xeno.ovid6

Section IV:
The History of Rome and the Deified Caesar
(Books 12-15)

The Trojan War

For centuries scholars considered the story of Troy a legend until Heinrich Schliemann first excavated the city in Turkey in 1871. Schliemann looted much of the gold treasures he found, sneaking them out of the country. Archeology finds evidence of destruction by war about 1185 BC.

After a brief introduction with the stories of Iphigenia and Achilles, Ovid doesn't try to compete with Homer's classic version, but uses this famous setting as an excuse to tell more stories. Most of his material comes from Greek tragedies and the Epic Cycle, a series of texts, unfortunately no longer in existence, which related other stories of the Trojan War preceding and following Homer's account; we know about them from a summary by Proclus, 2nd - 4th century AD.

Iphigenia is not mentioned in Homer. Ovid follows most other versions of the story (the lost Cypria, Hesiod’s Catalogue of Women, Stesichorus, Euripides' two plays) in depicting her miraculous escape. Only Aeschylus' Agamemnon and Pindar's 11th Pythian Ode describe her actual sacrifice and her father's blood guilt.

The vivid description of the house of Rumor is comparable to the house of Envy (book 2); both lies and truth live here.

Protesilaus is the first casualty of the war. Thetis warned her son Achilles that the first man to disembark at Troy would die. The lost work Cypria attributed Protesilaus' death to Hector.

Achilles fights with a different Cygnus from ones mentioned earlier (book 2 and book 7); all three experience the same metamorphosis into a swan (which is a bit confusing). Achilles must resort to strangling him, similar to Hercules' killing the invulnerable Nemean lion.

The painting of "Andromache Mourning the Death of Hector" is by Jacques-Louis David (1783). Below see the clay relief of the horse, 7th century BCE, from Mykonos.

For more information about the Trojan War and images.

The battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs

This famous struggle is mentioned in the Iliad 1.261-71 and the Odyssey 21.295-8 and was depicted on the Parthenon metopes (small sculpted panels around the roofline).

For Greeks this story symbolized the victory of civilization over barbarism, but in Ovid's version both sides are just as brutal (more like a western barroom brawl).

The description of centaurs as "cloud-born" refers to the story of their father Ixion mating with a cloud phantom of Juno (see earlier note on book 4). Nessus was spared in this battle only to receive his death wound from Heracles' arrow in the earlier story in book 9 (Ovid loves to play with chronology).

Ovid takes time out from the nauseating details of battle to give touching background to one centaur couple; finally he returns to Caenus (invulnerable man once woman) who started the story.

Ovid doesn't mention the detail of Paris' arrow hitting Achilles' heel, a story not in the Iliad but in the lost epic cycle. Apollodorus 3.13 says Achilles' mother Thetis used fire and ambrosia to make him invulnerable, except for his ankle. The better known version of his mother dipping him in the river Styx first appears in the work of the Roman poet Statius in the 1st century CE. Although his ashes would barely fill up a hole, Achilles' fame lives on after his death; compare to Ovid's epilogue about himself.

The debate between Ajax and Ulysses (book 13)

The debate over the arms of Achilles came from the Aithiopus and the Little Iliad of the lost Epic Cycle (see note above). Aeschylus wrote a tragedy on this subject called the Judgement of Arms, of which only six lines survive.

Ajax and Ulysses provide stirring examples of persuasive rhetoric, a highly regarded art in the classical world. Students of rhetoric such as Quintilian often examined these speeches.

Ajax's major arguments:

Deeds versus words: trying to preempt Ulysses' eloquence, Ajax says it characterizes his life, all talk and no action.

Heritage: Ajax has Jove as his great grandfather and Achilles for a cousin, whereas Ulysses' father was the disreputable Sisyphus, now punished in Hades (see earlier note in book 4).

Ulysses tried to avoid the war by feigning madness, yoking a horse and an ox together and sowing salt in his fields. Suspecting a trick, Palamedes threw Ulysses' son Telemachus in front of his plow and Ulysses stopped, demonstrating his sanity. Later Ulysses planted evidence and got Palamedes convicted of treason. (Homer never mentions Palamedes or this incident; this tale comes from the lost Cypria, which seems to have taken a less admirable view of Odysseus. Other stories from the lost Epic Cycle: he tries to stab Diomedes in the back so he can take all the credit for stealing the Paladium [see below]; he also kills Astyanax, the infant son of Hector, by throwing him off the walls of Troy).

Ulysses mistreated Philoctetes, abandoning him on the island of Lemnos because his wound stank so much (see Sophocles' tragedy on his story). "And this is the way he treats fellow Greeks!" Ajax argues.

Ulysses acts mostly under the cover of night, and has shown cowardice in battle, abandoning Nestor (Iliad 8.90) but crying for Ajax's aid himself (Iliad 11.465): "I saved his cowardly life."

Ajax doesn't merely deserve these arms. These arms deserve a great warrior.

Ulysses doesn't need armor since he never uses it, relying on trickery instead of hand-to-hand combat.

Ulysses argues:

He begins by playing off listeners' emotions for Achilles, associating himself with the great hero; "I brought him to you, thus his victories are in part mine.
"
A person's heritage counts for nothing, only his deeds matter. He denies the scandalous rumor that Sisyphus slept with his mother, claiming Laertes as his father.

"I convinced Agamemnon to sacrifice his daughter, or else the fleet would never have sailed.
"
"I kept our discouraged armies from leaving, even Ajax, so I deserve credit for his deeds as well.
"
He boasts of killing Rhesus; a tragedy on this theme survives, at one time thought to be the work of Euripides, but now considered anonymous.
He shows his wounds in a plea for sympathy, whereas Ajax has none.

The brutal Ajax is unable to appreciate the divine artistry of these arms.

"I'm no worse than great Achilles, who also tried to avoid fighting," again associating himself with the hero.

Next he projects guilt onto his audience: "don't blame me for Palamedes and Philoctetes -- you agreed to it!
"
Then he plays his bargaining chip: "You still need me to convince Philoctetes to return with Heracles' bow to kill Paris."

Ulysses captured Helenus, twin of Cassandra who shared her prophetic gift. When Helenus asked for Helen after Paris' death and was refused, he turned against Troy and revealed to the Greeks how they could defeat the city: bring the bones of Pelops, recruit Achilles' son to fight, and steal the Palladium (Apollodorus Epitome 5.10).
Later in book 13, Helenus prophesies of Aeneas' future.

Ulysses claims to have stolen the statue of Minerva (fallen from heaven) from the temple. There are conflicting versions of the fate of the "Palladium." Greek tradition says the statue was stolen and carried off to the Greek camp by Ulysses and Diomedes, and that its capture by the Greeks ensured the fall of Troy . Roman tradition was that the image remained in Troy until the city was taken by the Greeks, when Aeneas succeeded in rescuing it and conveying it away with him to Italy, where it was finally deposited in the temple of Vesta at Rome. [see note at Perseus]

Final analogy of a ship's captain who is better than a common rower, brains over brawn.

Sophocles' tragedy of Ajax (Aias) shows him falling into madness and slaughtering a herd of cattle, thinking they are Ulysses' men. The shame of this mistake prompts him to commit suicide, one of the rare times that a death occurs on stage in Greek tragedy. In the Odyssey 11.543-62 Aias refuses to speak to Odysseus in Hades on account of his shameful defeat.

Ovid takes the last of his Trojan stories, the deaths of Polyxena and Polydorus, from Euripides' Trojan Women and Hecabe. Ovid mentions Hecuba's transformation into a dog but omits the detail that she will jump to her death into the sea from Agamemnon's ship. The effect her childrens' deaths has on Hecuba resembles earlier stories in Section III of women driven mad by passion, in this case for revenge.

Ovid's Aeneid

In Virgil's Aeneid, completed in 19 BC, we read the founding myth of Rome, tracing the city's origins back to ancient Troy. This work records the travels of Aeneas after he escapes the ruins of Troy, and his adventures before coming to Italy. Virgil wanted to create a major epic in Latin that would rival those of Homer in Greek, bringing honor to the empire of Augustus.

Ovid knew better than to compete with Virgil's classic, so similar to his treatment of the Iliad, he provides only an outline of the adventures of Aeneas while taking the opportunity to tell more stories of metamorphosis. From 13.623 - 14.608, Ovid features Aeneas for only 190 lines, and he speaks only once. Ovid's interest obviously lies in other matters.

One of the most famous episodes from the Aeneid book 4 is the fatal romance between Dido and Aeneas, which Ovid reduces to four lines (14.78-81). Virgil depicts a triangle with Aeneas in the center, Dido's love pulling him in one direction and the call to duty in another. Ovid chooses to emphasize three other love triangles, unrelated to the adventures of Aeneas.

As the voyagers pass by the dreaded monster Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis, we hear Scylla trading tales with Galatea who was pursued in vain by the cyclops Polyphemus (from the Odyssey). Polyphemus kills her true lover Acis with a boulder (13.750-897).

Scylla then tells how she spurned Glaucus, who sought a love potion from the sorceress Circe (also from the Odyssey). Circe desired Glaucus for herself, however, and when he refused her, she turned Scylla into a dog-like sea monster, ‘the Render’, with six heads and twelve feet (13.898 - 14.74). (This is a different Scylla from book 8.) In Paradise Lost (2.650f), Milton adapts Ovid's description of Scylla, depicting her as the personification of Sin, keeper of the keys to Hell's gate. She sprang from Satan's forehead and with him gives birth to Death.

Somewhat later, Ovid borrows a character from Virgil, Achaemenides, supposedly one of Ulysses' band (although Homer never mentions him). Ovid invents his own fellow voyager Macareus, and the two swap sea stories, one of which concerns Circe, this time in love with Picus who is already wed to Canens, the half-sister of Turnus (14.318 - 434).

These three love triangles anticipate the Aeneas-Lavinia-Turnus conflict, resulting in the great battle at the climax of the Aeneid, where Ovid likewise downplays the romance in a few lines.

Commentators note another significant change in Ovid's version of the Aeneid. He de-emphasizes or removes entirely certain prophecies that indicate Aeneas' final destiny in Italy. For instance, Aeneas' journey to the underworld, where his father shows him illustrious Romans waiting to be born and the glorious future of Rome, takes up most of book 6 in the Aeneid but only four lines in Ovid (14.116-119). Thus Ovid "eliminates the most obvious manifestations of divine purpose" in Aeneas' wanderings. Virgil's account gives the hero a noble vision of the future and a destiny to pursue, whereas Ovid's Aeneas appears to drift aimlessly and to stumble upon the shores of Italy by chance. This change "reflects Ovid's great theme of universal flux, here set in contrast to Virgilian providence" (Tissol 184).

The Teachings of Pythagoras (book 15)

After a rather dry summary of early Roman kings, Ovid surprises us with a philosophical treatise, the second longest unit of material in the Metamorphoses. Maria Colavito argues that the philosophy of Pythagoras runs throughout Ovid's work.

First century BC neo-Pythagoreanism was a revival of the 6th century school of thought, which was almost a mystery religion. Their primary concern was the purification of the immortal soul; if not pure, the soul cannot return to the stars (each soul has one) but must be reincarnated (metempsychosis). This separation of body and soul was later adopted by Plato.

According to Pythagoras, numbers hold the key to the mysteries of life.

1 = Unity

2 = Diversity, inherent in warring duality in nature: love/strife, male/female, heat/cold -- seen in the Creation story, original unity consisting of conflicting dualities

3 = first manifestation of these two primal forces (one & many), represents active principle, separating and distinguishing elements (the demiurge, unnamed Creator in book 1)

4 = materiality, actuality, first expression of form in the universe as the four elements: fire, air, earth, water

10 = totality, sum of the tetractys (seen below). Aristotle (Metaphysics 986a) said the Pythagoreans saw only 9 heavenly bodies (sun, moon, earth, five planets, star sphere) so they invented the idea of a counter-earth as the tenth.

•
•   •
•   •   •
•   •   •   •

Human origin is thought to be a mixture of mortal and divine, earthly elements and immortal seed (blood of giants). The soul wants to return to the divine sphere (as seen in the apotheoses of Aeneas, Heracles, Romulus, Caesar). The impure soul must continue this cycle after death, returning to its fleshly prison: "Ovid's work is a series of myths recounting the acts that constitute the further entrapment of the soul into the mire of materiality."

Pythagoras prohibited meat eating (might be grandma reincarnated), emphasizing the kinship of all living things: note in Ovid that the first sin of Lycaon is cannibalism.

Anamnesis is Pythagoras' term for remembering past lives. He said that he remembered fighting at Troy. Knowing who we were in a past life is the only way to learn from previous mistakes: note that Io and Callisto retained their self-consciousness after metamorphosis and eventually were deified; Actaeon remembers but only to suffer for his "sin." In other stories, characters forget who they were, nothing is learned, their soul sinks deeper into the material realm, punishment for soul's attachment to desire of the old body. Thus Ovid shows transformation often as an embodiment of their particular sin or indiscretion (Lycaon becomes a flesh-eating beast, Actaeon the hunter becomes the hunted, Clytie who loves Apollo becomes a sunflower).

Despite the influence on his work, Ovid can't help but poke fun at the philosopher as well. Pythagoras claims to have been Euphorbus in a prior life and heard Helenus tell Aeneas a prophecy of Rome, which would have occurred in Virgil's Aeneid book 2, but Euphorbus died previously in the battle over the body of Patroclus (Iliad 17) and so could not have heard this prophecy. He also died of a neck wound, not a chest wound, as Pythagoras incorrectly remembers. Ovid also may satirize Pythagoras' views on not eating meat, as throughout the Metamorphoses, he has shown that a person might come back as a plant as well as an animal, hence to be perfectly safe, you shouldn't eat anything.

Events of contemporary Rome:

The death of Caesar is seen from the gods' perspective, elevating its significance to heavenly status. Note Augustus' act of deifying Caesar only brings more honor to himself (Ovid's ridicule in the guise of praise). Is Ovid being facetious, comparing Julius and Augustus to mythical heroes whom he clearly does not believe in?

Difference in Greek and Roman mythology: whereas Greek myth with the aftermath of the Trojan War, Roman myth becomes "history" (Aeneas, Romulus), bringing the story into the present age. Everything that has occurred before was destined to produce this new Golden Age of Augustus (an idea which Ovid mocks).

If change is inevitable, then Ovid implies that the mighty empire of Rome will one day fall, as did Troy -- but Ovid's fame will be eternal.

OVID RESOURCES:

Anderson, William. Metamorphoses (translation and commentary): Books I-V (1996), VI-X (1972).

Colavito, Maria. The Pythagorean Intertext in Ovid's Metamorphoses. 1989.

Fantham, Elaine. Ovid's Metamorphoses. 2004.

Galinsky, G. K. Ovid's Metamorphoses. 1975

Hadas, Moses. A History of Latin Literature. 1952.

Hill, D. E. Metamorphoses (translation and commentary): Books I-IV (1985), V-VIII (1992), Books IX-XII (1999).

Hopkinson, Neil. Metamorphoses Book XIII. 2000.

Otis, Brooks. Ovid as an Epic Poet, 1970.

Simpson, Michael. Metamorphoses. (translation and notes) Massachusetts, 2001.

Spencer, Richard. Contrast as Narrative Technique in Ovid's Metamorphoses, 1997.

Tissol, Garth. The Face of Nature: Wit, Narrative, and Cosmic Origins in Ovid's Metamorphoses. 1997.

OVIDIAN INFLUENCE:

Bate, Jonathan . Shakespeare and Ovid. Oxford, 1994.

DuRocher, Richard J. Milton and Ovid. Cornell, 1985.

Fyler, John M. Chaucer and Ovid. Yale, 1979.

Sowell, Madison U. (edited) Dante and Ovid : Essays in Intertextuality. Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1991.

GENERAL RESOURCES:

Apollodorus. The Library of Greek Mythology. Oxford, 1997.

Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths. 1955.

Grimal, Pierre. Dictionary of Classical Mythology. 1951, 1990.

WEB RESOURCES:

Downloadable translation of the Metamorphoses by Tony Kline (includes an excellent index of names)

Ovid Links

Recent Ovidian Bibliography

Ovid Intro

Prologue

Books 1-2

Books 3-6

Books 6-11

Books 12-15

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