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Delahoyde & Hughes
Orpheus
OVID
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The Invasion of Troy:
We hear a second origin of cygnus, the swan: rage-aholic Achilles is
frustrated that he cannot wound Cycnus, and eventually beats him to
near-death before Neptune saves him with the swan metamorphosis.
Achilles sacrifices a heifer and offers the gods blood and entrails
(278).
Leaping to post-Iliad material, the death of Achilles by the
arrow of Paris is reported, leading to the debate over the arms of
Achilles in the next book.
Ovid dodges repetition of the material everyone knows from the Homeric
epics and instead dwells more on the prelude and the side materials:
the early omens, the murder of Iphegenia, etc. Ovid tells of the force
of Rumour (275) right at this point: why? (It might remind you of
Chaucer's House of Fame.)
Caenis:
Nestor acknowledges his old age and narrates briefly the story of
Caenis, a woman who chooses to turn into a man after Neptune rapes
her (280).
The Battle with the Centaurs:
Just where in the sequence of events the great Trojan War should
appear, Ovid gives us the rambling Nestor telling of another kind
of fight: at a wedding, the drunk and horny centaurs cause a
bar-room brawl. [Centaurs have been infantalized by Disney in
Fantasia (1940).] The long (epic?) description is part
grim slapstick and part Homeric parody, with arbitrary wounds
described similarly.
The Omission of Hercules:
Nestor tries to justify his failure to include even mention of Hercules
by saying that "we never praise" others including Hector (290), which
is, of course, patently wrong. Mostly, though, Hercules killed all of
Nestor's brothers. So he's left out of this unreliable narrator's tales.
Ovid Index
Orpheus: Roman Mythology