Reading Notes: Ovid's Metamorphoses Books 8-10, Part B
Here are my notes for Ovid's Metamorphoses Books 8-10, Part B. Enjoy!
1: Orpheus and Eurydice
-on her wedding day to Orpheus, Eurydice was bitten on the ankle by a poisonous snake and died; in his grief, Orpheus goes to the river Styx in the underworld to try and get her back
-he goes to Persephone and Hades and sings to them, asking them to reverse Eurydice's death; if they don't, he says he'll die in the underworld and not return to earth
-everyone in the underworld was enchanted by Orpheus's song, so Hades and Persephone agree to give her back; on their way to the upper-world, Orpheus turns to Eurydice's ghost and sees that she's vanished, so he loses her again
-Orpheus tried to cross back over the river Styx again, but couldn't this time; so he went to Mount Rhodope and lived for three years there, never loving another woman again
2: Ganymede and Hyacinthus
-Jupiter loved a Trojan boy named Phrygian Ganymede, so he turned himself into a eagle and stole him to keep him near forever
-Phoebus, a version of Apollo, loves hyacinths (who they refer to as Hyacinthus); one day, Phoebus and another boy have a discus competition; when the boy threw the discus, it hit a hyacinth; Phoebus cradles the flower and tries to help it, but it dies anyway; Apollo mourns the flower and vows that his songs will celebrate it; after he says this, he has the dead flower spring up and turns into a lily and markes "AI" on each petal to mark his grief; since then, hyacinths have always been celebrated
3: Pygmalion
-Orpheus sings a story about the Propoetides:
-in the city of Amathus, there is an altar to Jove (Jupiter), where the Propoetides sacrifice their guests instead of animals; Venus gets angry about these sacrifices, and decides to transform the men into wild cows and the Propoetides into prostitutes
-Orpheus sings about Pygmalion:
-Pygmalion, having seen the Propoetides decides to live as a bachelor, thinking that no woman is good enough for him; he carves the perfect woman out of ivory and falls in love with his creation; he kisses it, dresses it, cuddles it, etc.
-one day, at Venus's festival, Pygmalion asks the gods for a bride just like his ivory girl; Venus grants his wish, and when he goes home, he kisses the statue and she comes to life; they live happily ever after
4: Myrrha and Cinyras
-Myrrha, a princess, has her pick of men to marry, but the man she wants (Cinyras) is not among them; this is because Cinyras is her father; Myrrha knows it's wrong to love her father, but she makes a lot of excuses that make her feel better about the way she feels (mating animals don't care about familial relationships, etc.)
-she contemplates what would happen if she acted on her feelings for Cinyras (what would her mother and sisters think); she decides not to act on her feelings
5: Myrrha and the Nurse
-Cinyras asks Myrrha who she wants to marry; she doesn't answer, she just stares at him and cries; thinking she's scared and wanting to comfort his daughter, he dries her face and kisses her; Myrrha (of course) takes this the wrong way and tells him she wants to marry someone like him; he doesn't understand what she really means, and just thinks she's a loving daughter
-later that night, Myrrha doesn't know what to do about her feelings, so she decides to kill herself; she's about to hang herself when her nurse comes in; the nurse grabs the noose and tears it up, asking Myrrha why she would try to kill herself; Myrrha doesn't answer, but the nurse guesses that she's in love, and tells her that she'll keep her secret if Myrrha wants to tell her who she loves
-Myrrha refuses to tell her, but the nurse keeps begging her anyway; eventually, Myrrha tells her the truth; the nurse tells her to banish her love and live her life, but Myrrha makes a silent promise to herself that if she could not possess her love, she'll kill herself
6: Myrrha's Punishment
-during the festival of Ceres, the married women of the kingdom can't touch their husbands for nine nights, so Cinyras's wife is gone for that time; on one night, the nurse goes to a drunk Cinyras and tells him about a girl, the same age as Myrrha, who is in love with him; Cinyras tells the nurse to bring her to him, so she goes to get Myrrha; on her way there, Myrrha is warned with three omens, but ignores all of them and continues on
-she goes to Cinyras and sleeps with him (it's dark enough that he can't see her, so he doesn't know it's her); this happens the next night too, but he fetches a light afterwards to see her face and sees his daughter; he gets very upset and grabs his sword; Myrrha runs away to another country and ends up pregnant; she prays to the gods to change her as punishment for her sins
-the gods grant her prayer and turn her into a tree that drips myrrh to this day
7: Venus and Adonis
-inside the tree that Myrrha became, her child is still growing; eventually, the child emerges from the tree and grows up, becoming the most beautiful man ever (which catches Venus's attention); one day she accidentally gets scratched by Cupid's arrow while watching Adonis (the child) and falls in love with him
-Venus stays with Adonis and advises him to be wary and smart around the different animals of the woods (like boars with sharp tusks) because the animals hate Venus; he wonders why, but she doesn't answer, and the lie down underneath a tree and rest
8: Atalanta and Hippomenes
-Venus tells Adonis this story:
-Atalanta is faster than any man; she asks the gods if she should have a husband and they tell her to run from the necessity of a husband, or she won't be herself; so she vows to not take a husband until a man beats her in a race; if a man races her and loses, she'll kill him, but if he wins, she'll marry him
-many men try to beat her and fail, dying; Hippomenes, a skeptic, falls in love with her when he sees her race other men, and asks her to race him instead; she contemplates the idea, wanting to race him but also not wanting him to risk death if he loses (because she falls in love with him too); she eventually agrees to race him
9: The Foot-Race
-Hippomenes asks Venus for help in the race against Atalanta; Venus grants his wish and brings him 3 golden apples and tells him how to use them
-the race starts; Atalanta overtakes him, but he throws one of the apples off the course, and, enchanted by it, Atalanta runs off the track to go get it while he races ahead; she gets the apple and catches back up with him, so he throws the second apple off the course, and the same thing happens; this happens one more time, and Venus makes the last apple more enchanting, and makes all the apples harder to carry and heavier; this allows Hippomenes to win the race and they get married
-Hippomenes never thanks Venus for this gift, so she gets angry; she decides to make an example of both of them for their ungratefulness; one day, they're running through the woods when they pass a temple of Cybele (the mother of the gods) and stop there to rest; Venus enchants Hippomenes to want to sleep with Atalanta, so they do in the temple, desecrating it; because of this sin, Cybele turns them into lions
-Venus tells Adonis that this is why he needs to avoid lions, and all wild animals, in case they try to take revenge on her by hurting him
10: The Death of Adonis
-one day, Adonis is hunting a boar when it stabs him with one of its tusks to get away; he dies
-Venus finds his body and, in mourning, asks Persephone to change his body into a plant; Persephone turns his body into the windflower anemone
1: Orpheus and Eurydice
-on her wedding day to Orpheus, Eurydice was bitten on the ankle by a poisonous snake and died; in his grief, Orpheus goes to the river Styx in the underworld to try and get her back
-he goes to Persephone and Hades and sings to them, asking them to reverse Eurydice's death; if they don't, he says he'll die in the underworld and not return to earth
-everyone in the underworld was enchanted by Orpheus's song, so Hades and Persephone agree to give her back; on their way to the upper-world, Orpheus turns to Eurydice's ghost and sees that she's vanished, so he loses her again
-Orpheus tried to cross back over the river Styx again, but couldn't this time; so he went to Mount Rhodope and lived for three years there, never loving another woman again
2: Ganymede and Hyacinthus
-Jupiter loved a Trojan boy named Phrygian Ganymede, so he turned himself into a eagle and stole him to keep him near forever
-Phoebus, a version of Apollo, loves hyacinths (who they refer to as Hyacinthus); one day, Phoebus and another boy have a discus competition; when the boy threw the discus, it hit a hyacinth; Phoebus cradles the flower and tries to help it, but it dies anyway; Apollo mourns the flower and vows that his songs will celebrate it; after he says this, he has the dead flower spring up and turns into a lily and markes "AI" on each petal to mark his grief; since then, hyacinths have always been celebrated
3: Pygmalion
-Orpheus sings a story about the Propoetides:
-in the city of Amathus, there is an altar to Jove (Jupiter), where the Propoetides sacrifice their guests instead of animals; Venus gets angry about these sacrifices, and decides to transform the men into wild cows and the Propoetides into prostitutes
-Orpheus sings about Pygmalion:
-Pygmalion, having seen the Propoetides decides to live as a bachelor, thinking that no woman is good enough for him; he carves the perfect woman out of ivory and falls in love with his creation; he kisses it, dresses it, cuddles it, etc.
-one day, at Venus's festival, Pygmalion asks the gods for a bride just like his ivory girl; Venus grants his wish, and when he goes home, he kisses the statue and she comes to life; they live happily ever after
4: Myrrha and Cinyras
-Myrrha, a princess, has her pick of men to marry, but the man she wants (Cinyras) is not among them; this is because Cinyras is her father; Myrrha knows it's wrong to love her father, but she makes a lot of excuses that make her feel better about the way she feels (mating animals don't care about familial relationships, etc.)
-she contemplates what would happen if she acted on her feelings for Cinyras (what would her mother and sisters think); she decides not to act on her feelings
5: Myrrha and the Nurse
-Cinyras asks Myrrha who she wants to marry; she doesn't answer, she just stares at him and cries; thinking she's scared and wanting to comfort his daughter, he dries her face and kisses her; Myrrha (of course) takes this the wrong way and tells him she wants to marry someone like him; he doesn't understand what she really means, and just thinks she's a loving daughter
-later that night, Myrrha doesn't know what to do about her feelings, so she decides to kill herself; she's about to hang herself when her nurse comes in; the nurse grabs the noose and tears it up, asking Myrrha why she would try to kill herself; Myrrha doesn't answer, but the nurse guesses that she's in love, and tells her that she'll keep her secret if Myrrha wants to tell her who she loves
-Myrrha refuses to tell her, but the nurse keeps begging her anyway; eventually, Myrrha tells her the truth; the nurse tells her to banish her love and live her life, but Myrrha makes a silent promise to herself that if she could not possess her love, she'll kill herself
6: Myrrha's Punishment
-during the festival of Ceres, the married women of the kingdom can't touch their husbands for nine nights, so Cinyras's wife is gone for that time; on one night, the nurse goes to a drunk Cinyras and tells him about a girl, the same age as Myrrha, who is in love with him; Cinyras tells the nurse to bring her to him, so she goes to get Myrrha; on her way there, Myrrha is warned with three omens, but ignores all of them and continues on
-she goes to Cinyras and sleeps with him (it's dark enough that he can't see her, so he doesn't know it's her); this happens the next night too, but he fetches a light afterwards to see her face and sees his daughter; he gets very upset and grabs his sword; Myrrha runs away to another country and ends up pregnant; she prays to the gods to change her as punishment for her sins
-the gods grant her prayer and turn her into a tree that drips myrrh to this day
7: Venus and Adonis
-inside the tree that Myrrha became, her child is still growing; eventually, the child emerges from the tree and grows up, becoming the most beautiful man ever (which catches Venus's attention); one day she accidentally gets scratched by Cupid's arrow while watching Adonis (the child) and falls in love with him
-Venus stays with Adonis and advises him to be wary and smart around the different animals of the woods (like boars with sharp tusks) because the animals hate Venus; he wonders why, but she doesn't answer, and the lie down underneath a tree and rest
8: Atalanta and Hippomenes
-Venus tells Adonis this story:
-Atalanta is faster than any man; she asks the gods if she should have a husband and they tell her to run from the necessity of a husband, or she won't be herself; so she vows to not take a husband until a man beats her in a race; if a man races her and loses, she'll kill him, but if he wins, she'll marry him
-many men try to beat her and fail, dying; Hippomenes, a skeptic, falls in love with her when he sees her race other men, and asks her to race him instead; she contemplates the idea, wanting to race him but also not wanting him to risk death if he loses (because she falls in love with him too); she eventually agrees to race him
9: The Foot-Race
-Hippomenes asks Venus for help in the race against Atalanta; Venus grants his wish and brings him 3 golden apples and tells him how to use them
-the race starts; Atalanta overtakes him, but he throws one of the apples off the course, and, enchanted by it, Atalanta runs off the track to go get it while he races ahead; she gets the apple and catches back up with him, so he throws the second apple off the course, and the same thing happens; this happens one more time, and Venus makes the last apple more enchanting, and makes all the apples harder to carry and heavier; this allows Hippomenes to win the race and they get married
-Hippomenes never thanks Venus for this gift, so she gets angry; she decides to make an example of both of them for their ungratefulness; one day, they're running through the woods when they pass a temple of Cybele (the mother of the gods) and stop there to rest; Venus enchants Hippomenes to want to sleep with Atalanta, so they do in the temple, desecrating it; because of this sin, Cybele turns them into lions
-Venus tells Adonis that this is why he needs to avoid lions, and all wild animals, in case they try to take revenge on her by hurting him
10: The Death of Adonis
-one day, Adonis is hunting a boar when it stabs him with one of its tusks to get away; he dies
-Venus finds his body and, in mourning, asks Persephone to change his body into a plant; Persephone turns his body into the windflower anemone
Atalanta, marble. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
"Metamorphoses" by Ovid, translated by Tony Kline. Web Source: UnTextbook.
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