|
Delahoyde & Hughes
Orpheus
OVID
|
 |
Phaethon:
Dad supplies "The Rash Promise" from which he cannot back out -- a
common folklore motif: his son may ask any favor and it will be granted.
D'oh! -- anything but that! Phaethon wants to drive the chariot of the
sun, and despite Phoebus' lengthy appeal to reconsider the dangers, his
son insists.
When Phaethon loses control, fires break out on earth, Aethiopians
get toasted, the Sahara Desert forms, the Nile hides its origin, and
Mother Earth sends up a complaint:
Ovid gives us the Mother as the great provider. The queen of resources
now feels the plight, the confounded chaos of old. With sea and land and
sky ruined, Mother Earth "fell silent.... And she withdrew into her
deepest caves...."
We learn etiologically why swans don't like fire.
The history of the raven in narrative goes back to antiquity with the
story of the flood in Gilgamesh (2700 bce). In this Summerian epic, the
survivor of the flood Utnapishtim--the precursor to Noah--releases a
swallow which failing to find land returns to the ark. He then releases a
raven and "she" does not return. In Genesis, at the end of forty days
Noah opens the window in the ark and releases a raven that "went to and
fro until the waters were dried up from the earth (Genesis 8:7). In the
ancient stories, these birds are present at the apocalypse and yet do not
return to the ark, preferring a kind of abandonment or freedom
independent of the human survivors. In contemporary wildlife studies, we
learn that the raven prefers to live in the wild, in the untrammeled
places called wilderness where human populations are transitory and
temporary; the crow on the other hand, often seeks out the rural and
urban habitat in close occupancy with humans. Consequently these two
birds become a measure of change for as we domesticate the wild the raven
moves on and is replaced by the crow.
Ravens and crows belong to the Crovine family which includes jays. Among
other things, this family of birds is associated with trickery. The
Steller's Jay, for instance, can imitate the call of a Redtail Hawk.
Pretty far to go for a simile concerning grief, no?
Ocyrhoe is too good at prophesizing and turns into a horse. Mercury
tests an old man's promise of silence. Mercury wants Herse, but
Minerva has a fit, especially because of a grudge against her sister
Aglauros, and calls on Envy, who eats vipers' flesh (47). Envy infects
Aglauros, jealous of her sister's fortune, and she ends as a stone.
Finally, Jove/Jupiter disguises himself as a bull and runs off with
Europa.
Book 2 contains numerous etiologies: why Africans are dark-skinned, why
Libya is a desert, why the Nile's beginning is hidden (35-36). It also
reveals the origin of amber (39), the swan (Cygnus, cousin of Phaethon),
and certain constellations (Ursa Major and Minor -- a bear and
Arcus/arctic son/hunter).
Towards the larger meaning of Ovid's Metamorphoses, take note of
these moments:
The Story of the Raven:
Note reference to constellations: Scorpio, Leo, Cancer, Taurus (27).
"Press not too low nor strain your course too high;
Too high, you'll burn the heaven's palaces; too low,
The earth; the safest course lies in between" (28).
"... the team can sense the difference; those four
berserk--desert their customary course:
no rule, no order governs their wild rush...."
In Plato's Apology, Socrates creates the metaphor
of the gadfly and the great horse which is allegorically
the Athenian State:
"For if you kill me you will not easily find another like me, who,
if I may use such a ludicrous figure of speech, am a sort of gadfly,
given to the state by the god; and the state is like a great and
noble steed who is tardy in his motions owing to his very size, and
requires to be stirred into life. I am that gadfly which god has
given the state and all day long and in all places am always
fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you."
"Scarce can my throat find voice to speak (the smoke
And heat were choking her). See my singed hair!
Ash in my eyes, ash on my lips so deep!
Are these the fruits of my fertility?
Is this for duty done the due return?
That I endure the wounds of pick and plough,
Year-long unceasing pain, that I supply
Grass for the flocks and crops, sweet sustenance,
For humankind and incense for you gods?" (33).
So despite everything, Phaethon goes out like a shooting star, which
remains a deadly if glamorous myth about reckless youth (38). (The 1939
Ford Phaeton seems a particularly poor choice of names for a car! But
then, the Toyota Cressida is named after literature's archetypal
inconstant and unreliable woman.)
The Sun-God mourns his son's death, resulting in an eclipse.
"When you rip this tree, it is my body that you tear."
We learn the story of Callisto, whom Jove seized while disguised
as a female: Diana's form -- "and by his outrage stood betrayed" (37).
Of course she's pregnant, and further victimized by the real Diana's
rage. She is metamorphosed into a bear and thereafter into a constellation.
"His ruin was his tongue; his chattering tongue..." (40).
Phoebus (Apollo), enraged by the bird's notice of his lover's infidelity,
kills her, then laments.
"Deep from the very bottom of his heart,
As a cow groans who sees, before her eyes,
Upon theforehead of her suckling calf
With echoing crash the high-held hammer fall" (43).
* "earth, our mother" (36).
* earth being outraged, reminding us of her beneficence (37).
* breaking twigs = bloodletting (39).
* a bear might be your mother (44).
* the odd and nasty butchery simile that doesn't really apply to
Apollo's mourning. hmmm.... (48).
Ovid Index
Orpheus: Roman Mythology