Juno, realising that he alluded
to Hercules, devised a way to frustrate his plan.
to Hercules, devised a way to frustrate his plan.
Ovid - 1934 - Metamorphoses in European Culture - v2
Then a voice within the trunk declared the
cypress was his loved Clorinda.
Dante in his account of the Suicides' Wood and Ariosto in the epi-
sode of Alcina's isle told of trees which bled and protested against injury.
Both poets evidently recalled Vergil's account of Polydorus, but they
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
seem to have adopted Ovid's idea that words of protest came directly
from the tree. To Shakespeare Ovid's incident of the attendant who
interrupted Erysichthon's crime may have suggested that remarkable
incident in King Lear of the servant who interrupted Cornwall's abuse of
Gloster.
A few authors recalled the latter part of Ovid's tale. Seneca in his
Hercules Furens appears to have remembered it, when he spoke of Fam-
ine as having a sad appearance and foul jaws. To Dante, Ovid's Famine
suggested his description of gluttons famished on the mount of Purga-
tory. But Dante likened them to the emaciated Erysichthon just before
he began to devour himself. To Milton this final incident suggested the
lines in Comus, describing Evil, when,
settled to itself
It shall be in eternal restless change,
Self-fed and self-consumed.
Ovid showed Acheloiis mentioning himself as his third example of
power to assume varied forms. According to older Greek tradition their
number seems to have been unlimited. But Sophocles in the Trachinian
Women had mentioned only three -- the god's usual form of a man with
bull horns on his forehead, and those of a serpent and a bull. Ovid,
anxious to make each of his examples differ from the rest, imagined that
Acheloiis was limited to these three. All of them often have been at-
tributed to water spirits, in the lore of many countries. Acheloiis now
had lost one of his bull horns, as Theseus could see. The god's lament at
this misfortune gave Ovid occasion for the initial story of his next book.
The Eighth Book included only ten stories, a number that is re-
markably small. Of the six which Ovid made important, five were of
early origin. Greek authors and artists often had treated three of these
-- the stories of the Minotaur and Ariadne, of Icarus, and of Meleager.
Greek authors of the Alexandrian era had been fond of the tale of
Erysichthon. And, although the story of Philemon and Baucis was of
late origin and little known, it belonged to a class of tales which long
had been exceedingly popular. In almost all the chief stories Greek
predecessors had provided Ovid with an abundance of material, from
which it was his problem to select and improve the best. Of the four lesser
tales in the Eighth Book, the story of Proteus was old and familiar; the
other three were of Alexandrian origin and were virtually unknown.
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? BOOK EIGHT
Roman authors before Ovid's time had shown interest only in the
three tales of Scylla, the Minotaur and Ariadne, and Proteus. It was
Ovid who made the others easily accessible to his countrymen. Roman
authors after Ovid's time took little notice of any story treated in the
Eighth Book. With the fall of Rome, Greek versions of the material were
lost to view, and Vergil's treatments of the tales of Scylla and Proteus
became almost unknown. It was Ovid who preserved nine of the ten stories
for medieval times. He gave the tales of Icarus, Meleager, and Erysich-
thon their fame. And three others, including the celebrated tale of Phile-
mon and Baucis, he saved from oblivion.
In developing the tale of Meleager, Ovid owed much to the Iliad and
Euripides and to the boar hunt of the Odyssey. He used the Odyssey
again for his account of Proteus. For the other tales he was content
with more recent material. In the earlier half of the book the Manual
provided his background and usually the outline of the story. Both in
the earlier and the later half, Callimachus was more important than at
any time since Book Five. For the tales of Icarus and Perdix he was
Ovid's chief authority, and he contributed much to the tales of Philemon
and Erysichthon. Apollonius suggested an important event in the tale
of Erysichthon, and Parthenius afforded many ideas for the account of
Scylla. Nicander gave relatively little -- only the transformations in
the tales of Meleager and Erysichthon. During the latter half of the
book Alexandrian authors whom we cannot identify became the chief
source of almost every story. Alexandrian artists provided striking de-
tails for the stories of Meleager and Erysichthon.
Ovid often improved this Greek material with ideas from earlier
Roman poets. Catullus offered important suggestions for the tale of the
Minotaur and Ariadne, Horace for that of Philemon, Propertius for that
of Scylla. Vergil gave many and valuable contributions, especially in the
latter half of the book. Ovid recalled an unusual number of his poems,
both major and minor, and displayed much skill in giving his ideas a
new setting, although he sometimes invited unfortunate comparison with
the Aeneid. For a number of tales Ovid took suggestions from his own
work in earlier books of the Metamorphoses. And for the tales of Ariadne
and Philemon he seems to have drawn on personal observation.
As usual, Ovid found a difficult problem of adjustment. Previous
authors had given the tales in the first half of the book only a loose rela-
tion to one another. Ovid was content with lessening the difficulty and
with keeping it in the background. The tales of the second half had no
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
previous relation to one another. Ovid solved this problem by having a
group of people tell them at a banquet, a device that he afterwards re-
peated in his Twelfth Book. In the tales of Scylla and Meleager, Ovid
encountered the problem of reconciling inconsistent versions of his
predecessors. In this he attained only partial success. A number of the
stories Ovid had treated elsewhere, and the story of Philemon was very
similar to> that of Hyrieus in his Fasti. For the tales of Meleager and
Proteus he selected a different version, and he was able skilfully to alter
the incidents of Philemon. But he made the story of the Minotaur and
Ariadne so obscure that for readers unacquainted with other authorities
it would be unintelligible. For the tale of Icarus, Ovid boldly rewrote
and on the whole improved his own previous account.
At several points the Eighth Book was unique in Ovid's poem. The
tale of Ariadne included the only transformation to stars. The tale of
Erysichthon offered the most appropriate use of witty paradox, and the
story of Meleager offered the only example of heroic dignity. In one
respect the Book was unique in Ovid's entire poetical work. Only in the
tale of Philemon did he give his whole attention to describing simple
country life.
A number of tales in the Eighth Book became popular during the
Middle Ages and continued so through the Renaissance. Both in medieval
and in modern times the story of Ariadne attracted attention to a theme
that other ancient versions made very popular. In modern times the ac-
count of Proteus had similar importance. The tale of Philemon and
Baucis, which won little favor until the seventeenth century, became af-
terwards one of the most important of all.
The Eighth Book attracted authors such as Swift and Gray who
rarely took notice of Ovid. It suggested notable passages of Tansillo,
Tasso, La Fontaine, and Goethe. Many of the tales interested Dante.
But the most pervasive influence appeared in the work of Chaucer and
Shakespeare. The tales of Ariadne, Icarus, Meleager, and Philemon at-
tracted a number of modern painters and inspired several masterpieces.
The tales of Ariadne and Icarus attracted modern sculptors, and the
tale of Philemon won a distinguished place in opera.
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? BOOK NINE
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? CONTENTS OF BOOK NINE
PAGE
Achelous and Hercules . . . . . . . . 225
Nessus and the Death of Hercules . . . . . . 287
Galanthis 264
Dryope . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Iolaus 272
Byblis 278
Iphis and Ianthe 294
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? I
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? ACHELOUS AND HERCULES
AcHELOUS AND HERCULES
Answering a question of Theseus, the river god Acheloiis began to
tell about the loss of his horn, first tying up with reeds his unadorned
locks of hair. The tale was concerned with Hercules and introduced
Ovid's longest discussion of that famous hero.
The Greek tradition of Hercules probably originated with an actual
hero of the Argive people, who became a remarkable hunter and fighter.
He seems to have been a native of Tiryns, a village located a few miles
north of Argos ; for Diodorus gave Tiryns as the birthplace of Hercules,
and Vergil and Ovid still referred to him as Tirynthian. But, after a
prehistoric conquest of Argos by the inhabitants of Boeotia, Hercules
appears to have been identified with some Boeotian hero, and he usually
was said to have been born and reared at Thebes.
His mother was said to have been Alcmena, a princess of Tiryns,
who was living in exile. His father was Jupiter. This account of his
origin appeared as early as the Iliad, and Ovid had alluded to it in his
tale of Arachne (Bk. 6). Nevertheless Hercules often was called a son
of Alcmena's husband, Amphitryon. The poet of the Iliad referred to
him indifferently first as son of Jupiter and then as child of Amphitryon.
And this became the usual practice. Other Greek authors frequently
called him Alcides, indicating that he was descended from Alcaeus, the
father of Amphitryon. Ovid, following the custom, called him Alcides in
the tale of Acheloiis and a son of Amphitryon in the tale which followed.
Among early peoples it was a rather common practice to credit a hero
both with a divine and a human father. Greek tradition made Theseus
the son both of Neptune and of Aegeus, an idea to which Ovid alluded in
the opening line of the story (cf. Origin of Aconite, Bk. 7). *
As the centuries passed, Hercules appears to have been identified
with other local heroes of the Greeks, and he was given adventures
throughout the known world. Any natural marvel or any event in myth-
ology was apt to be associated with the work of Hercules. Greek tradi-
tion seems to have been affected also by accounts of the Phoenician god
Melcart. Hercules was said to have become a god after his death, an
idea recorded first in the Odyssey. Ovid showed Acheloiis noting in the
*In a similar manner the Gospel according to Matthew told how Jesus was the
son of God and yet traced his ancestry on the father's side from Abraham down to
Joseph, husband of Mary.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
early part of his story that Hercules was not yet a god at the time of the
events in question.
For Greek authors and artists the career of Hercules always was a
favorite theme. Among Roman authors and artists the subject was
almost equally popular. Hercules was described as remarkably strong,
brave, and resourceful, but also as a somewhat comic figure, like the
Hebrew Samson.
In the traditional career of Hercules the most important phase was
the hero's enforced service of Eurystheus, king of Argos. The Iliad gave
its cause as follows. When the time came for Alcmena to bear her child,
Jupiter informed the gods that before night there should be born a
prince of Jupiter's race, who should rule over all the neighboring tribes,
meaning apparently over all the Argives.
Juno, realising that he alluded
to Hercules, devised a way to frustrate his plan. After persuading him
to promise under oath that the prince should be born that day, she re-
tarded the birth of Hercules and hastened the birth of Eurystheus, who
as a descendant of Perseus was also of Jupiter's race. Therefore Eurys-
theus had authority over his kinsman Hercules and was allowed to im-
pose on him grievous labors. But Jupiter was able to lighten them some-
what by having Athena give him aid.
The motive for assigning labors to Hercules was jealousy. In the
mind of Juno he was the son of her husband's paramour Alcmena. For
Eurystheus he was a rival prince of greater merit. Feeling unable to
attack him openly, they adopted the policy of sending him against dan-
gerous enemies in the hope that he would be killed. According to the
Iliad, Proetus, king of Lycia, tried a similar method for destroying
Bellerophon and sent him on three perilous quests, from all of which he
returned successful. Later accounts of Hercules made their purpose
clear.
Although Greek authors and artists continually showed interest in
the labors, for a long time they left both their number and their nature
indefinite. The Iliad spoke as if there were several, but neither the Iliad
nor the Odyssey told of any except the capture of Cerberus (cf. Origin
of Aconite, Bk. 7). The Theogony mentioned three--killing the Nemean
lion, destroying the hydra, and seizing by force the cattle of the monster
Geryon. Pisander, about the middle of the seventh century B. C. , made
Hercules the subject of a long narrative poem. He recorded at least
two labors, those with the Nemean lion and the hydra. Probably he told
also the adventures with Geryon and with Cerberus, and he may have
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? ACHELOUS AND HERCULES
added still others; but we do not know, for his work is lost. Panyasis,
towards the middle of the fifth century B. C. , made Hercules the theme
of another long narrative poem. Concerning his account of the labors
we know only that he recorded at least those with the Nemean lion and
the hydra.
Six labors were sculptured at about the same time on the Athenian
treasury at Delphi. Sophocles enumerated six in his Trachinian Women.
He noted the killing of the Nemean lion, the destruction of the hydra, a
defeat of the centaurs, capture of the Erymanthian boar, a quest for
apples of the Hesperides, and the capture of Cerberus. But he spoke of
there being still others. Ten labors were carved on the Theseum at
Athens and on the Heracleum at Thebes.
In the latter half of the fifth century B. C. the total number was
affected by Asiatic tradition. The Babylonians attributed to the sun
god twelve adventures, corresponding to the twelve signs of the zodiac,
an idea which appeared in their epic of Gilgamesh. This tradition be-
came known to the Greeks and was associated with Hercules. Euripides
in his Hercules Furens made the number of labors twelve. Greek sculp-
tors represented the same number on the temple of Jupiter at Olympia.
After this time it was usual to enumerate twelve in any list which pur-
ported to be complete.
The nature of these labors remained indefinite still longer. Sophocles
and Euripides were in agreement about three which afterwards appeared
in almost every list. The first labor, they said, was killing the Nemean
lion, the second was destroying the hydra, and one of the last was the
capture of Cerberus. Not until Alexandrian times did men arrive at
something like agreement about the other nine. The orthodox arrange-
ment then became as follows: 1. killing the Nemean lion, 2. destroying
the hydra, 3. capturing the Erymanthian boar, 4. overcoming the Cery-
nitian hind, 5. destroying the Stymphalian birds, 6. cleansing the Augean
stables, 7. capturing the Cretan bull, 8. winning Hippolyta's girdle, 9.
overcoming the bloodthirsty horses of Diomed, 10. seizing the oxen of
Geryon, 11. obtaining apples of the Hesperides, and 12. capturing the
monster Cerberus. This arrangement appeared in the Manual and still
was followed many centuries afterwards by Quintus Smyrnaeus.
Other achievements of Hercules, which were incidental to one of
these, were distinguished as supplementary labors (Parerga). Among
the latter was the defeat of the Centaurs, which both Sophocles and
Euripides had included in their lists. Still other achievements, which
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
were independent of the labors, were distinguished as deeds (Praxeis).
Among them was the hero's part in the voyage of the Argo (cf. Bk. 7).
By giving priority of birth to Eurystheus, Juno prepared the way
for the servitude of Hercules. But the Greeks usually imagined-that his
enforced labor did not begin until many years afterwards, and they re-
lated it to a number of intervening circumstances. Hercules, they said,
grew up at Thebes, married the Theban Princess Megara, and became
the father of several children. Juno then caused him to go temporarily
mad and to kill his children. According to Euripides in the Hercules
Furens, he killed Megara also, but the Manual noted that he spared her
and afterwards gave her to his nephew Iolaiis. * In order to atone for
the murder of his children, Hercules consulted the oracle at Delphi and
learned that he must serve Eurystheus. This tradition may have been
associated with Hercules even before the time of the Iliad. It was re-
corded in the Manual. Ovid probably assumed that his readers would
think of it as providing some of the events that led up to his tale of
Acheloiis and Hercules.
Ovid was concerned with the circumstances under which the hero
courted Deianira, a daughter of King Oeneus of Aetolia and a sister of
the unfortunate Meleager. The Catalogues had spoken of Hercules as
marrying her. Bacchylides recorded a number of details. While in quest
of Cerberus, Hercules met the shade of Meleager and was impressed so
favorably by his tragic story that he inquired whether Meleager had
left any sister eligible for marriage. Meleager then suggested Deianira.
Bacchylides implied that Hercules married her at some time later
than the Calydonian Boar Hunt. Pindar may have followed the same
tradition, for in a poem that now is lost he, too, observed that Meleager
encouraged Hercules to marry his sister. But most accounts did not
associate the marriage with Meleager and were indefinite about its rela-
tion to the hunt. Ovid assumed that the marriage occurred not only be-
fore the time of the Calydonian Boar Hunt but so many years before
that Acheloiis was in doubt whether Theseus had heard of Deianira.
Acheloiis told the events as a story of the remote past and implied that,
when Theseus visited him, Hercules already had finished his career on
earth and had become a god.
Bacchylides had implied that, before Hercules courted Deianira, he
performed all his labors. The Manual stated this idea clearly, and Ovid
*The idea that a primitive warrior might give away wives whom he did not wish
to keep longer, appeared in a recent photodrama treating the life of Mala, the
Eskimo.
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? ACHELOUS AND HERCULES
in his tale of Achelous and Hercules did the same. But Sophocles in the
Trachmian Women had declared that Hercules first married Deianira
and then performed the labors. And in the subsequent tale Ovid incon-
sistently followed his example.
From early times the Greeks had imagined that Achelous was a
suitor of Deianira and that Hercules vanquished him. The idea seems
to have originated in a widespread tradition that a virgin princess must
be offered to the neighboring water spirit, but might be saved by a
valiant hero (cf. Perseus and Andromeda, Bk. 4). More than one Greek
author indicated that the courtship of Achelous inspired fear and abhor-
rence. According to Pindar, Meleager had urged Hercules to protect
his sister from the god. According to Sophocles, Deianira herself would
have preferred death to such a marriage. It was supposed that Hercules
vanquished his opponent in physical combat. Archilochus, recording the
event, declared that Achelous fought in the shape of a bull.
Sophocles gave a number of details. King Oeneus and his family
were living in the village of Pleuron. Achelous courted the princess, ap-
pearing successively in the three shapes of a snake with glittering coils,
of a bull, and of a man with a bull's head and with water pouring from
his shaggy beard. He asked the king to give him his daughter in mar-
riage. Sharing the reluctance of Deianira, Oeneus contrived to delay
the answer and looked for means to escape from his embarrassing posi-
tion. At last Hercules appeared and fought with the monster. Sophocles
did not attempt to give a clear description of the battle. He indicated
that Hercules sometimes shot arrows and at other times used his fists or
grappled at close quarters and that Achelous butted savagely with his
horns. Deianira sat at a distance, weeping and afraid even to look in the
direction of the furious melee.
Greek painters often represented the combat. They showed Ache-
lous with a horned human head. Usually they pictured him as having two
horns, but sometimes as having only a single horn in the middle of his
forehead. Almost always they showed his body as that of a bull, but at
least one painter gave it the shape of a long, slender fish. Greek sculp-
tors of the fifth century treated the combat in relief, first on the throne
of Apollo's temple at Amyclae and then in a group which formed part of
the Megarian treasury at Delphi.
Alexandrian authors added new circumstances. Callimachus in his
Origins declared that Hercules broke off the two horns of Achelous. This
idea Ovid repeated in his Amores and his Epistle of Paris. In his Epistle
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
of Deianira he stated also that Achelous, weeping, gathered up his horns
and concealed his mutilated brow in the yellow waters of the river.
The Manual recorded a different version of the story. It declared
that Hercules broke off only one horn, and it added a very different
sequel. Apparently Hercules kept the horn for some time. But Achelous
found means to recover it. When Jupiter was an infant, the nymph
Amalthea had fed him milk from a certain goat. One of the animal's
horns broke off, and Jupiter gave this horn the magic power of supply-
ing Amalthea abundantly with food and drink of any kind that she de-
sired. It became the Cornucopia or Horn of Plenty. This horn Amalthea
gave to Achelous. He in turn gave it to Hercules in exchange for his
own. Diodorus, trying to rationalize the story, suggested that Hercules
conquered the river Achelous by digging a canal, which diverted the
water and made the neighboring country fertile.
In the Metamorphoses, Ovid told the story of Achelous and Her-
cules at considerable length. He took suggestions from Sophocles and
the Manual but introduced much new material. He showed Achelous
observing at the outset that bitterness of defeat was compensated in
large measure by the greatness of the victor. A similar idea Ovid after-
wards used in his account of Ajax and Ulysses (Bk. 13). After men-
tioning the beauty of Deianira, he introduced the new circumstance that
she had many suitors. All of them assembled at one time in the palace of
Oeneus, he continued, with the purpose of asking the king for his daugh-
ter. But, when Achelous and Hercules made their request, the others
withdrew. Ovid said nothing about the reluctance of Deianira -- he did
not say even that she was present. But he seems to have remembered that
King Oeneus was averse to Achelous yet afraid to refuse him. He implied
that Oeneus paused, uncertain how to answer the request. The two rivals
then began to present their claims.
Hercules, speaking first, mentioned his divine parentage, his labors,
and his other achievements performed at the command of Juno. Ovid
merely summarized the claim, because he intended later to give these
events a more lengthy treatment. Ovid implied that it was a dignified,
powerful plea. Achelous felt that he must not only present his own claim
but must endeavor to discredit that of his rival. He replied that he him-
self had the advantages of being a god, a native of Aetolia, and one who
was on good terms with Juno. Then, addressing Hercules, he insisted on
the idea that a claim of divine parentage was either false or discreditable
to all concerned. Oeneus failed to reprove this breach of decorum and
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? ACHELOUS AND HERCULES
apparently lost all control of the affair. Hercules answered that he
would waive further argument and decide the matter by combat. He was
better, he said, in deeds than in words, an idea which Ovid afterwards
repeated under very different circumstances in his tale of Ajax and
Ulysses. Hercules then moved fiercely towards his rival. Acheloiis,
ashamed to yield, stood his ground, and the fight began. Ovid forgot
that he had introduced the idea of an audience in the palace. Recalling
the familiar tradition, he suddenly described the combattants as stand-
ing on open ground near the river.
Ovid gave a clear account of the struggle, and he differed in many
particulars from Sophocles. He rejected the idea that Hercules used
arrows. He imagined that Acheloiis tried successively each of the three
forms that Sophocles had mentioned in the story of the courtship. Ache-
loiis began in his usual shape of a man with two bull horns.
The battle commenced as a match in wrestling. Even in prehistoric
times the Greeks had cultivated this form of athletics. The Iliad re-
corded in some detail a wrestling match between Ajax and Ulysses, which
occurred during the funeral games for Patroclus. In prehistoric times
there seem to have been no rules governing the costume and preparation
of the contestants. But with the Olympian Games of the year 704 B. C. ,
it became the regular practice for contestants to enter naked, or nearly
so, and then to be anointed with oil and sprinkled with fine sand. Ovid
imagined this to have been the procedure of Acheloiis and Hercules,
although he did not indicate how they could have been anointed with oil.
Acheloiis removed his green robe and took the accepted position for com-
bat. Hercules sprinkled both Acheloiis and himself with yellow sand.
cypress was his loved Clorinda.
Dante in his account of the Suicides' Wood and Ariosto in the epi-
sode of Alcina's isle told of trees which bled and protested against injury.
Both poets evidently recalled Vergil's account of Polydorus, but they
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
seem to have adopted Ovid's idea that words of protest came directly
from the tree. To Shakespeare Ovid's incident of the attendant who
interrupted Erysichthon's crime may have suggested that remarkable
incident in King Lear of the servant who interrupted Cornwall's abuse of
Gloster.
A few authors recalled the latter part of Ovid's tale. Seneca in his
Hercules Furens appears to have remembered it, when he spoke of Fam-
ine as having a sad appearance and foul jaws. To Dante, Ovid's Famine
suggested his description of gluttons famished on the mount of Purga-
tory. But Dante likened them to the emaciated Erysichthon just before
he began to devour himself. To Milton this final incident suggested the
lines in Comus, describing Evil, when,
settled to itself
It shall be in eternal restless change,
Self-fed and self-consumed.
Ovid showed Acheloiis mentioning himself as his third example of
power to assume varied forms. According to older Greek tradition their
number seems to have been unlimited. But Sophocles in the Trachinian
Women had mentioned only three -- the god's usual form of a man with
bull horns on his forehead, and those of a serpent and a bull. Ovid,
anxious to make each of his examples differ from the rest, imagined that
Acheloiis was limited to these three. All of them often have been at-
tributed to water spirits, in the lore of many countries. Acheloiis now
had lost one of his bull horns, as Theseus could see. The god's lament at
this misfortune gave Ovid occasion for the initial story of his next book.
The Eighth Book included only ten stories, a number that is re-
markably small. Of the six which Ovid made important, five were of
early origin. Greek authors and artists often had treated three of these
-- the stories of the Minotaur and Ariadne, of Icarus, and of Meleager.
Greek authors of the Alexandrian era had been fond of the tale of
Erysichthon. And, although the story of Philemon and Baucis was of
late origin and little known, it belonged to a class of tales which long
had been exceedingly popular. In almost all the chief stories Greek
predecessors had provided Ovid with an abundance of material, from
which it was his problem to select and improve the best. Of the four lesser
tales in the Eighth Book, the story of Proteus was old and familiar; the
other three were of Alexandrian origin and were virtually unknown.
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? BOOK EIGHT
Roman authors before Ovid's time had shown interest only in the
three tales of Scylla, the Minotaur and Ariadne, and Proteus. It was
Ovid who made the others easily accessible to his countrymen. Roman
authors after Ovid's time took little notice of any story treated in the
Eighth Book. With the fall of Rome, Greek versions of the material were
lost to view, and Vergil's treatments of the tales of Scylla and Proteus
became almost unknown. It was Ovid who preserved nine of the ten stories
for medieval times. He gave the tales of Icarus, Meleager, and Erysich-
thon their fame. And three others, including the celebrated tale of Phile-
mon and Baucis, he saved from oblivion.
In developing the tale of Meleager, Ovid owed much to the Iliad and
Euripides and to the boar hunt of the Odyssey. He used the Odyssey
again for his account of Proteus. For the other tales he was content
with more recent material. In the earlier half of the book the Manual
provided his background and usually the outline of the story. Both in
the earlier and the later half, Callimachus was more important than at
any time since Book Five. For the tales of Icarus and Perdix he was
Ovid's chief authority, and he contributed much to the tales of Philemon
and Erysichthon. Apollonius suggested an important event in the tale
of Erysichthon, and Parthenius afforded many ideas for the account of
Scylla. Nicander gave relatively little -- only the transformations in
the tales of Meleager and Erysichthon. During the latter half of the
book Alexandrian authors whom we cannot identify became the chief
source of almost every story. Alexandrian artists provided striking de-
tails for the stories of Meleager and Erysichthon.
Ovid often improved this Greek material with ideas from earlier
Roman poets. Catullus offered important suggestions for the tale of the
Minotaur and Ariadne, Horace for that of Philemon, Propertius for that
of Scylla. Vergil gave many and valuable contributions, especially in the
latter half of the book. Ovid recalled an unusual number of his poems,
both major and minor, and displayed much skill in giving his ideas a
new setting, although he sometimes invited unfortunate comparison with
the Aeneid. For a number of tales Ovid took suggestions from his own
work in earlier books of the Metamorphoses. And for the tales of Ariadne
and Philemon he seems to have drawn on personal observation.
As usual, Ovid found a difficult problem of adjustment. Previous
authors had given the tales in the first half of the book only a loose rela-
tion to one another. Ovid was content with lessening the difficulty and
with keeping it in the background. The tales of the second half had no
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK EIGHT
previous relation to one another. Ovid solved this problem by having a
group of people tell them at a banquet, a device that he afterwards re-
peated in his Twelfth Book. In the tales of Scylla and Meleager, Ovid
encountered the problem of reconciling inconsistent versions of his
predecessors. In this he attained only partial success. A number of the
stories Ovid had treated elsewhere, and the story of Philemon was very
similar to> that of Hyrieus in his Fasti. For the tales of Meleager and
Proteus he selected a different version, and he was able skilfully to alter
the incidents of Philemon. But he made the story of the Minotaur and
Ariadne so obscure that for readers unacquainted with other authorities
it would be unintelligible. For the tale of Icarus, Ovid boldly rewrote
and on the whole improved his own previous account.
At several points the Eighth Book was unique in Ovid's poem. The
tale of Ariadne included the only transformation to stars. The tale of
Erysichthon offered the most appropriate use of witty paradox, and the
story of Meleager offered the only example of heroic dignity. In one
respect the Book was unique in Ovid's entire poetical work. Only in the
tale of Philemon did he give his whole attention to describing simple
country life.
A number of tales in the Eighth Book became popular during the
Middle Ages and continued so through the Renaissance. Both in medieval
and in modern times the story of Ariadne attracted attention to a theme
that other ancient versions made very popular. In modern times the ac-
count of Proteus had similar importance. The tale of Philemon and
Baucis, which won little favor until the seventeenth century, became af-
terwards one of the most important of all.
The Eighth Book attracted authors such as Swift and Gray who
rarely took notice of Ovid. It suggested notable passages of Tansillo,
Tasso, La Fontaine, and Goethe. Many of the tales interested Dante.
But the most pervasive influence appeared in the work of Chaucer and
Shakespeare. The tales of Ariadne, Icarus, Meleager, and Philemon at-
tracted a number of modern painters and inspired several masterpieces.
The tales of Ariadne and Icarus attracted modern sculptors, and the
tale of Philemon won a distinguished place in opera.
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? BOOK NINE
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? CONTENTS OF BOOK NINE
PAGE
Achelous and Hercules . . . . . . . . 225
Nessus and the Death of Hercules . . . . . . 287
Galanthis 264
Dryope . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Iolaus 272
Byblis 278
Iphis and Ianthe 294
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? ACHELOUS AND HERCULES
AcHELOUS AND HERCULES
Answering a question of Theseus, the river god Acheloiis began to
tell about the loss of his horn, first tying up with reeds his unadorned
locks of hair. The tale was concerned with Hercules and introduced
Ovid's longest discussion of that famous hero.
The Greek tradition of Hercules probably originated with an actual
hero of the Argive people, who became a remarkable hunter and fighter.
He seems to have been a native of Tiryns, a village located a few miles
north of Argos ; for Diodorus gave Tiryns as the birthplace of Hercules,
and Vergil and Ovid still referred to him as Tirynthian. But, after a
prehistoric conquest of Argos by the inhabitants of Boeotia, Hercules
appears to have been identified with some Boeotian hero, and he usually
was said to have been born and reared at Thebes.
His mother was said to have been Alcmena, a princess of Tiryns,
who was living in exile. His father was Jupiter. This account of his
origin appeared as early as the Iliad, and Ovid had alluded to it in his
tale of Arachne (Bk. 6). Nevertheless Hercules often was called a son
of Alcmena's husband, Amphitryon. The poet of the Iliad referred to
him indifferently first as son of Jupiter and then as child of Amphitryon.
And this became the usual practice. Other Greek authors frequently
called him Alcides, indicating that he was descended from Alcaeus, the
father of Amphitryon. Ovid, following the custom, called him Alcides in
the tale of Acheloiis and a son of Amphitryon in the tale which followed.
Among early peoples it was a rather common practice to credit a hero
both with a divine and a human father. Greek tradition made Theseus
the son both of Neptune and of Aegeus, an idea to which Ovid alluded in
the opening line of the story (cf. Origin of Aconite, Bk. 7). *
As the centuries passed, Hercules appears to have been identified
with other local heroes of the Greeks, and he was given adventures
throughout the known world. Any natural marvel or any event in myth-
ology was apt to be associated with the work of Hercules. Greek tradi-
tion seems to have been affected also by accounts of the Phoenician god
Melcart. Hercules was said to have become a god after his death, an
idea recorded first in the Odyssey. Ovid showed Acheloiis noting in the
*In a similar manner the Gospel according to Matthew told how Jesus was the
son of God and yet traced his ancestry on the father's side from Abraham down to
Joseph, husband of Mary.
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
early part of his story that Hercules was not yet a god at the time of the
events in question.
For Greek authors and artists the career of Hercules always was a
favorite theme. Among Roman authors and artists the subject was
almost equally popular. Hercules was described as remarkably strong,
brave, and resourceful, but also as a somewhat comic figure, like the
Hebrew Samson.
In the traditional career of Hercules the most important phase was
the hero's enforced service of Eurystheus, king of Argos. The Iliad gave
its cause as follows. When the time came for Alcmena to bear her child,
Jupiter informed the gods that before night there should be born a
prince of Jupiter's race, who should rule over all the neighboring tribes,
meaning apparently over all the Argives.
Juno, realising that he alluded
to Hercules, devised a way to frustrate his plan. After persuading him
to promise under oath that the prince should be born that day, she re-
tarded the birth of Hercules and hastened the birth of Eurystheus, who
as a descendant of Perseus was also of Jupiter's race. Therefore Eurys-
theus had authority over his kinsman Hercules and was allowed to im-
pose on him grievous labors. But Jupiter was able to lighten them some-
what by having Athena give him aid.
The motive for assigning labors to Hercules was jealousy. In the
mind of Juno he was the son of her husband's paramour Alcmena. For
Eurystheus he was a rival prince of greater merit. Feeling unable to
attack him openly, they adopted the policy of sending him against dan-
gerous enemies in the hope that he would be killed. According to the
Iliad, Proetus, king of Lycia, tried a similar method for destroying
Bellerophon and sent him on three perilous quests, from all of which he
returned successful. Later accounts of Hercules made their purpose
clear.
Although Greek authors and artists continually showed interest in
the labors, for a long time they left both their number and their nature
indefinite. The Iliad spoke as if there were several, but neither the Iliad
nor the Odyssey told of any except the capture of Cerberus (cf. Origin
of Aconite, Bk. 7). The Theogony mentioned three--killing the Nemean
lion, destroying the hydra, and seizing by force the cattle of the monster
Geryon. Pisander, about the middle of the seventh century B. C. , made
Hercules the subject of a long narrative poem. He recorded at least
two labors, those with the Nemean lion and the hydra. Probably he told
also the adventures with Geryon and with Cerberus, and he may have
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? ACHELOUS AND HERCULES
added still others; but we do not know, for his work is lost. Panyasis,
towards the middle of the fifth century B. C. , made Hercules the theme
of another long narrative poem. Concerning his account of the labors
we know only that he recorded at least those with the Nemean lion and
the hydra.
Six labors were sculptured at about the same time on the Athenian
treasury at Delphi. Sophocles enumerated six in his Trachinian Women.
He noted the killing of the Nemean lion, the destruction of the hydra, a
defeat of the centaurs, capture of the Erymanthian boar, a quest for
apples of the Hesperides, and the capture of Cerberus. But he spoke of
there being still others. Ten labors were carved on the Theseum at
Athens and on the Heracleum at Thebes.
In the latter half of the fifth century B. C. the total number was
affected by Asiatic tradition. The Babylonians attributed to the sun
god twelve adventures, corresponding to the twelve signs of the zodiac,
an idea which appeared in their epic of Gilgamesh. This tradition be-
came known to the Greeks and was associated with Hercules. Euripides
in his Hercules Furens made the number of labors twelve. Greek sculp-
tors represented the same number on the temple of Jupiter at Olympia.
After this time it was usual to enumerate twelve in any list which pur-
ported to be complete.
The nature of these labors remained indefinite still longer. Sophocles
and Euripides were in agreement about three which afterwards appeared
in almost every list. The first labor, they said, was killing the Nemean
lion, the second was destroying the hydra, and one of the last was the
capture of Cerberus. Not until Alexandrian times did men arrive at
something like agreement about the other nine. The orthodox arrange-
ment then became as follows: 1. killing the Nemean lion, 2. destroying
the hydra, 3. capturing the Erymanthian boar, 4. overcoming the Cery-
nitian hind, 5. destroying the Stymphalian birds, 6. cleansing the Augean
stables, 7. capturing the Cretan bull, 8. winning Hippolyta's girdle, 9.
overcoming the bloodthirsty horses of Diomed, 10. seizing the oxen of
Geryon, 11. obtaining apples of the Hesperides, and 12. capturing the
monster Cerberus. This arrangement appeared in the Manual and still
was followed many centuries afterwards by Quintus Smyrnaeus.
Other achievements of Hercules, which were incidental to one of
these, were distinguished as supplementary labors (Parerga). Among
the latter was the defeat of the Centaurs, which both Sophocles and
Euripides had included in their lists. Still other achievements, which
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
were independent of the labors, were distinguished as deeds (Praxeis).
Among them was the hero's part in the voyage of the Argo (cf. Bk. 7).
By giving priority of birth to Eurystheus, Juno prepared the way
for the servitude of Hercules. But the Greeks usually imagined-that his
enforced labor did not begin until many years afterwards, and they re-
lated it to a number of intervening circumstances. Hercules, they said,
grew up at Thebes, married the Theban Princess Megara, and became
the father of several children. Juno then caused him to go temporarily
mad and to kill his children. According to Euripides in the Hercules
Furens, he killed Megara also, but the Manual noted that he spared her
and afterwards gave her to his nephew Iolaiis. * In order to atone for
the murder of his children, Hercules consulted the oracle at Delphi and
learned that he must serve Eurystheus. This tradition may have been
associated with Hercules even before the time of the Iliad. It was re-
corded in the Manual. Ovid probably assumed that his readers would
think of it as providing some of the events that led up to his tale of
Acheloiis and Hercules.
Ovid was concerned with the circumstances under which the hero
courted Deianira, a daughter of King Oeneus of Aetolia and a sister of
the unfortunate Meleager. The Catalogues had spoken of Hercules as
marrying her. Bacchylides recorded a number of details. While in quest
of Cerberus, Hercules met the shade of Meleager and was impressed so
favorably by his tragic story that he inquired whether Meleager had
left any sister eligible for marriage. Meleager then suggested Deianira.
Bacchylides implied that Hercules married her at some time later
than the Calydonian Boar Hunt. Pindar may have followed the same
tradition, for in a poem that now is lost he, too, observed that Meleager
encouraged Hercules to marry his sister. But most accounts did not
associate the marriage with Meleager and were indefinite about its rela-
tion to the hunt. Ovid assumed that the marriage occurred not only be-
fore the time of the Calydonian Boar Hunt but so many years before
that Acheloiis was in doubt whether Theseus had heard of Deianira.
Acheloiis told the events as a story of the remote past and implied that,
when Theseus visited him, Hercules already had finished his career on
earth and had become a god.
Bacchylides had implied that, before Hercules courted Deianira, he
performed all his labors. The Manual stated this idea clearly, and Ovid
*The idea that a primitive warrior might give away wives whom he did not wish
to keep longer, appeared in a recent photodrama treating the life of Mala, the
Eskimo.
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? ACHELOUS AND HERCULES
in his tale of Achelous and Hercules did the same. But Sophocles in the
Trachmian Women had declared that Hercules first married Deianira
and then performed the labors. And in the subsequent tale Ovid incon-
sistently followed his example.
From early times the Greeks had imagined that Achelous was a
suitor of Deianira and that Hercules vanquished him. The idea seems
to have originated in a widespread tradition that a virgin princess must
be offered to the neighboring water spirit, but might be saved by a
valiant hero (cf. Perseus and Andromeda, Bk. 4). More than one Greek
author indicated that the courtship of Achelous inspired fear and abhor-
rence. According to Pindar, Meleager had urged Hercules to protect
his sister from the god. According to Sophocles, Deianira herself would
have preferred death to such a marriage. It was supposed that Hercules
vanquished his opponent in physical combat. Archilochus, recording the
event, declared that Achelous fought in the shape of a bull.
Sophocles gave a number of details. King Oeneus and his family
were living in the village of Pleuron. Achelous courted the princess, ap-
pearing successively in the three shapes of a snake with glittering coils,
of a bull, and of a man with a bull's head and with water pouring from
his shaggy beard. He asked the king to give him his daughter in mar-
riage. Sharing the reluctance of Deianira, Oeneus contrived to delay
the answer and looked for means to escape from his embarrassing posi-
tion. At last Hercules appeared and fought with the monster. Sophocles
did not attempt to give a clear description of the battle. He indicated
that Hercules sometimes shot arrows and at other times used his fists or
grappled at close quarters and that Achelous butted savagely with his
horns. Deianira sat at a distance, weeping and afraid even to look in the
direction of the furious melee.
Greek painters often represented the combat. They showed Ache-
lous with a horned human head. Usually they pictured him as having two
horns, but sometimes as having only a single horn in the middle of his
forehead. Almost always they showed his body as that of a bull, but at
least one painter gave it the shape of a long, slender fish. Greek sculp-
tors of the fifth century treated the combat in relief, first on the throne
of Apollo's temple at Amyclae and then in a group which formed part of
the Megarian treasury at Delphi.
Alexandrian authors added new circumstances. Callimachus in his
Origins declared that Hercules broke off the two horns of Achelous. This
idea Ovid repeated in his Amores and his Epistle of Paris. In his Epistle
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? METAMORPHOSES -- BOOK NINE
of Deianira he stated also that Achelous, weeping, gathered up his horns
and concealed his mutilated brow in the yellow waters of the river.
The Manual recorded a different version of the story. It declared
that Hercules broke off only one horn, and it added a very different
sequel. Apparently Hercules kept the horn for some time. But Achelous
found means to recover it. When Jupiter was an infant, the nymph
Amalthea had fed him milk from a certain goat. One of the animal's
horns broke off, and Jupiter gave this horn the magic power of supply-
ing Amalthea abundantly with food and drink of any kind that she de-
sired. It became the Cornucopia or Horn of Plenty. This horn Amalthea
gave to Achelous. He in turn gave it to Hercules in exchange for his
own. Diodorus, trying to rationalize the story, suggested that Hercules
conquered the river Achelous by digging a canal, which diverted the
water and made the neighboring country fertile.
In the Metamorphoses, Ovid told the story of Achelous and Her-
cules at considerable length. He took suggestions from Sophocles and
the Manual but introduced much new material. He showed Achelous
observing at the outset that bitterness of defeat was compensated in
large measure by the greatness of the victor. A similar idea Ovid after-
wards used in his account of Ajax and Ulysses (Bk. 13). After men-
tioning the beauty of Deianira, he introduced the new circumstance that
she had many suitors. All of them assembled at one time in the palace of
Oeneus, he continued, with the purpose of asking the king for his daugh-
ter. But, when Achelous and Hercules made their request, the others
withdrew. Ovid said nothing about the reluctance of Deianira -- he did
not say even that she was present. But he seems to have remembered that
King Oeneus was averse to Achelous yet afraid to refuse him. He implied
that Oeneus paused, uncertain how to answer the request. The two rivals
then began to present their claims.
Hercules, speaking first, mentioned his divine parentage, his labors,
and his other achievements performed at the command of Juno. Ovid
merely summarized the claim, because he intended later to give these
events a more lengthy treatment. Ovid implied that it was a dignified,
powerful plea. Achelous felt that he must not only present his own claim
but must endeavor to discredit that of his rival. He replied that he him-
self had the advantages of being a god, a native of Aetolia, and one who
was on good terms with Juno. Then, addressing Hercules, he insisted on
the idea that a claim of divine parentage was either false or discreditable
to all concerned. Oeneus failed to reprove this breach of decorum and
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? ACHELOUS AND HERCULES
apparently lost all control of the affair. Hercules answered that he
would waive further argument and decide the matter by combat. He was
better, he said, in deeds than in words, an idea which Ovid afterwards
repeated under very different circumstances in his tale of Ajax and
Ulysses. Hercules then moved fiercely towards his rival. Acheloiis,
ashamed to yield, stood his ground, and the fight began. Ovid forgot
that he had introduced the idea of an audience in the palace. Recalling
the familiar tradition, he suddenly described the combattants as stand-
ing on open ground near the river.
Ovid gave a clear account of the struggle, and he differed in many
particulars from Sophocles. He rejected the idea that Hercules used
arrows. He imagined that Acheloiis tried successively each of the three
forms that Sophocles had mentioned in the story of the courtship. Ache-
loiis began in his usual shape of a man with two bull horns.
The battle commenced as a match in wrestling. Even in prehistoric
times the Greeks had cultivated this form of athletics. The Iliad re-
corded in some detail a wrestling match between Ajax and Ulysses, which
occurred during the funeral games for Patroclus. In prehistoric times
there seem to have been no rules governing the costume and preparation
of the contestants. But with the Olympian Games of the year 704 B. C. ,
it became the regular practice for contestants to enter naked, or nearly
so, and then to be anointed with oil and sprinkled with fine sand. Ovid
imagined this to have been the procedure of Acheloiis and Hercules,
although he did not indicate how they could have been anointed with oil.
Acheloiis removed his green robe and took the accepted position for com-
bat. Hercules sprinkled both Acheloiis and himself with yellow sand.
