versions of Orpheus and Eurydice by Roman authors
372
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? BOOK TEN
after Ovid's time. But Ovid gave the tales of Hyacinthus and Myrrha
their fame, and he saved from oblivion the important tale of the sculptor
Pygmalion.
In choosing his material from earlier versions, Ovid made some use
of the Iliad for the tale of Ganymede and of the Catalogues for that of
Atalanta's race. Otherwise he followed predecessors of Alexandrian
and Roman times. Phanocles helped him repeatedly in the first half of
the book; Philostephanus, the Manual, and Nicander became important
in the second half. Theocritus, Euphorion, Bion, and Theodorus each
proved valuable for one or more tales. For incidents in the stories of
Eurydice, Ganymede, and Atalanta's race, and for three minor tales,
Ovid relied on Alexandrian authors whom we cannot identify. Greek
artists contributed to the stories of Orpheus calling together his audi-
ence and to both stories of Atalanta. Cinna suggested part of the tale
of Myrrha, and Vergil was a very important source in the earlier part
of the book. Ovid used his own account of Medusa for his version of
Atalanta transformed. To the Alexandrians and their Roman follow-
ers the themes of the entire book would have been congenial.
In improving this material, Ovid took suggestions from many
authors, a number of them the greatest of ancient times. The Iliad
provided him with details from the thr^e stories of Hyacinthus, Myrrha,
and Atalanta's race. Sophocles contributed to the tale of Myrrha,
Euripides to the stories of Myrrha and Pygmalion. Aratus furnished
the prologue to the tale of Ganymede. Ovid took suggestions often from
the earlier Roman poets. Horace added valuable incidents to the tales
of Eurydice and Adonis, Propertius contributed to the tales of Eury-
dice and Myrrha, Vergil offered improvements either of incident or of
phrase in almost every important tale and in the lesser narrative of Cy-
parissus. And oftener than in any previous book Ovid profited by his
own earlier work -- the Heroides, the Art of Love, and at least nine
tales of the Metamorphoses. He contrived to do this both unobtrusively
and with good effect.
In handling the chief problems of the book, Ovid was unusually
successful. He introduced novelty into the familiar tales of Ganymede
and Adonis; he reconciled conflicting versions of his predecessors in
the stories of Myrrha, Adonis, and Atalanta ; and with remarkable skill
he varied the account of Eurydice from that of Vergil and the story of
Myrrha from his own earlier tale of Byblis.
He solved also the formidable problem of giving many separate
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK TEN
tales a plausible connection. As Ovid found his material, it had no re-
lation to the proceeding books of his poem, and most of the tales had no
relation to one another. There was only a rather close connection be-
tween the two stories about Orpheus and a vague association of the tales
about Pygmalion, Myrrha, and Adonis.
Ovid invented the transition from his Ninth Book to the tales
about Orpheus and included the other important tales in a song of the
minstrel. Then he sought further connection. By contrasting one tale
with another, he related the stories of Ganymede, Hyacinthus, and the
Cerastae and Propoetides. He invented a relation between the story of
the Propoetides and that of Pygmalion, and he caused Venus to tell
Adonis the two stories about Atalanta. Ovid succeeded also in finding
an appropriate background for the minor tales. He introduced a plaus-
ible relation between his account of Orpheus assembling an audience and
the metamorphoses of Attis and Cyparissus and also between the trans-
formation of Adonis and that of Menthe, and he contrived to associate
with the dismay of Orpheus two accounts of petrifaction.
The first half of Book Ten attracted a number of later Roman
authors. The book as a whole interested men of the middle ages and the
modern period. Of the nine longer tales, seven won attention during the
centuries that followed. Of the lesser tales only two were remembered
for their own sake, those of Attis and Cyparissus. But the tale of the
Propoetides was mentioned sometimes in relation to Pygmalion.
Among authors who rarely noticed the Metamorphoses, the Tenth
Book attracted a remarkable number. They included Calpurnius Sicu-
lus, Marston, Congreve, Thomson, Fielding, Freneau, William Hazlitt,
Bulwer Lytton, and W. S. Gilbert. Petrarch, Camoens, Gray, and
Cowper made frequent allusions to this book. Single tales had an im-
portant effect first on Celtic and other medieval romance, and then on
the work of such leading authors as Chretien de Troyes, Jean de Meun,
Rousseau, Alfieri, and Hawthorne. More than one tale became impor-
tant in the poetry of Chaucer, Lope de Vega, Goethe, and William Mor-
ris. Many tales proved valuable to Spenser, Shakespeare, and Marini.
But the most persuasive effect occurred in the work of Milton. It began
with his earliest prose and still continued in his Paradise Regained.
Almost all the longer tales of the Tenth Book attracted modern
painters, and five of them attracted sculptors. But masterpieces were
few. The tale of Adonis had an interesting effect on modern science, and
the tale of Eurydice became exceedingly important in the history of
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? BIBLIOGRAPHY
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? BIBLK
Works read or consulted since
Addison, Julia DeWolp
Anthony, E. W.
Antoninus Liberalis
Ariosto, Lodovico
Avery, Mary Myrtle
Bacon, Janet Ruth
Baker, George Pierce
Batrachomyomachia
Billiard, R.
Boethius, A. M. S.
Braune, Julius
Bush, Douglas
Butler, H. E.
Chamberlin, H. H.
Chateaubriand, Rene de
Chinard, Gilbert
Classical Journal, 1927
Darembourg, Charles
Dennis, John
GRAPHY
he publication of the First Volume
The Classic Myths in Art
A History of Mosaics
Partheni Libellus, Antonini Liberalis
MsTqAopqicoaetov Suvayw-f^ by Ed-
gar Martini
Orlando Furioso
Use of Direct Speech in Ovid's Meta-
morphoses
The Voyage of the Argonauts
Shakespeare's Development as a Dra-
matist
French Edition by J. Berger de Xiv-
rey
L'Agriculture dans l'Antiquite d'ap-
res les Georgiques de Vergile
Consolation of Philosophy
Nonnos und Ovid
Classical Mythology and the Renais-
sance Tradition
Classical Mythology and the Roman-
tic Tradition
Post Augustan Poetry
Late Spring (A Translation of Theoc-
ritus)
Last Flowers (Translations of Mos-
chus, Bion, and Hermesianax)
Tradition of the Trees, The (unpub-
lished)
Atala et Rene
Quelque Origines de Bene (Publica-
tions of the Modern Language
Association, March, 1928)
Articles on the Georgics and Caesar
and the Roman Poets
Dictionnaire des Antiquites Grecques
et Romaines
Miscellany Poems
877
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? BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ditmaes, Raymond L.
Ebert, Adolf
Encyclopedia Italiana, La
Encyclopedia Britannica, The
Erasmus, Desiderius
Fairbanks, Arthur
Fairclough, H. R.
Fripp, Edgar
Graf, Arturo
Grimm, Jakob L. C.
Harrison, Jane Ellen
Hadzsitts, G. D.
Halliday, W. R.
Harrington, K. P.
Heinze, R.
Hyginus, Caius Julius
Keller, Otto
KlTTREDGE, G. L.
Klimmer, Wolfgang
Lafaye, Georges
Lang, Andrew
Lonnrot, Elias
Lowell, Amy
McPeek, James A. S.
Moore, George Foot
Murray, A. S.
Reptiles of the World
Snakes of the World
Der Anachronismus in Ovids Meta-
morphosen
Edition of 1935
Edition of 1939
The Praise of Folly
Mythology of Greece and Rome
Love of Nature among the Greeks and
Romans
Shakespeare's Use of Ovid's Meta-
morphoses (Shakespeare Essays,
1930)
Roma nella Memoria del Medio Evo
Kinder und Hausmarchen
Mythology
Prolegomena
Lucretius and his Influence
Sappho and her Influence
Greek and Roman Folklore
Catullus and his Influence
Vergils Epische Technik
Hygini Fabulae by H. J. Rose, 1934
Die Antike Tierwelt
Thiere des Classischen Altertums
Witchcraft in Old and New England
Die Anordnung des Stoffes in der Er-
sten Vier Biicher von Ovids Meta-
morphoses
Catulle et ses Modeles
Les Metamorphoses, Texte et Traduc-
tion, 1930
Theocritus, Bion, and Moschus
The Kalevala by W. F. Kirby
John Keats
Catullus in Strange and Distant Brit-
ain
History of Religion
The Sculpture of the Parthenon
? ? 378
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? BIBLIOGRAPHY
NlCANDER
Nonnus Panopolitanus
Oldham, John
Pascal, Carlo
Pease, A. S.
Plesent, Charles
Plato
Plutarch
pontus de tyard
Rand, E. K.
Ribbeck, Otto
Roscher, W. H.
Rose, H. J.
Sandys, J. B.
SCHEIDEWEILER, F.
SCHELUDKO, 0.
Schultze, G.
Scott, John
Seneca, L. A.
Slater, D. A.
Stoll, B. A.
Symonds, John A.
Tennyson-Turner, Charles
Thompson, D. W.
Tillyard, E. M.
Verral, A. D.
Walpole, Horace
Nicandrei Theriaca et Alexipharmaka
by Otto Schneider (includes tales
by Liberalis, taken from the Het-
eroioumena)
Les Dionysiacques by the Comte de
Marcellus
Dionysiaca (Books 1-35) by W. H. D.
Rouse
Satires upon the Jesuits
Letteratura Latina Medievale
Publii Vergili Aeneidos liber quartus
Le Culex. fitude sur l'Alexandrian-
isme Latin
Dialogues in the Loeb Edition
The Republic by Paul Shorey
Lives by A. H. Clough
Oeuvres Poetiques
Catullus and the Augustans
Geschichte der Romischen Dichtung
Ausfiihrliches Lexikon
Aberystwyth Studies, Volume 4
(Dionysiaca)
Handbook of Greek Mythology
A Short History of Classical Scholar-
ship
Euphorionis Fragmenta
Ovid und die Trobadors (Zeitschrift
fur Romanische Philologie, Vol.
54, 1934)
Euphorionea
Homer and his Influence
Tragedies by F. J. Miller
Ovid in the Metamorphoses
Shakespeare Studies
Studies of the Greek Poets
Collected Sonnets
Glossary of Greek Birds
Milton's Private Correspondence and
Academic Exercises
The Medea of Euripides
The Mysterious Mother
? ? 379
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? BIBLIOGRAPHY
WulaiNer, P. E. De Publii Terentii Varronis Atacini
Vita et Scriptis
Xenophon The Anabasis by W. W. Goodwin and
J. W. White
The Anabasis by Paul Masqueray
Zinsser, Hans Rats, Lice, and History
*******
I take pleasure in acknowledging also the help of the following
friends, each of whom read a large part of the present volume and offered
valuable suggestions:
J. Harry Hooper,
Minister of the historic First Parish, Hingham, Massachusetts
WlNSLOW H. LOVELAND,
Professor of English at Boston University
Fred B. Lund, M. D. ,
Overseer of the Classical Department, Harvard University
Maurice W. Parker,
Dramatic Coach and Musician
Mary Richardson,
of Hingham
W. L. Richardson,
Author of Literature of the World
380
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? REVIEWS AND OPINIONS
Ovid's Metamorphoses in European Culture
VOLUME ONE, Treating Books One to Five (inclusive)
By Wilmon Brewer
The companion volume to Ovid's Metamorphoses
in blank verse, by Brookes More
The first survey to make a comprehensive study of the Metamorphoses
in relation to the entire history of western culture. Evidences of its influ-
ence are to be found in tapestry, painting, sculpture, and opera, as well
as in the work of a host of major and minor poets. -- The Evansville
Courier-J ournal.
Mr. Brewer's critique will prove an eye-opener to the average reader
of today. The influence of Ovid on European culture is definitely shown
by illustration. Here is an excellent opportunity to find profitable en-
joyment. -- The Knickerbocker.
Mr. Brewer has supplied material of much historical and critical
interest. The volume begins by telling the story of Ovid's life. It relates
his work to that of his Greek and Roman predecessors, then recounts the
influence of Ovid on writers who followed. Complete data is given for
each book and each story in the book: the origin of the tale, Ovid's treat-
ment of it, subsequnt use of the tale by classic, medieval, and modern
poets and prose writers of Europe. This comprehensive survey, which
has its own clarity of style and contains much new material, is a fine
piece of scholarly work in itself, as well as a fit commentary on Brookes
More's excellent translation. -- The Louisville Courier-Journal.
The adventures of the gods and men who people the Metamorphoses
of Ovid have interested readers for centuries. It is interesting to note the
varied reactions of succeeding ages to these tales of strange predicaments
and amazing mutations. -- The Dallas Times Herald.
Wilmon Brewer traces for us the influence of the Metamorphoses
on the major poets, including Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, and Goethe.
Certainly his treatise is of sound scholarship and deep interest. -- William
Zehv in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
381
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? REVIEWS AND OPINIONS
The lover of literature and art who is not familiar with Ovid is in-
adequately equipped to understand such writers as Petrarch, Marlowe,
Corneille, or Pope and such artists as Tintoretto or Botticelli or Titian or
Rubens. -- The Providence Sunday Journal.
The biography of the Roman poet and a study of the great influence
of Ovid's masterpiece on literature and art, which accompanies the trans-
lation, is by Wilmon Brewer, who in a very scholarly and thought-pro-
voking style has succeeded eminently in renewing modern interest in this
most picturesque poet of Rome's great Augustan era.
You cannot have escaped contacts with this gentle Roman and his
mythological tales in your literary and artistic wanderings. From the
literary dawns of Dante, Boccaccio, and Chaucer, down to the great poets
of the Georgian and Victorian periods, the influence of Ovid has left
illuminated trails. In painting and sculpture the gods and goddesses and
the episodes of love human and divine of Ovid's Metamorphoses have
been perpetuated in classic masterpieces.
Pew of the great poets have escaped his touch. Spenser in his Faerie
Queene borrowed liberally from Ovid's pages, Shakespeare took from him
his Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and his Merchant of Venice
sparkles with Ovidian allusions. Ben Jonson translated the book in part,
and it was a favorite -- and a storehouse of mythical legend -- for Milton.
The winged foosteps of Ovid are clearly traceable throughout Paradise
Lost. And these are only a few of the many references to the enduring
influence of this familiar epic that Wilmon Brewer has traced in his intro-
ductory survey. -- The Kansas City Times.
The book should be read with pleasure not only by the scholarly few
but by a large company of those who care for beautiful things presented
faultlessly. It is most informing and has opened up many matters of
great interest. It will put classical scholars much in debt, especially be-
cause of the care taken to show Ovid's influence through the centuries
and in all countries. The work is very carefully written, with good
organization and with ease and clarity of style. The format, too, is pleas-
ing to a degree, and the typography leaves nothing to be desired. --
William L. Richardson: Author of Literature of the World; Editor of
World Writers.
The volume of illustrative comment is very interesting. It is packed
with information, scientifically arranged and presented in a pleasing
style -- S. G. Owen: Leading English authority on Ovid; Editor of
Ovid's Tristia; Author of Ovid and Romance.
382
? ? Generated for (University of Chicago) on 2014-12-26 11:22 GMT / http://hdl. handle. net/2027/mdp. 39015005276665 Public Domain, Google-digitized / http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-google
? REVIEWS AND OPINIONS
What you are doing for Ovid and the Metamorphoses is a work that
I have long wanted to see done in just the complete way in which you are
doing it.
