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