THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

FABULA VIII.
NYCTIMENE IN NOCTUAM MUTATA: MORS CORONIDIS.
Nyctimene having entertained a criminal passion for her father Nyctssrus, the
king of Lesbos, she is changed into an owl as a punishment for her crimes
Unaffected by the relation of the Crow, the Raven reports to Apollo the
adultery of Coronis, his mistress. Apollo in a passion slays her, but after
wards, repenting of the deed, changes the color of the Raven from white
to black.
EXPLICATIO.
ASHAMED of her hateful crime, the daughter of the Leshian prince
shuns society, and hides herself in secret; and, hence, is said to be trans
formed into an owl a bird which does not make its appearance in day
light. Or, the idea of her transformation may have been suggested by
the name of the maiden, for Nyctimene is from the Greek, and signifies
a screech-owl. The story of Coronis in all probability arose from the
misfortune that befel the young lady of Larissa, either by a priest of
Apollo or some other. She probably perished during some pestilence,
immediately after giving birth to a son, and, hence, was fabled to be slain
by the arrows of Apollo. In the Iliad of Homer, in like manner we find,
that those who fell by the plague that arose from the unburied corpses of
the Greeks were said to he skin by the arrows of that god.
Her son ^Esculapius is said to be the son of Apollo, the god of medi
cine, because he became in after-life a famous physician. He was taken,
while young, and placed under the care of Chiron, a great physician,
astronomer, and musician, who was the fabled preceptor of many of the
heroes of antiquity. He was one of the principal Centaurs, and was the
ideal instructor of the heroic age, and gives us a conception of what a
Grecian education embraced. His form, half human, half ferine, shows
that the instruction of that time embraced both the intellectual and the
animal, in which the former, as the head, predominated. The name is
derived from xilP> the hand, and shows the estimation in which surgery
was held in these times. His cave was on the summit of Mount Pelion,
a natural observatory for the study of astronomy; the botanical fertility
of the mountain was favorable to the study of plants; and the enlivening
character of the mountain air disposed to the musical recreations of the
lyre. Hence Chiron, an ideal personage, was fabled to be a great master
of astronomy, medicine, and music. There was probably a school of
pharmacy upon this mountain height. Even at the present day, Thes-
saly is said to furnish the principal portion of the medical practitioners
of Greece.
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N, quae per totam res est notissima Lesbon,
Non audita tibi est ? Patrium temcrasse cubile
Nyctimenen ? Avis ilia quidem; sed conscia cujpas,
Conspectum lucemque fugit, tenebrisque pudorenx
Celat; ct a cunctis expellitur tcthere toto.
Talia dicenti, Tibi, ait, revocamina, corvus,
Sint precor ista male: nos vanum spernimus omen.
JNec cceptum dimittit iter: dominoque jacentem
Cum juvene Hasmonio vidisse Coronida narrat.
Laurea delapsa est, audito crimine amantis:
Et pariter vultusque Dec, plectrumque, colorque
Excidit. Utque animus tumida fervebat ah ira,
Arma assueta capit; flexumque a cornibus arcum
1. Lesbon. Lesbos, now Miiy-
lene, a large and celebrated island
in Mare jEgffium, the Archipelago,
about sixty miles long and one
hundred and seventy in circum
ference. Alcasus, Snppho, Terpander,
and other celebrated Greek poets were
born here.
2. Temerasse: defiled; put for temera-
visse by syncope.
5. Cunctis: by all the birds. All the
birds pursue the owl when it comes out in
daylight.
6. Revocamina ista: this recalling of me;
this detention of me.
7. Suit malo: be a curse to thee.
NOT.E.
8. Domino
Apollo.
9. Juvrne Ilcemonio.
man of Thcssaly.
10
narrat: tells his master,
Ischys, a young
10. Laurea. The laurel crown which
Apollo wore.
10. Amaniis: of his lover; viz. Coronis.
11. Vutius: the countenance fell; the
cheerfulness of countenance.
11. Plectrum. The bow wiih which the
lyre was played. It is derived from i
to strike.
11. Color. The color of the god.
countenance became pale.
12. Tumida ira: swelling rage,
effect is here put for the cause.
P2 "3
His
The