The Metamorphoses of Ovid Part 4

[Footnote 55: _By name Parna.s.sus._--Ver. 317. Mount Parna.s.sus has two peaks, of which the one was called 'Tich.o.r.eum,' and was sacred to Bacchus; and the other 'Hypampeum,' and was devoted to Apollo and the Muses.]

[Footnote 56: _The Corycian Nymphs._--Ver. 320. The Corycian Nymphs were so called from inhabiting the Corycian cavern in Mount Parna.s.sus; they were fabled to be the daughters of Plistus, a river near Delphi. There was another Corycian cave in Cilicia, in Asia Minor.]

[Footnote 57: _The prophetic Themis._--Ver. 321. Themis is said to have preceded Apollo in giving oracular responses at Delphi. She was the daughter of Clus and Terra, and was the first to instruct men to ask of the G.o.ds that which was lawful and right, whence she took the name of Themis, which signifies in Greek, 'that which is just and right.']

[Footnote 58: _The native purple sh.e.l.ls._--Ver. 332. 'Murex' was the name of the sh.e.l.l-fish from which the Tyrian purple, so much valued by the ancients, was procured. Some suppose that the meaning here is, that Triton had his shoulders tinted with the purple color of the murex. It is, however, more probable that the Poet means to say that he had his neck and shoulders studded with the sh.e.l.ls of the murex, perhaps as a subst.i.tute for scales.]

[Footnote 59: _He bids him blow._--Ver. 333. There were several Tritons, or minor sea G.o.ds. The one mentioned here, the chief Triton, was fabled to be the son of Neptune and Amphitrite, who always preceded Neptune in his course, and whose arrival he was wont to proclaim by the sound of his sh.e.l.l. He was usually represented as swimming, with the upper part of his body resembling that of a human being, while his lower parts terminated with the tail of a fish.]

[Footnote 60: _The hollow-wreathed trumpet._--Ver. 335. The 'Buccina,' or, as we call it, 'the conch sh.e.l.l,' was a kind of horn, or trumpet, made out of a sh.e.l.l, called 'buccinum.' It was sometimes artificially curved, and sometimes straight, retaining the original form of the sh.e.l.l. The twisted form of the sh.e.l.l was one of the characteristic features of the trumpet, which, in later times, was made of horn, wood, or metal, so as to imitate the sh.e.l.l. It was chiefly used among the Romans, to proclaim the watches of the day and of the night, which watches were thence called 'buccina prima,' 'secunda,' etc. It was also blown at funerals, and at festive entertainments, both before sitting down to table and after. Macrobius tells us, that Tritons holding 'buccinae' were fixed on the roof of the temple of Saturn.]

[Footnote 61: _The bidden retreat._--Ver. 340. 'Canere receptus'

was 'to sound the retreat,' as the signal for the soldiers to cease fighting, and to resume their march.]

[Footnote 62: _Now the sea._--Ver. 343. This and the two following lines are considered as ent.i.tled to much praise for their terseness and brevity, as depicting by their short detached sentences the instantaneous effect produced by the commands of Neptune in reducing his dominions to a state of order.]

[Footnote 63: _A common origin._--Ver. 352. Because Prometheus was the father of Deucalion and Epimetheus of Pyrrha; Prometheus and Epimetheus being the sons of Iapetus. It is in an extended sense that he styles her 'sister,' she being really his cousin.]

[Footnote 64: _The arts of my father._--Ver. 363. He alludes to the story of his father, Prometheus, having formed men of clay, and animated them with fire stolen from heaven.]

EXPLANATION.

Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, were, perhaps, originally three brothers, kings of three separate kingdoms. Having been deified each retaining his sovereignty, they were depicted as having the world divided between them; the empire of the sea falling to the share of Neptune.

Among his occupations, were those of raising and calming the seas; and Ovid here represents him as being so employed.

FABLE X. [I.367-415]

Deucalion and Pyrrha re-people the earth by casting stones behind them, in the manner prescribed by the G.o.ddess Themis, whose oracle they had consulted.

He {thus} spoke, and they wept. They resolved to pray to the Deities of Heaven, and to seek relief through the sacred oracles. There is no delay; together they repair to the waters of Cephisus,[65] though not yet clear, yet now cutting their wonted channel. Then, when they have sprinkled the waters poured on their clothes[66] and their heads, they turn their steps to the temple of the sacred G.o.ddess, the roof of which was defiled with foul moss, and whose altars were standing without fires. Soon as they reached the steps of the temple, each of them fell prostrate on the ground, and, trembling, gave kisses to the cold pavement. And thus they said:

"If the Deities, prevailed upon by just prayers, are to be mollified, if the wrath of the G.o.ds is to be averted; tell us, O Themis, by what art the loss of our race is to be repaired, and give thy a.s.sistance, O most gentle {G.o.ddess} to our ruined fortunes." The G.o.ddess was moved, and gave this response: "Depart from my temple, and cover your heads,[67]

and loosen the garments girt {around you}, and throw behind your backs the bones of your great mother." For a long time they are amazed; and Pyrrha is the first by her words to break the silence, and {then} refuses to obey the commands of the G.o.ddess; and begs her, with trembling lips, to grant her pardon, and dreads to offend the shades of her mother by casting her bones. In the meantime they reconsider the words of the response given, {but} involved in dark obscurity, and they ponder them among themselves. Upon that, the son of Prometheus soothes the daughter of Epimetheus with {these} gentle words, and says, "Either is my discernment fallacious, or the oracles are just, and advise no sacrilege. The earth is the great mother; I suspect that the stones in the body of the earth are the bones meant; these we are ordered to throw behind our backs." Although she, descended from t.i.tan,[68] is moved by this interpretation of her husband, still her hope is involved in doubt; so much do they both distrust the advice of heaven; but what harm will it do to try?

They go down, and they veil their heads, and ungird their garments, and cast stones, as ordered, behind their footsteps. The stones (who could have believed it, but that antiquity is a witness {of the thing?}) began to lay aside their hardness and their stiffness, and by degrees to become soft; and when softened, to a.s.sume a {new} form. Presently after, when they were grown larger, a milder nature, too, was conferred on them, so that some shape of man might be seen {in them}, yet though but imperfect; and as if from the marble commenced {to be wrought}, not sufficiently distinct, and very like to rough statues. Yet that part of them which was humid with any moisture, and earthy, was turned into {portions adapted for} the use of the body. That which is solid, and cannot be bent, is changed into bones; that which was just now a vein, still remains under the same name.[69] And in a little time, by the interposition of the G.o.ds above, the stones thrown by the hands of the man, took the shape of a man, and the female {race} was renewed by the throwing of the woman. Thence are we a hardy generation, and able to endure fatigue, and we give proofs from what original we are sprung.

[Footnote 65: _The waters of Cephisus._--Ver. 369. The river Cephisus rises on Mount Parna.s.sus, and flows near Delphi.]

[Footnote 66: _Poured on their clothes._--Ver. 371. It was the custom of the ancients, before entering a temple, either to sprinkle themselves with water, or to wash the body all over.]

[Footnote 67: _Cover your heads._--Ver. 382. It was a custom among the ancients to cover their heads in sacrifice and other acts of wors.h.i.+p, either as a mark of humility, or, according to Plutarch, that nothing of ill omen might meet their sight, and thereby interrupt the performance of the rites.]

[Footnote 68: _Descended from t.i.tan._--Ver. 395. Pyrrha was of the race of the t.i.tans; for Iapetus, her grandfather, was the son of t.i.tan and Terra.]

[Footnote 69: _Under the same name._--Ver. 410. With his usual propensity for punning, he alludes to the use of the word 'vena,'

as signifying either 'a vein' of the body, or a 'streak' or 'vein'

in stone, according to the context.]

EXPLANATION.

In the reign of Deucalion, king of Thessaly, the course of the river Peneus was stopped, probably by an earthquake. In the same year so great a quant.i.ty of rain fell, that all Thessaly was overflowed.

Deucalion and some of his subjects fled to Mount Parna.s.sus; where they remained until the waters abated. The children of those who were preserved are the stones of which the Poet here speaks. The Fable, probably, has for its foundation the double meaning of the word 'Eben,' or 'Aben,' which signifies either 'a stone,' or 'a child.' The Scholiast on Pindar tells us, too, that the word ????, which means people, formerly also signified 'a stone.'

The brutal and savage nature of the early races of men may also have added strength to the tradition that they derived their original from stones. After the inundation, Deucalion is said to have repaired to Athens, where he built a temple to Jupiter, and inst.i.tuted sacrifices in his honor. Some suppose that Cranaus reigned at Athens when Deucalion retired thither; though Eusebius informs us it was under the reign of Cecrops. Deucalion was the son of Prometheus, and his wife Pyrrha was the daughter of his uncle, Epimetheus. After his death, he received the honor of a temple, and was wors.h.i.+pped as a Divinity.

FABLE XI. [I.416-451]

The Earth, being warmed by the heat of the sun, produces many monsters: among others, the serpent Python, which Apollo kills with his arrows. To establish a memorial of this event, he inst.i.tutes the Pythian games, and adopts the surname of Pythius.

The Earth of her own accord brought forth other animals of different forms; after that the former moisture was thoroughly heated by the rays of the sun, and the mud and the wet fens fermented with the heat; and the fruitful seeds of things nourished by the enlivening soil, as in the womb of a mother, grew, and, in lapse of time, a.s.sumed some {regular} shape. Thus, when the seven-streamed Nile[70] has forsaken the oozy fields, and has returned its waters to their ancient channel, and the fresh mud has been heated with the aethereal sun, the laborers, on turning up the clods, meet with very many animals, and among them, some just begun at the very moment of their formation, and some they see {still} imperfect, and {as yet} dest.i.tute of {some} of their limbs; and often, in the same body, is one part animated, the other part is coa.r.s.e earth. For when moisture and heat have been subjected to a due mixture, they conceive; and all things arise from these two.

And although fire is the antagonist of heat, {yet} a moist vapor creates all things, and this discordant concord is suited for generation; when, therefore, the Earth, covered with mud by the late deluge, was thoroughly heated by the aethereal suns.h.i.+ne and a penetrating warmth, it produced species {of creatures} innumerable; and partly restored the former shapes, and partly gave birth to new monsters. She, indeed, might have been unwilling, but then she produced thee as well, thou enormous Python; and thou, unheard-of serpent, wast a {source of} terror to this new race of men, so vast a part of a mountain didst thou occupy.

The G.o.d that bears the bow, and that had never before used such arms, but against the deer and the timorous goats, destroyed him, overwhelmed with a thousand arrows, his quiver being well-nigh exhausted, {as} the venom oozed forth through the black wounds; and that length of time might not efface the fame of the deed, he inst.i.tuted sacred games,[71]

with contests famed {in story}, called "Pythia," from the name of the serpent {so} conquered. In these, whosoever of the young men conquered in boxing, in running, or in chariot-racing, received the honor of a crown of beechen leaves.[72] As yet the laurel existed not, and Phbus used to bind his temples, graceful with long hair, with {garlands from} any tree.

[Footnote 70: _The seven-streamed Nile._--Ver. 423. The river Nile discharges itself into the sea by seven mouths. It is remarkable for its inundations, which happen regularly every year, and overflow the whole country of Egypt. To this is chiefly owing the extraordinary fertility of the soil of that country; for when the waters subside, they leave behind them great quant.i.ties of mud, which, settling upon the land, enrich it, and continually reinvigorate it.]

[Footnote 71: _Inst.i.tuted sacred games._--Ver. 446. Yet Pausanias, in his Corinthiaca, tells us that they were inst.i.tuted by Diomedes; others, again, say by Eurylochus the Thessalian; and others, by Amphictyon, or Adrastus. The Pythian games were celebrated near Delphi, on the Crissaean plain, which contained a race-course, a stadium of 1000 feet in length, and a theatre, in which the musical contests took place. They were once held at Athens, by the advice of Demetrius Poliorcetes, because the aetolians were in possession of the pa.s.ses round Delphi. They were most probably originally a religious ceremonial, and were perhaps only a musical contest, which consisted in singing a hymn in honor of the Pythian G.o.d, accompanied by the music of the cithara. In later times, gymnastic and equestrian games and exercises were introduced there. Previously to the 48th Olympiad, the Pythian games had been celebrated at the end of every eighth year; after that period they were held at the end of every fourth year. When they ceased to be solemnized is unknown; but in the time of the Emperor Julian they still continued to be held.]

[Footnote 72: _Crown of beechen leaves._--Ver. 449. This was the prize which was originally given to the conquerors in the Pythian games. In later times, as Ovid tells us, the prize of the victor was a laurel chaplet, together with the palm branch, symbolical of his victory.]

EXPLANATION.

The story of the serpent Python, being explained on philosophical principles, seems to mean, that the heat of the sun, having dissipated the noxious exhalations emitted by the receding waters, the reptiles, which had been produced from the slime left by the flood, immediately disappeared.

If, however, we treat this narrative as based on historical facts, it is probable that the serpent represented some robber who infested the neighborhood of Parna.s.sus, and molested those who pa.s.sed that way for the purpose of offering sacrifice. A prince, either bearing the name of Apollo, or being a priest of that G.o.d, by his destruction liberated that region from this annoyance. This event gave rise to the inst.i.tution of the Pythian games, which were celebrated near Delphi.

Besides the several contests mentioned by Ovid, singing, dancing, and instrumental music, formed part of the exercises of these games. The event which Ovid here places soon after the deluge, must have happened much later, since in the time of Deucalion, the wors.h.i.+p of Apollo was not known at Delphi. The G.o.ddess Themis then delivered oracles there, which, previously to her time, had been delivered by the Earth.

FABLE XII. [I.452-567]

Apollo, falling in love with Daphne, the daughter of the river Peneus, she flies from him. He pursues her; on which, the Nymph, imploring the aid of her father, is changed into a laurel.

Daphne, the daughter of Peneus, was the first love of Phbus; whom, not blind chance, but the vengeful anger of Cupid a.s.signed to him.

The Delian {G.o.d},[73] proud of having lately subdued the serpent, had seen him bending the bow and drawing the string, and had said, "What hast thou to do, wanton boy, with gallant arms? Such a burden as that {better} befits my shoulders; I, who am able to give unerring wounds to the wild beasts, {wounds} to the enemy, who lately slew with arrows innumerable the swelling Python, that covered so many acres {of land} with his pestilential belly. Do thou be contented to excite I know not what flames with thy torch; and do not lay claim to praises {properly} my own."

To him the son of Venus replies, "Let thy bow shoot all things, Phbus; my bow {shall shoot} thee; and as much as all animals fall short of thee, so much is thy glory less than mine." He {thus} said; and cleaving the air with his beating wings, with activity he stood upon the shady heights of Parna.s.sus, and drew two weapons out of his arrow-bearing quiver, of different workmans.h.i.+p; the one repels, the other excites desire. That which causes {love} is of gold, and is brilliant, with a sharp point; that which repels it is blunt, and contains lead beneath the reed. This one the G.o.d fixed in the Nymph, the daughter of Peneus, but with the other he wounded the {very} marrow of Apollo, through his bones pierced {by the arrow}. Immediately the one is in love; the other flies from the {very} name of a lover, rejoicing in the recesses of the woods, and in the spoils of wild beasts taken {in hunting}, and becomes a rival of the virgin Phbe. A fillet tied together[74] her hair, put up without any order. Many a one courted her; she hated all wooers; not able to endure, and quite unacquainted with man, she traverses the solitary parts of the woods, and she cares not what Hymen,[75] what love, {or} what marriage means. Many a time did her father say, "My daughter, thou owest me a son-in-law;" many a time did her father say, "My daughter, thou owest me grandchildren." She, utterly abhorring the nuptial torch,[76] as though a crime, has her beauteous face covered with the blush of modesty; and clinging to her father's neck, with caressing arms, she says, "Allow me, my dearest father, to enjoy perpetual virginity; her father, in times, bygone, granted this to Diana."

He indeed complied. But that very beauty forbids thee to be what thou wishest, and the charms of thy person are an impediment to thy desires.

Phbus falls in love, and he covets an alliance with Daphne, {now} seen by him, and what he covets he hopes for, and his own oracles deceive him; and as the light stubble is burned, when the ears of corn are taken off, and as hedges are set on fire by the torches, which perchance a traveller has either held too near them, or has left {there}, now about the break of day, thus did the G.o.d burst into a flame; thus did he burn throughout his breast, and cherish a fruitless pa.s.sion with his hopes.

He beholds her hair hanging unadorned upon her neck, and he says, "And what would {it be} if it were arranged?" He sees her eyes, like stars, sparkling with fire; he sees her lips, which it is not enough to have {merely} seen; he praises both her fingers and her hands, and her arms and her shoulders naked, from beyond the middle; whatever is hidden from view, he thinks to be still more beauteous. Swifter than the light wind she flies, and she stops not at these words of his, as he calls her back: