Scholars Home | Sophomore Projects
The Correlation of Ovid's Metamorphoses
and Greek Perspectives
by Natasha Eckert '02
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Punishment Metamorphoses
Chapter 2: Metamorphoses For Protection, Consolation, and Commemoration
Chapter 3: The Bird Metamorphoses
Introduction
I. Ovid's Metamorphoses: Greek Perspectives on Nature in Roman ContextOvid's Metamorphoses is a collection of myths derived from Greek Mythology that all have one narrative element in common–every story tells of a human being undergoing a transformation. This was a common theme in ancient Greek myth and Ovid relates hundreds of these stories connecting each story ingeniously to the one that precedes and to the one that follows to create an uninterrupted story line. Ovid begins his collection with creation myth and ends with contemporary Roman myth. In such a broad expanse of time, Ovid relates stories both famous and obscure, drawn for the most part from Greek mythology.
Ovid is a Roman poet and would naturally interpret the myths from the Roman perspective. All of the character's names, for example, are essentially Roman. Ovid also tailors many of the stories to incorporate them into the sequence he intends to create and to assure that each story contains at least some form of metamorphosis, even if somewhat contrived. Still, Ovid adapts many of the stories and the names of deities, characters and locations to the Roman perspective and in most cases he preserves the outline of the original Greek story. Moreover, in the Metamorphoses as a whole, a variety of Greek ideas remain. After categorizing the myths according to the types of metamorphoses that occur, it is possible to detect several discreet patterns. In fact, the picture is, in some respects, astonishingly consistent.
II. The Marriage of Purpose and Transformation
The most striking pattern in Ovid's tales concerns the relationship between the reason an individual undergoes a transformation and the object that he or she is changed into. There are several broad categories of transformations in Metamorphoses. Human beings are changed into animals, plants, stones, water and birds. There are several main reasons, in turn why a person is targeted for a metamorphosis: as a punishment, to console him for grief, to commemorate his life or to afford protection. The punishment metamorphoses, on their own, make up a broad category of negative metamorphoses. The protection, commemoration and consolation metamorphoses have positive associations. The case to be made here, in short, is that if a person is targeted for a change, the transformation is not arbitrary. Transformations into animals and stones appear only in the context of the punishment metamorphoses; transformations into plants and water are found in the consolation, commemoration, protection metamorphoses. Bird transformations occur in both types of stories, but it is possible to offer an explanation for this phenomenon after examining each category of stories. This pattern is remarkably consistent in the Metamorphoses.
Although the pattern to be examined here may seem arbitrary, to the ancient Greek it most likely made a great deal of sense. Understanding the pattern depends, however, on understanding some common Greek perceptions of the natural world by examining various ancient sources that were written to explain natural phenomena. In fact, Ovid's stories preserve and reflect some of the most common beliefs and ideas held by the ancient Greeks about animals, birds, plants, rock and water and their relationship to man.
According to the ancient perspective, there is an inherent hierarchy in the world. Gods are "supreme," men are secondary, as man was created as an image of the Gods and a human being's faculties are most closely related to the divine. All other beings and objects are lower still, with the lowest usually being the least animate. Early thinkers also tended to compare the capacities of the natural entities being classified with the capacities of humans.
If animals, plants, water, rock and birds occupy different positions in the hierarchy of creation then a story of a metamorphosis could reflect this fact. For instance, if a person or culture believes that it would be wonderful to be changed into a dog or another positive thing, then a metamorphosis into a dog would not, in principle, be regarded as a form of punishment, but rather as a reward. Again, in Ovid the purpose of the metamorphosis agrees with the Greek perspective of the object that the person is being transformed into. Punishment merits a negative metamorphosis and victims or the innocent undergo a positive metamorphosis.
This paper will first explore why transformation into animals and stone appear in punishment stories and transformations into plants and water appear in stories where the purpose is to aid the human being. Finally, it will be possible to explain why birds appear in both positive and negative metamorphoses. There is no indication that Ovid contrived this pattern because he never draws any explicit attention to it. In addition, the stories that conform to the pattern appear scattered about in random sequence in the overall work. Although Ovid may have been writing a Roman version of the Greek myth, the ideas found within the stories presented here are intrinsically Greek as is portrayed by the correlation of this pattern and the Greek perspective.
Table of Contents | Sophomore Projects
Chapter 1
The Punishment Metamorphoses
I. The Character of Animals
Many of the transformations designed for punishment found in the Metamorphoses involve a human being transformed into a beast. A survey of Greek pre-scientific and scientific ideas reveals the underlying logic of this association.
The inferiority of animals' mental and physical abilities was axiomatic for ancient Greeks. In the "Pre-Scientific" period, such ideas emerge in mythology and religion. Later, common beliefs tended to be incorporated into scientific ideas and concepts. Aristotle provides us with a wealth of information about the Greek concept of man's relationship to beasts, specifically by measuring the mental capacities of animals by the standard of mankind.
[Animals] are seen to have a certain natural capability in relation to each of the soul's affections–to intelligence and stupidity, courage and cowardice, to mildness and ferocity, and the other dispositions of this sort. Certain animals at the same time are receptive of some learning and instruction, some from each other, some from humans…(Historia Animalium, Book IX 608a, lines 1-20)
Thus animals display some limited degree of intelligence, emotion, and capacity to learn. "For corresponding to art, wisdom and intelligence in man, certain animals possess another natural capacity of a similar sort. (Aristotle, Historia Animalium, Book VIII, 588a lines 29-31)". Man, however, has the greatest ability to perceive and experience emotion and various states of mind, whereas most animals may not possess these qualities at all. As to the norms of civilization, man establishes systems of justice and law, and within these systems is held accountable for his actions. Animals do not possess this sense nor do they enforce law or order upon each other. As Hesiod wrote "Fishes and land animals and winged birds eat each other because dike [justice] is not in them. But to people he gave dike, which is by much the best thing. (Hesiod, Works and Days, lines 276-277)." Animals do not possess any sense of justice, morality, sensibility or the ability to communicate as humans do. "For man's nature is more complete, so that these dispositions too are more evident in humans (Aristotle, Historia Animalium, Book IX, 608b lines 6-7)." The Greeks value these qualities and the lack of them would make life exceptionally difficult or even undesirable. Since an animal, is by definition, inferior to man it is obvious that an individual would regard the idea of one day becoming an animal as a form of punishment.
II. Ovid's Beast Metamorphoses
One of the first punishment metamorphoses that appears in the Metamorphoses is the story of Callisto (Metamorphoses, Book II, lines 406-538), one of Diana's favorite companions who fell victim to Jove's desires. Jove disguised himself as Diana, approached Callisto and seized her. Callisto fought him but Jove succeeded in taking sexual advantage of her. When Callisto rejoined Diana and her nymph companions, no one suspected anything until nine months later when, during a bath, the nymphs stripped her and found she was pregnant. Diana banished Callisto from her sight. Juno, knowing whose child Callisto was carrying, turned her anger onto the girl. "Strumpet, so it came to this, / that you gave birth, and published by that birth/ my injury and proved my Jove's disgrace. / Now you shall pay! That loveliness, your joy, / that grace that won my lord, I shall destroy! (Met, II, 73-77)" Juno then changed her into a bear.
Juno's reason for changing Callisto into a bear was to destroy the beauty that had caught her husband's fancy. "The lips that Jove so praised/ were hideous jaws (Met, II, 82-83)." Destroying Callisto's beauty prevents more amorous encounters between Jove and Callisto and takes away her human dignity, specifically–"her power of speech was quenched/…but kept her woman's heart" (Met, II, 84, 86). Although, she loses many of her human capacities she essentially retains her identity. However, she now flees from human hunters, since she gains the animal instinct to flee from danger and her human memories cause her to fear animals, such as wolves and other bears, which a normal bear would not otherwise fear.
The story of Diana and Actaeon (Met, III, 131-253) is similar to the story of Callisto in that Actaeon is a hunter and also the innocent victim of an unfortunate encounter with a god. One hot day, Diana found a remote spot for her and her nymphs to bathe. Actaeon, wandering idly, happened upon the sacred bathing place. Diana and her nymphs were distraught at being seen naked by a man and Diana immediately threw water upon him and cursed him. As the water dripped down on him, he changed into a stag, fled, and realized that he was no longer human. As he debated whether he should return home or stay in the forest, his hounds tracked him down, caught him and tore him to pieces.
Diana changes Actaeon into a stag mainly to prevent him from telling anyone that he had seen the goddess naked: "Now tell/ you saw me here naked without my clothes, / if you can tell at all!" (Met, III, 191 - 193) Changing him into a stag takes away his power of communication. Like Callisto, Actaeon attempts to speak, but is shocked by the sound of his own voice. "He tried to say ‘Alas!'–But no words came; / He groaned–that was his voice/…all changed except his mind" (Met, III, 202-204). Actaeon has lost his human form, and with it the power of speech, but he can still remember his original identity. He recognizes his inferior condition because he debates whether or not he should return home or remain in the forest. However, he now fears the forest–the place where he had once had almost free rein–just as Callisto feared the animals that any normal bear would have had power over.
It is ironic that Actaeon, a hunter, was changed into a stag. One might argue that Diana's main reason for choosing the animal that Actaeon hunts was so that he could become the victim of his own trade. However, Ovid does not explicitly stress this idea, but rather that Diana changed Actaeon for the sole purpose of robbing him of the ability to say that he had seen her naked. It is probably not coincidental that she chose the stag as her form of punishment. As a huntress herself who wants to make Actaeon her victim, the stag seems to be the most obvious choice.
In the stories of Callisto and Actaeon, both characters realize their loss of human features but they still retain their human identities. The fact that Actaeon and Callisto are both completely aware of their situations is what makes their punishments so effective. In both instances, the vulnerability of their situations inspires fright in them and causes them to shy away from those things that they normally would not fear.
Moving out of the forest and into a more urban setting–the town of Lydia, famous for weaving and purple dye–Ovid relates the story of Arachne's trials with the goddess Athena. Arachne is a master weaver, taught by Athena herself, but angers the goddess by denying Athena credit for her skill. Worse yet, Arachne challenges Athena to a contest. When Athena can find no fault in the work of Arachne, she becomes angry and strikes the young woman on the forehead. Unable to endure the goddess's anger, Arachne attempts to hang herself, but Athena will not allow her to succeed and changes her into a spider. Arachne as a spider, weaves a web, and thus pursues the skill she had as a human being.
Athena prevents Arachne from dying because she feels that Arachne has not had a severe enough punishment. By turning her into a spider she forces her to continue her skill and ensures that all spiders will be forced to do the same. "Yes, live but hang, you wicked girl and know/ you'll rue the future too: that penalty/ your kin shall pay to all posterity!" (Met, VI, 140-142) In this manner, Arachne becomes an example to all mankind not to challenge a god. Ovid does not leave the impression that Arachne is aware of her change nor can she acknowledge the difference between her former and present state. This myth is known as aetiology–it is a story created to explain the origin of a naturally occurring circumstance. In many cases, animals often display repetitive habits and the Greeks developed stories to explain this. In this case, the spider that instinctively builds a web is bearing the mark of punishment, which originated when Arachne challenged the goddess Athena.
In all three of these stories, in which a human being is punished by being transformed into a beast, the transformed human is guilty of offending a god–intentionally or unintentionally. The god wishes each to suffer in some way so that they are able to reflect on their crimes. Therefore, the god chooses an animal form that will intensify their suffering. The form Callisto is given takes away the beauty that won the heart of Jove. Actaeon is changed into a stag so he can be hunted down in the manner he had hunted down his own prey. Arachne is forced to forever practice the skill she had once had the audacity to boast about. The god chooses a specific form in order to punish the individual for the fault that caused them to commit the crime.
III. Early Greek Ideas on the Nature of the Stone
In addition to the beast metamorphosis, the idea of being transformed into a rock, according to ancient Greek beliefs, could also be considered as something to be feared. However, turning a person to stone may not seem to be an effective form of punishment since it essentially terminates his life and leaves him with no way of experiencing or reflecting on the situation. On the other hand, according to some interpretations of ancient ideas, a rock, an ostensibly inanimate object, may indeed be animate and possess a soul. Thales, an early Greek physicist and Presocratic philosopher, believed that specifically "The soul was something kinetic…he [Thales] said that the [Magnesian] stone possesses a soul because it moves iron…he gave a share of soul even to the inanimate objects, using Magnesian stone and amber as indications" (Kirk, Presocratic Philosophers, p. 95). Thales implies first that the soul is directly responsible for motion; therefore since both the magnet and amber have the ability to attract iron and can initiate movement, these seemingly lifeless objects can have a soul and are, in a sense, living beings.
On the assumption that rocks have some portion of souls, it is easier to see why transforming a human being into a stone could be an effective punishment. Despite the transformation, the soul may still be aware of its situation and be able to perceive the consequences. Yet, what consequences exist for a seemingly purposeless object such as a rock?
Pliny's extensive commentary on rocks, minerals and gemstones in his Natural History includes an account of functions of rocks.
Mountains, however, were made by Nature for herself to serve as a kind of framework for holding firmly together the inner parts of the earth, and at the same time to enable her to subdue the violence of rivers, to break the force of heavy seas and so to curb her most restless elements with the hardest material of which she is made. (Pliny, Natural History, Book XXXVI, line 2)
Mountains then are composed mostly of rock and stone and were created by Nature for her own devices. Pliny points out next that man utilizes rocks and stone for industrial, structural and medicinal purposes. Pliny seems to believe that Nature's use of rocks is justified and man's use of stone borders on exploitation.
Nature is flattened. We remove the barriers created to serve as the boundaries of nations, and ships are built especially for marble. And so, over the waves of the sea, Nature's wildest element, mountain ranges are transported to and fro, and even then with greater justification than we can find for climbing to the clouds in search of vessels to keep our drinks cool, and for hollowing out rocks that almost reach the heavens…When we think of these things we feel ourselves blushing prodigiously with shame…(Pliny, Natural History, Book XXXVI, line 3)
Rocks can be subjected to the desires of man in this way since stone possesses no form of mobility and cannot protest or defend itself from exploitation. Therefore, when a human is changed into a rock or stone, he becomes subject to the impulses of both Nature and man. The fate of being forced to live as a stone is undesirable because stones have no method for self-defense or self-preservation.
Contrary to Thales, Pliny considers stones, in general, to be inanimate, but the magnet is the exception to the rule. "For what is more strange than this stone? In what field has nature displayed a more perverse willfulness" (Pliny, Natural History, Book XXXVI, line 126). Pliny's words imply clearly that, in the natural course of things, rocks are inanimate and motionless.
Thales' ideas may reflect older, more mythic ideas and than either Pliny's or Aristotle's. Considering that many of the myths that Ovid presents originated in a primitive society, it only makes sense for these myths to reflect the primitive ideas of Thales.
IV. Ovid's Stone Metamorphoses
There are a few instances in Ovid where a human being is changed into a stone as a method of punishment. An example is the story of Mercury and Battus (Met, II, 674-710). Mercury's theft of Apollo's cattle is a familiar tale, but Battus, only occasionally appears in versions of the story. Battus is a caretaker of mares and witness to the crime of Apollo's stolen cattle. Mercury promises him a cow if Battus swears not to tell anyone. Battus, whose name actually means ‘chatterbox' in Greek, foreshadows his own offense by pointing to a stone and saying "that stone will tell/ sooner than I" (Met, II, 699-700). Mercury distrusts Battus' promise and returns later, disguised differently, to question Battus about the whereabouts of the cattle. Mercury bribes him to tell by offering him a cow and a bull. Battus, excited at the prospect of having a cow and a bull, immediately answers and tells the disguised Mercury where the cattle are hidden. The God laughs at Battus for falling for the trick and turns him into a stone.
Battus promises Mercury that he will keep as a silent as a stone. Mercury ensures that Battus follows through by turning him into a stone and silencing him for good. Battus' loss of communication is reminiscent of the animal metamorphosis of Actaeon who was changed to prevent him from saying he had seen Diana naked. Neither Mercury nor Diana can trust mortals to keep their secrets. Therefore, they take away the human's powers of communication.
Ovid mentions one further characteristic of the transformed Battus. The stone into which he becomes is called ‘tell-tale' or meaning apparently hot or cold to the touch. Scholars cannot identify this characteristic with any particular stone or rock, but presumably the stone with this characteristic is fitting for Battus because as a human he would say one thing and do another–he was fickle. The story is an aetiology but it is difficult to determine what phenomenon of the rock the story is attempting to explain. The idea of the stone possessing alternating temperatures may indicate, according to the theories of Thales, that the stone contains Battus' soul. If Battus retains his identity, but in the form of rock, he is being forced to suffer for his crimes by experiencing existence as a rock.
The second tale, (The Envy of Aglauros, Met, II, 711-833) also involving Mercury, takes place in Athens where the god falls in love with a maiden named Herse. Aglauros, Herse's sister, will not allow the God access to her. Athena, already being angry with Aglauros for breaking a promise to her, became even more incensed when she witnessed Aglauros' disobedience to Mercury. Athena summoned Envy to invade the heart of Aglauros and cause her to be jealous of Mercury and Herse's relationship. The power of Envy was so great within Aglauros that she tried to bar Mercury physically from her sister telling him, "I'll never move till you are forced away!" (Met, II, 818). The God, however, treated this statement in a literal sense and, cruelly holding Aglauros to her promise, turned her into a stone statue thus taking away her ability to move. In both tales Mercury requires that human beings fulfill their promises. Battus had deceived him and Aglauros had broken her promise to Athena; moreover she was an obstacle to his own agenda and Mercury was not about to allow her to stand in his way either.
Aglauros loses her ability to move and to defend herself. Pliny had described this as one of the major liabilities of being a stone. The stone is susceptible to the actions of man and nature. The stone of Aglauros also contains a particular characteristic that reflects her crime. "And there, a lifeless statue remained, / Nor was it white, but with her dark thoughts stained" (Met, II, 832-833). Stone statues were usually made of white marble but her stone was black, reflecting her crime of jealousy. One imagines that she is still suffering painful thoughts while enduring the setbacks of being a stone.
The element common to all of the punishment metamorphoses–both rock and animal–is that the transformation robs victims of abilities, such as communication and defensive skills that, according to Greeks, are essential faculties that separates men from animals and the rest of nature. Rendering an individual no better off than an ordinary rock or animal would be the ultimate punishment in the Greek perception.
Table of Contents | Sophomore Projects
Chapter 2:
Metamorphoses For Protection, Consolation, and Commemoration
I. Flora
The Greeks considered all types of flora subordinate to both humans and animals because they demonstrated fewer signs of life and animation.
Nature proceeds from the inanimate to the animals…For first after the inanimate kind of things is the plant kind, and among these one differs from another in seeming to have more share of life; but the whole kind in comparison with the other bodies appears more or less animate, while in comparison with the animal kind it appears inanimate. (Aristotle, Historia Animalium, 588b, lines 1-10)
According to Aristotle, most types of plants should be classified below animals and human beings in the hierarchy of life. Furthermore, plants show no signs of emotion or thought and the only obvious function they exhibit is procreation: "For plants have no evident function other than to make another one like themselves" (Aristotle, Historia Animalium, 588b, lines 24-25).
Despite Aristotle's conjectures on their lack of purpose, plants played a role in Greek society, as they were widely used for the prevention and healing of many medical problems and disorders. Pliny records extensively the medicinal benefits of many types of common plants.
Not even the woods and the wilder face of Nature are without medicines, for there is no place where that holy Mother of all things did not distribute remedies for the healing of mankind…Such things alone had Nature decreed should be our remedies, provided everywhere, easy to discover and costing nothing–the things in fact that support our life" (Pliny's Natural History, Book XXIV, lines 1, 5). Hence too I find that most authorities hold that there is nothing which cannot be achieved by the power of plants. (Pliny, Book XXV, line 5)
As a source of medicine and health for the Greeks, it is not surprising that plants are often associated with sickness and death.
Ovid's treatment of plants contrasts with Aristotle's scientific views of their limitations, but he seems to be in agreement with Pliny in that he believes that plants are beneficial to man. Ovid also focuses on the symbolic value of individual plants and their legendary associations. Human beings are changed into plants for one of several reasons. The most common reason was to console a human for some sort of loss–usually the death of a loved one. Another reason was to commemorate the death of a person. The third main story type is that gods turned humans into plants to protect them against some kind of danger. In all three types, plant metamorphoses help human beings in distress–much as the Greeks used plants for healing and their health.
Several plant metamorphoses occur because a person in mourning asks for relief from their suffering. Possibly the best example is the story of Cyparissus (Met, X, 108-146), a young boy who accidentally killed his beloved stag while playing in the forest. He was so upset that he vowed to kill himself, but Phoebus would not allow it. Cyparissus then begged to be able to mourn eternally for his animal friend. "Still he groaned and begged/ a last boon from the gods, that he might mourn/ for evermore." (Met, X, 136-138). To grant him this wish, Phoebus changed Cyparissus into a Cypress tree. The cypress is counted as an ancient symbol for mourning and Ovid mentions this within the context of the story. "Apollo groaned and said in sorrow ‘I/ shall mourn for you, for others you shall mourn; / you shall attend when men with grief are torn" (Met, X, 144-146). Cypress was often used in Greek funeral rites.
A similar tale is the story of Myrrha (Met, X, 301-521) whose problem arose from her incestuous relationship with her own father, unbeknownst to him (her nurse would sneak her into her father's bedroom at night so he could not recognize her). When he finds out, he attempts to kill her, but she flees from his wrath. Pregnant with her father's child and unable to bear the weight of her sins, she prays to be removed from the fate of living or dying. The gods answer her prayer and change her into a myrrh tree, also a symbol of mourning. The myrrh tree is connected to the act of weeping because in nature, the myrrh tree drips a type of gum that resembles tears. Ovid tells us that "still she weeps and down/ the tree the warm drops ooze. Those tears in truth/ have honour; from the trunk the weeping myrrh/ keeps on men's lips for aye the name of her" (Met, X, 500 - 503).
In addition to symbolizing mourning, both cypress and myrrh were commonly used for their medicinal qualities. Pliny records that "The pounded leaves of the cypress are applied to fresh wounds" (Pliny, Natural History, Book XXIV, line 15). Thus, Cyparissus in the form of a cypress could perhaps help to heal the wounds of others, which would allow him to amend for the wounding of his stag. Myrrh has several medical uses and is often used to aid in childbirth–"With wine it promotes menstruation and facilitates delivery" (Pliny's Natural History, Book XXIV, line 154). Myrrha was pregnant when she was changed into a tree, but the child still grew within her and the last part of her story involves her delivery. When her time came, the bark split open and the child was delivered from the tree. "The child conceived in sin had grown inside/ the wood and now was searching for some way/ to leave its mother and thrust forth. The trunk/ swelled in the middle with its burdened womb. / …The tree split open and the sundered bark/ yielded its living load; a baby boy" (Met, X, 504-507, 515-516).
The next group of plant metamorphoses involves the commemoration of the dead: a human being is transformed into a plant with a characteristic trait (such as a specific type of leaf, flower or bark) that resembles some aspect of the human being's original nature or personality. A plant endowed with the human being's trait creates an infinite memorial to the person because the plant and its offspring will exhibit this trait indefinitely. In these instances, it is usually the body of the deceased or the dying that undergoes the metamorphosis.
The story of Adonis is a good example of a plant metamorphosis that involves commemoration. Adonis was an extremely handsome man and Venus' lover. Although, she warned him of the dangers of the hunt and told him to use caution when he was out in the forest, Adonis pursued a boar and the animal drove its tusks into his groin. Venus returned to Adonis and mourned for him as he lay dying.
Memorials of my sorrow,
Adonis, shall endure; each passing year
your death repeated in the hearts of men
shall re-enact my grief and my lament.
But now your blood shall change into a flower.
(Met, X, 727-731)
Venus changes Adonis into an Anemone–a type of wind-flower whose petals are blown away by the wind. "Yet its beauty brief, / so lightly cling its petals, fall so soon, / when the winds blow that give the flower its name." (Met, X, 737-739) The transient beauty and short life span of the wind-flower parallels Adonis' brief beauty.
The story relating the fate of Clytie (The Sun in Love, Met, IV, 170-284) has a similar outline but an inverse plot–whereas the goddess Venus loses the love of the mortal Adonis, Clytie loses the love of a god. Clytie, jealous of the Sun's love for Leucothoe spreads the rumor of the affair between them and when Leucothoe's father finds out, he buries the girl alive as punishment. The Sun mourns the death of Leucothoe and, to punish Clytie, no longer visits her and shuns her love. Clytie mourns continuously for her unrequited love and sits under the open sky weeping. Eventually she becomes rooted to the ground and changes into a flower but her form still turns with the movements of the sun. "Though rooted fast, towards the sun she turns; / her shape is changed, but her passion still burns" (Met, IV, 274-275). She has been turned into a heliotrope and even as a flower still expresses her love for the sun.
Both Hyacinth and Aias are changed into the same flower–a lily whose petals bear the initials AI AI. Hyacinth was accidentally killed while throwing a discus with Apollo and as in the Venus-Adonis model, Apollo loved him so much that he memorialized him by changing his blood into the words of mourning, AI AI, onto the petals of a lily. Aias died by his own hand after losing the arms of Achilles to Ulysses. The drops of blood that fall from his wound are turned into the same type of lily with petals bearing the words AI AI–in this case commemorating the first two letters of Aias' name.
In addition to commemoration for the dead (or contributing to the arts of healing and medicine) transformation into a plant can also protect an individual from danger, as in the story of Daphne. Daphne was devoted to the ways of Diana–a sworn virgin who shunned the contact of men. When Apollo fell in love with her and pursued her, she prayed to her father, the river Peneus, for help and he changed her into a laurel tree. Apollo sensed her presence within the tree and adopted it as his sacred tree. "'My bride', he said, ‘since you can never be, / at least, sweet laurel, you shall be my tree'" (Met, I, 556-557). Daphne's transformation into a tree protects her vow of virginity from being violated by Apollo.
In sum, as these stories illustrate, plant metamorphoses contrast strikingly with the punishment metamorphoses. The Greek's positive attitude toward plants seems to color Ovid's treatment of plants as representing safety. The main purpose of these transformations is to help humans in their times of need and they are therefore benevolent rather than hostile transformations.
II. Bodies of Water
Several stories in Ovid feature human beings transformed into bodies of water and, like the plant metamorphoses, water metamorphoses occur in order to protect or console. Again, it is possible to explain this trend by exploring the Greek's perspective on water.
Many of the early Greek creation myths centered on the ocean as the first entity from which came the subsequent generations of gods and men. According to some Thales rationalized this mythic account theorizing that water is the basic element of most living and non-living things.
"Water is primary since it is prominent in the physical makeup of the world (occurring on earth, above it in the form of rain, and below it as the water on which the earth floats) and is needed for the generation and maintenance of living things and of some nonliving things. Thales conceives of water not as a chemically pure substance, but as the moist element quite generally–in the sea, in rain, in sperm." (McKirahan, Philosophy Before Socrates, p. 31)
In other words, it would be natural to conclude that anything that contained moisture came from water or a derivative of water.
From another point of view in Thales' philosophy, the water has an animate nature, which is linked to its constant movement.
Water's unceasing mobility, seen especially in the continuous movement of the sea, rivers and rain, reveals it to be a living substance. If everything is made of water or ultimately arises from water, the life force of water pervades the whole world, showing up in some things more than others (just as some things are wetter than others). Moreover, as a living thing with no beginning in time (everything else owes its beginning to it), and apparently no end in time either, water is divine (since for the Greeks the primary characteristics of divine are immortality and power independent of human will). Hence all things, being composed or arising from water, are full of the divine. (McKirahan, Philosophy Before Socrates, p. 31)
All water is conceivably full of the divine because its motion defines it as a living being; since water is an undying natural element it can therefore be classified as a divine being.
In most of the water metamorphoses in Ovid the flow of bodily fluids–tears, sweat, blood–is associated with the natural flow of water perhaps reflecting the belief in turn that most living organisms had their origins in water. Humans are obviously composed of some amount of water and the presence of bodily fluids is an outward sign of this. The flow of water exhibits a sign of life; water and the inhabitants of the earth are connected to each other in some way.
Geographically, the Greeks believed that the ocean surrounded the earth and Xenophanes explains that the ocean was the main source of all bodies of water, including rivers and streams, and that all rivers and streams flowed back into the ocean.
"Sea is the source of water, and source of wind; for neither inside clouds without the great oceans, nor river-streams nor the showery water from the upper air: but the great ocean is the begetter of clouds and winds and rivers" (Kirk, Raven and Schofield, The Presocratic Philosophers, p. 183).
Xenophanes along with Thales and Anaximander regarded water as a natural element analogous to fire, air and earth.
In several stories in Ovid, a person shedding a large amount of tears–a mourner–is transformed into some sort of body of water. In other words, the connection between living human beings and water is heightened in a time of mourning and this is the most convenient moment for this transition to take place. The river nymph Cyane, for example, was a witness to the rape of Proserpine (Met, V, 344-569) and attempts to prevent Pluto from taking Proserpine into the underworld. Cyane is unsuccessful and outraged at the rape and her offended deity she cries endless tears until she dissolves into her pool and her physical body becomes mingled with the water.
Byblis' (Met, IX, 458-669) fate is similar. Byblis falls in love with her brother and attempts many times to convince him that her love for him is true. Her brother, however, appalled at the situation flees from her and she pursues. Eventually she gives up and collapses on the forest floor. The forest nymphs attempt to comfort her and they form her tears into a small spring. Byblis wastes away from all of her mourning and is soon incorporated into the spring that is named after her.
Both Cyane and Byblis, lose their physical female form from shedding an overabundance of tears, which causes a transition into water. The water, moreover, retains the spirit of each girl meaning essentially that the water is itself animate. Again, this recalls the idea that water is a living entity, full of motion and that there exists some sort of spiritual or divine presence in water.
Unlike Cyane and Byblis, who are in mourning, Arethusa (Met, V, 570-641) becomes a body of water in the context of protection. Alpheus, a river god, pursues Arethusa for her beauty. She prays to Diana for help and the goddess drapes Arethusa in a cloud. Alpheus is suspicious of the cloud and wraps himself around it. Arethusa, completely frightened, breaks into a cold sweat that pours from her body and changes her completely into water. Alpheus attempts to mingle his water with hers, but Diana splits the earth open so that Arethusa's waters are transported to Ortygia, where the stream remains.
Diana's purpose in draping Arethusa with a cloud is to protect her from Alpheus. However, she turns into water spontaneously from fear. This reaffirms that the transition into water usually occurs in a time of heightened distress (like mourning or fear) and also simultaneously with the flow of water from the body–in this case, sweat rather than tears. Once she is changed into water however, there is the risk of Alpheus' waters mingling with Arethusa's. If this occurs, then Diana's plan to protect her is foiled and Arethusa will be vulnerable to Alpheus. The danger recalls the thought that all water comes from the same source (the ocean) and all water returns back into the original source. If the two bodies of water join, then they become one body and they cannot be separated. In order to prevent the two water sources from joining together, Diana splits the earth and allows Arethusa to flow to a different location, where she will remain separate from the waters of Alpheus.
Since turning Arethusa into water puts her in even more danger, is seems clear why Diana chooses a different method of protection initially. However, clouds are the main source for rain, which means that they are directly connected to water. It is possible that Arethusa's spontaneous transformation into water may not have been unintentional but only premature. The purpose of changing her into a cloud was to allow her to hide from Alpheus. Instead she is spontaneously transformed into a river and in order to keep her separate from Alpheus, Diana has to intervene again by splitting open the earth to allow her to escape.
It is quite clear that the plant and water metamorphoses are different in kind from the beast and stone metamorphoses. Greeks find animals and stone subordinate and subject to exploitation but perceive plants and water as beneficial to nature and man. Therefore, the intentions of the metamorphoses discussed in this chapter are meant to benefit human beings.
Table of Contents | Sophomore Projects
Chapter 3:
The Bird Metamorphoses
I. The Special Case of Birds
One more common type of Ovidian metamorphosis remains to be discussed–the bird metamorphoses, which are some of the most frequently occurring transformations found in Ovid. Although, it has been possible to place the various types of metamorphoses into the categories of Punishment, Consolation, Commemoration and Protection, bird transformations break the mold in that they occur in all of the categories previously mentioned. Although this could call into question the thesis advanced that Ovidian metamorphoses are not just a random distribution of transformations, an examination of various ancient sources ultimately suggests several reasons as to why bird metamorphoses do occur in all categories.
One might expect bird metamorphoses to follow the pattern of beast metamorphosis. It would make sense if Greeks viewed birds in the same light as other animals. Birds have many of the same characteristics and capacities that other animals possess and Aristotle, for example, discussed them in the same context as animals:
In some of their parts birds resemble the animals we have just been discussing: they all have a head, neck, back, underside, and a counterpart of the chest. They have two legs, like a man–in this respect resembling him more than any other animal does–except that birds bend their legs backwards, like quadrupeds, as we remarked earlier. Birds have no forefeet or hands, but wings–a peculiarity distinguishing them from other animals (Aristotle, Historia Animalium, Book II 503b, lines 29-35).
If birds closely resemble animals one would expect that bird transformations would be a means of punishment in Ovid. This is not the case. Although several human beings in Ovid are changed to birds to for punishment, the great majority of the bird transformations fall into the categories of Protection or Commemoration.
Birds in ancient Greek thought actually occupy a higher level in the hierarchy of living things than animals. Certain types of birds were closely associated with Gods and often used as symbols of their deity. The eagle was sacred to Zeus, Hera favored the peacock, Athena the owl, Aphrodite doves and Ares the vulture. Moreover, the presence of these birds, to the ancient Greeks, often symbolized the blessing or acknowledgment of the God. Birds were also regarded as omens–foretelling good or bad prospects for the near future.
Are you not always taking the advice of birds
in matters of business, of marriage, of daily life?
You see Bird in everything: your rumours are what
a small Bird told you; your sneeze is a Bird, your chance
hello in the street's a Bird; a stranger encountered;
an ass on the road: all Birds, all signs of Birds.
Are we not right to call ourselves your Apollos?
(Aristophanes Four Comedies, The Birds, lines 732-738).
Birds are also set apart by their ability to fly and could be considered to be messengers from the gods. The fact that birds have the ability to fly implies easy communication with the gods in Ouranos (Heaven) or on Olympus; thus they could act as a connection between gods and men.
Communication plays a major role in the punishment metamorphoses in that the loss of communication makes the situation of the transformed human so deplorable. The fact that animals can not communicate like humans makes them inferior to man. The Greeks recognize a form of communication in birds, however, because they possess a voice. "More than any other animals, and second only to man, certain kinds of bird can utter articulate sounds" (Aristotle, Historia Animalium, Book II 504b, lines 1-3). In the hierarchy of living beings birds occupy a position superior to other animals, yet inferior to man. Being transformed into a bird could be bad by virtue of their similarity to animals, but good in Greek thought by virtue of their similarities to man.
II. Bird Metamorphoses in Ovid
Although bird transformations occur in all of the categories discussed so far, the type of bird determines whether or not the human is being punished or helped. All the birds in the punishment categories have some annoying or unfavorable quality, are bad omens, pesky and disliked by man. Humans changed into birds like this are placed in an inferior position, much like being changed into some other animal.
In most instances the bird transformations that are designed to punish human beings involve an individual's abuse of their power of speech to defy a God. The birds they were changed into usually had annoying or unpleasant sounding voices. The Pierides (Minerva Meets the Muses on Helicon, Met, V, 247-344; 659-678) were nine sisters guilty of abusing their power of speech by boasting that they were better at singing than the Muses. They manage to seal their doom by challenging them to a competition, much as Arachne had challenged Athena. The Muses are judged to be the better singers, and the Pierides, not learning their lesson, shout insults at the Muses, which anger them. The Muses, to punish the sisters, change them into Magpies, birds known for their incessant chatter. Their defiance of the goddesses through abusive speech merited their change into birds with unattractive voices.
Ascalaphus (The Rape of Proserpine, Met, V, 344-569), the son of Orphne (darkness), is also guilty of defying the power of the Gods through speech. Ascalaphus is the only witness to Proserpine's eating the seeds of a pomegranate in the underworld and makes the mistake of revealing her secret, foiling her attempt to escape. In her anger, Proserpine throws water from the river Phlegethon on him, which turns him into a screech owl. The screech owl, as the name implies, has a characteristic, unattractive voice which was considered an ill omen that foreshadows sorrow. " A loathsome bird, ill omen for mankind, / a skulking screech-owl, sorrow's harbinger" (Met, V, 549-550). Like the Pierides, Ascalaphus' using his power of speech to defy a god results in the punishment of being changed into a bird whose voice is also displeasing.
Recall that the common trend in many of the plant metamorphoses was that the plants always had a particular feature that was reminiscent of some aspect of the human that it once was. There is a similar trend found in the bird transformations in which the main purpose is to commemorate or to console, where birds have a repetitive habit that reflects some sort of action the respective human had typically performed. This is the most convenient way to commemorate the human. Like a plant, the bird will always exhibit this characteristic and pass it on to its offspring to perpetuate the memory of the individual. The most striking example is the story of Ceyx and Alcyone (Met, XI, 410-747). Ceyx, much to the dismay of his wife, Alcyone, plans a pilgrimage to the Clarian shrine. Despite Alcyone's pleading, Ceyx departs and is later drowned at sea. Alcyone informed of his fate through a dream sent by Juno, walks down to the sea to mourn and while there, his body washes onto shore. As she runs to meet him, both are turned into kingfishers. Kingfishers are notably faithful to their mates and Ceyx and Alcyone's fidelity is reflected in the kingfishers' devotion to one another: "And still their love endured, the bonds/ of wedlock bound them still, though they were birds" (Met, XI, 740-41).
Ceyx' brother, Daedalion (Met, XI, 270-345), was also memorialized at his death by being changed into a bird. Daedalion, known for his temper and his warlike nature, has a daughter, Chione, who boasts of her own beauty to Diana. Diana, in anger, kills the girl. Daedalion is so distraught that he attempts to throw himself from a cliff but Apollo pities him and changes him into a hawk. Apollo chooses the hawk specifically because it has a personality similar to Daedalion.
And gave him a hooked beak, gave curving claws,
with courage as of old and strength that more
than matched his body's build. And now a hawk,
benign to none, he vents his savagery
on every bird and, as in grief he goes,
ensures that others grieve and share his woes.
(Met, XI, 340-45).
The savage disposition of the hawk memorializes Daedalion after his attempted suicide.
Another story of failed suicide is that of Aesacus (Met, XI, 748-795), who is in love with a nymph named Hesperie. One day while pursuing her through the woods, she accidentally steps on a snake, which injects its poison into her foot and kills her. In grief, Aesacus attempts to throw himself from a cliff. Tethys catches him, though, and changes him into a diver. Angered at being forced to live, he attempts again to throw himself off the cliff but his wings catch him. He makes his home by the sea, continually diving into the water trying to meet the fate of death.
In all three of the stories, the human turns into a bird that exhibits a trait that the person had in life and thus fulfills the purpose of commemoration. Similar circumstances are found in the group of Protection metamorphoses, which are not only common in the plant and water categories but also in bird transformations. In each transformation designed for protection, the bird exhibits a characteristic that reflects an action of the human being immediately before transformation. The primary purpose is not commemoration (even though this is one result) but to protect the human being from some danger, most commonly from another human. For Perdix, his danger was his own uncle, Daedalus. Perdix was very intelligent and he had a talent for creating useful objects. Daedalus, an inventor himself, became jealous of the boy and hurled him off of the Athenian Acropolis. Pallas, who fosters craftsmanship, rescued the boy and changed him into a Partridge. Partridges, however, do not fly and they build their nests on the ground.
But this bird never lifts itself aloft,
nor builds its nest on boughs or high tree-tops,
but flits along the ground and lays its eggs
in hedgerows, dreading heights for they recall
the memory of that old fearful fall
(Met, VIII, 257-61).
This story explains why the Partridge fears heights and refrains from flying. The story holds that the transformation was to protect Perdix and to prevent him from experiencing another fall.
Scylla was also changed into a bird to save her from her father's murderous anger. She had fallen in love with his enemy, Minos, and to win him over, attempted to help him conquer her father's kingdom. To do this, she cut out her father's lock of purple hair, which was a talisman of victory and a guarantee of life for him. When she presented it to Minos, he was appalled and decided to set sail for home immediately. Scylla, determined not to be left behind, grabbed on to the edge of his ship. Her father, who had been changed to an Osprey, swooped down to tear her apart. She let go of the ship and was changed into a shearer, which is reminiscent of the crime committed against her father. The name of the bird is derived from the verb "to cut" in Greek. Scylla is changed into this bird because she had robbed her father of the lock that ensured his own life and success. When she removed this hair from his head, he died and was turned into the osprey. The main purpose of her transition was to save her from her father's rage. She was allowed to escape, but she now embodies the nature of her crime.
The bird metamorphoses, unlike all other types of metamorphoses, occur in all the categories examined here. A unique species, gifted with many abilities such as flight and speech, birds exist in a category of their own, separate from beasts, plants and water. Since birds can fulfill the purposes of all types of metamorphoses–consolation, punishment, commemoration, protection–this explains perhaps why bird transformations are some of the most common throughout Ovid.
In the Metamorphoses, Ovid attempts to relate an original theme through traditional ideas. He relates classic Greek myths in the context of a chronological series and ties them all together by concentrating on a particular theme–in this case, human transformations. He also indirectly portrays Greek perspectives on various aspects of human life and nature, which can be observed by close examination of the relationship of the metamorphoses with the character involved.