Hi everyone!
I’ve been preparing for National Latin Camp recently, as it starts VERRRY soon and I’m excited for it :3
So, I do mythology [as you may know if you’ve been here before] for Certamen. So reviewing for Nats and doing art for it involve a loooot of rereading myths. Including the Metamorphoses, Ovid’s collection of myths involving transformations.
And while doing an art project about mythology, I noticed something pretty interesting about mythology.
Myths are told as stories–they are stories, of course. However, some stories have stories inside them.
If you’ve ever been in an English class, you’ve probably heard of an anecdote: a short story told to illustrate a point.
Well, mythology LOVES to use these. Sometimes an offhanded mention, sometimes the full story with context. No matter what, the story adds something. And if it doesn’t, you still have a new story.
Various examples of this sort of anecdote flurry can be seen in several mythology works, like Sophocles’s Antigone, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, but especially the Metamorphoses.
I’m specifically going to address The Metamorphoses, as I found something very interesting in the stories. Specifically, Orpheus’s story.
You’ve probably heard the tale of Orpheus, and Eurydice. It’s a common tale. They get married, Eurydice dies soon after, Orpheus goes to the Underworld to retrieve her, and Hades says she can come back to life, as long as Orpheus doesn’t look back before she’s out of the Underworld.
Orpheus looks back, just a moment too early, and Eurydice is lost forever. If you’ve seen Hadestown you have the gist.
However, Ovid chooses to have Orpheus express his grief in a very interesting way.
In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, after Eurydice’s death, Orpheus goes to a grove with a cypress tree (a mourning tree, due to the story behind it. RIP Cyparissus), and sings about love that does NOT GO WELL.
First, we have Ganymede. Poor boy. He gets kidnapped by Zeus because Zeus likes him and is made into the divine cupbearer (Hebe gets to retire).
Then we have Apollo and Hyacinthus, one of Apollo’s only functional relationships. However, Apollo throws a discus, and Hyacinthus runs to get it, but it bounces, whacks him in the head, and kills him. Apollo gets sad and Hyacinthus’s blood becomes the hyacinth flower. Apollo also brings up the death of Ajax Telamon, and how his blood will ALSO become a hyacinth flower.
THEN we have the story of Pygmalion and Galatea, after the stories of Venus’s wrath (Girls from Amathus in Cyprus who were turned into bulls for killing anyone who saw Jove’s altar were turned into bulls, the Propoetides from Amathus in Cyprus turned to flint for not acknowledging Venus’s divinity and also being driven to selling themselves). Pygmalion is disguised by these women, and not love any women never ever. Then he falls in love with a statue he makes named Galatea, and after praying to Venus, the statue is brought to life as a real woman.
Then we have the story of Cinyras and Myrrha, which I won’t get far into, but I will bring up that they are father and daughter, and Myrrha bears a child by Cinyras called Adonis. Then she turns into a myrrh tree out of shame.
Finally, he tells the story of Adonis. And Adonis is told the story of Atalanta within his own story told by Orpheus. Then Adonis gets gored by a boar, dies, and his blood is turned into the anemone flower/windflower.
Orpheus then sings no more. Because he gets torn apart by Maenads and dies. He does reunite with Eurydice though. SO that’s good.
See, the thing is, Orpheus brings up all these tales of love that ends badly–except Pygmalion. Kidnapping, death, other stuff.
So maybe he’s trying to deal with the death of Eurydice by performing for others’ tragic tales? And Pygmalion having unattainable love without turning to the gods?
I love how the anecdotes tie in somewhat. General theme of love and loss. Good stuff.
I hope you enjoyed this short summary of Orpheus’s songs in Book 9 of the Metamorphoses :33
See you next time!