THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

IL
i hi
FABULA XV.
10 IN PRISTINAM FORMAM REVERSA.
lo, persecuted ty Juno -with a horrid fury, wanders over the world until die
comes to the Nile. By the intercession of Jupiter she is freed from further
punishment, and resumes the human form. After this she gives birth to
Epaphus. Quarrel of Epaphus and Phaethon.
EXPLICATIO.
THIS fable is a continuation of the same story which is related in part
in the two former fables. If, in explanation of the myth, we consider the
Cow a type of agriculture, which became necessary when man was
forced to subsist by labor, by the wanderings of lo we may understand
the early emigration of mankind, and the spread of agriculture. In the
explanation of Fable XIII., we snowed, by reference to Diodorus Siculus,
that in time and circumstances it agreed with the Fall of man, and the
deterioration of morals. lo (or agriculture) is said in her wanderings to
be urged on by furies ; and as, at the time when agriculture was insti
tuted, man was driven out from the presence of God, under the goadings
of remorse, and a consciousness of guilt, these were the furies by which
he was agitated in his wanderings over the world in search of a home
where to settle. The great fertility of the Valley of the Nile would at
length become the great centre of agricultural emprise, and thus the Nile
is fabled to be the end of the long journeyings of lo. The story of lo's
resumption of the human form is a mere conclusion of the personal cha
racter of the myth, and is not capable of any interpretation. The wor
ship of Isis by the Egyptians, from whom the Greeks borrow the
mutilated story of their lo, was no doubt a corruption of a symbolic
commemoration of agriculture, and of the taurine part of the great quadri-
form image or cherubim at the gates of Eden.
The story of the quarrel of Epaphus and Phaethon is a continuation of
the fable of lo, in a personal, instead of a mythological form, and is a
beautiful introduction to the second Book of the Metamorphoses. If we
consider Phaethon a real personage, and the actual son of Clymene by
a reputed union with Apollo, we must explain the amour of the celestial
lover by the fact, that a lewd priesthood often imposed on the credulity
of silly women whom they wished to corrupt, by giving out that the
god upon whom they ministered was in love with 'them. Thus Hero
dotus, in describing the temple of Jupiter Belus, at Babylon, says : In the
last tower is a large chapel, in which there lies a bed, very splendidly
ornamented, and beside it a table of gold; but there is no statue in the
place. No man is allowed to sleep here, but the apartment is appropri
ated to a female, whom, if we believe the Chaldean priests, the deity
selects from the women of the country, as his favorite. Lib. i. Cap. 181
Other interpretations of thf history of Phaethon we will give in Lib. II
Fab. II. 118
It
exarsit, nee tempora distulit irse ;
Horriferamque oculis animoque objecit Erinnyn
Pellicis ArgolicEe, stimulosque in pectore crecos
Condidit, et profugam per totum terruit orbem.
NOT^E.
I. Protinut. forthwith; immediately after the death of Argus.
1. Exarsit: Juno was inflamed with rage.
2. Oculis animoque: before the eyes and imagination.
Airrun that sting! Ah me, that form again!
With all his hundred eyes the earth-born Argus-
Cover it Knrth! See, how it glares upon me,
The horrid spectre! Wilt thou not. O Earth,
Cover the dead, tlmt from thy dark abyss
lie comes to hnunt me, to pursue my steps
And drive me foodless o'er the harren strand?
_ . , JESCHVLUS'S PEOMETIIECS CHAINED.
2. l^rmnyn: a fury, madness.
By the Furies' fierce assaults
To flight I was impelled. EUKIPIUKS'S IPHIOKNIA.
3. Pellicis Argolicai: of the Argolic mistress; of lo, the mistress
of Jupiter.
3. Slimulosque: stings, goads; a meta
phor taken from spurs or goads with which
cattle are urged forward.
Thru virgin, whore transformed
The torturing sling drove wandering o'er the
world. jFscHYLup's SUPPLICANTS.
4. Prnfugam: a fugitive ; a wanderer.
I heur hrr griefs thut whirl her soul lo madness
Dnughler or Inarhiis, whose love inflames
The heart of.Iovp; hence Juno's jealous rnge
Drives the poor wunderer restless o'er the
world. ,""'
Thy toils, which thou through Greece
Driiven by the Furies' maddening stings, hast
borne. EURIPIDES.
4. Terruit : affrighted her. Vilgil and
-flJschylus say that Juno pursued her with
the brizc or gadfly.
The gndfly sounds; beneath her restless wing
The breeze shrill whizies, and the forests
ring ;
Erst with this plague the jealous wife of Jove
In direful rnge th' Iimclimn lieifer drove.
GEOROIC ui. v JQ9.
119
rfiP
•I