By Ovid (43 BC-AD 17) From Book III of Metamorphoses A Study Guide | |||||||||||||||||
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Study
Guide Prepared by Michael J. Cummings...©
2008
Type
of Work
. The action is set in or near the ancient Greek city of Thespiae in the republic of Boeotia, north of Attica. Characters
By Michael J. Cummings ©
2008
Based on a 1717 English Translation by John Dryden, Alexander Pope, and Others One day the river god Cephisus impregnates the water nymph Liriope after forcing himself upon her. After she gives birth to a boy, called Narcissus, she asks the prophet Tiresias whether her child will have a long life. “If e’er he knows himself,” Tiresias answers, “he surely dies.” Liriope does not understand this perplexing reply. Only the passage of time will reveal it to her. When Narcissus turns sixteen, he is so extraordinarily handsome that young maidens burn with desire for him. While hunting in the woods, he attracts the attention of the mountain nymph Echo, who was robbed of the ability to voice her thoughts after incurring the wrath of the queen of the gods, Juno. Here is what happened. The king of the gods, Jupiter, had once persuaded Echo to distract Juno with idle conversation so that he could sneak away and meet with a paramour. At the appointed time, Echo jabbers on, depriving Juno of the opportunity to spy on Jupiter. Later, when Juno discovers what Echo was up to, she punishes her by rendering her incapable of speaking any words except the last two or three she has heard someone else say. These she must repeat. Consequently, she speaks only “with mimick [mimic] sounds, and accents not her own.” Upon seeing Narcissus, she—like other maidens—cannot resist his charms and yearns to reveal to him her love. But, bearing the heavy burden of Juno’s curse, she can only repeat his last words in a voice that sounds like his. When words he speaks reverberate back to him, he calls out to meet with whoever is mimicking him. Heartened, Echo approaches him and, by throwing her arms around him, communicates her love. However, Narcissus, proud and vain, coldly rejects her. He will not deign to occupy his time with this lowly maid. Thereafter, she pines away for his love until nothing is left of her except the sound of her mimicking voice. “Her bones are petrify'd, her voice is found / In vaults, where still it doubles ev'ry sound." Meanwhile, another love-struck admirer seeks his love, but proud Narcissus ignores the suit. Frustrated and angry, the suitor prays to the gods, “Oh may he love like me, and love like me in vain!" The goddess of vengeance, known by the names of Rhamnusia and Nemesis, hears the prayer and decides to answer it. The occasion for the retribution comes when Narcissus is out hunting again and, hot and tired, decides to rest next to a pristine fountain surrounded by pleasant verdure and high trees that provide cooling shade. When he bends over the fountain to quench his thirst, he sees in the water a wondrous face and immediately falls in love with it, unaware that he is looking at himself. The well-turn'd neck and shoulders he descries,Narcissus kisses the reflection and tries to pull it out of the water, to no avail. Nevertheless, he remains at the fountain, forsaking sleep and food. He cries out in desperation: "You trees," says he, "and thou surrounding grove,Narcissus then thinks the image must feel the same way he does, frustrated with longing for an embrace but unable to gain one. Finally, he realizes what is happening: Ah wretched me! I now begin too lateStill, he cannot turn his eyes from the fountain. When he cries, his tears disturb the waters, and the reflection blurs and wrinkles. Narcissus rips off his garment and beats at his chest. His unrequited love is killing him. As wax dissolves, as ice begins to run,Echo sees and pities him. When he cries, "Ah youth! belov'd in vain," Echo replies, “Ah youth! belov'd in vain." After he dies, nymphs prepare an urn to hold his ashes. However, when they look for it, they find a beautiful flower in its place.
Themes . Excessive Pride Narcissus is excessively proud, believing that Echo and other admirers worthy of his attentions. In ancient Greece, excessive pride was a grave sin that ultimately causes the downfall of those who exhibit it. Unrequited Love Echo wastes away after Narcissus refuses to return her love. Narcissus withers and turns into a flower after realizing that the image in the fountain is merely a reflection in the fountain and, therefore, incapable of expressing love. Vengeance Rhamnusia (Nemesis), the goddess of vengeance, punishes Narcissus by making him fall in love with his own image. Juno punishes Echo by robbing her of the ability to voice her thoughts. Male Abuse of Females Cephisus rapes Liriope. Jupiter is unfaithful to Juno. Narcissus cruelly rejects the attentions of Echo. Climax
and Fulfillment of the Prophecy
. Although he based the tales in Metamorphoses on existing stories, Ovid presents them with a freshness and originality that made them uniquely his own. His writing is vivid, elegant, and succinct, with the stories—including "Narcissus and Echo"—generally moving swiftly from beginning to end without tedious digressions or inflated language. Metamorphoses was highly popular with readers of the Augustan age (27 BC to AD 14, when Caesar Augustus ruled the Roman Empire) and became one of the best read books of the Renaissance, influencing Shakespeare and other prominent writers. The themes and motifs are as timely today as they were 2,000 years ago. Ovid wrote Metamorphoses in heroic hexameter, the dignified verse format of ancient epic poetry. Heroic hexameter consists of unrhymed lines that each contain six feet. Each foot is either a dactyl (a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables) or a spondee (two stressed syllables). The number of syllables per line varies depending on the number of dactyls and spondees in it. A dactyl tends to accelerate the narrative in the same way that an allegro and a presto accelerate music; a spondee tends to slow the narrative like an adagio in music. Ovid chose dactyls more often than spondees so that the narrative moves along briskly. English Translations of Latin Works When
translating Latin classics into English, writers
generally interpret the
Latin words rather than presenting a verbatim
rendering of them. One reason
for this approach is that Latin inflection and word
order differ substantially
from English inflection and word order.
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