Metamorphoses: “I would, I want—and can’t”

Telethusa and her daughter Iphis praying that the gods turn Iphis into a man (print made by Antonio Tempesta). 

1/ Even in a book full of rapes, the myth of Tereus, Philomela, and Procne might still be the most brutal in Metamorphoses. That Procne kills her own son to punish her husband for having raped her sister is rather “refreshing” though, considering that Leucothoe’s father buries her alive after she’s raped by the sun god. 

I have now read 3 literary works that depict a character taking revenge on someone by feeding them their own children: this story in Ovid, Thyestes by Seneca, and Titus Andronicus by Shakespeare. And this one is the least ridiculous (no, I’m not a fan of Titus Andronicus at all). 

2/ After a while, Metamorphoses can sometimes feel rather exhausting, as Ovid moves from one myth to another and there’s no sense of a forward movement. I much prefer the long narratives of Homer, or the exploration of a handful characters as in the plays of Sophocles. 

Not only so, some of the stories in Ovid require the reader to have been acquainted with the myths; most are fleshed out enough to work as stories on their own, but some feel abrupt and wouldn’t make much sense without prior knowledge, such as the story of Medea—Ovid doesn’t quite explain why Jason abandons Medea and marries someone else that lead to her killing the new wife and her own children with Jason. 

3/ As I’m interested in characters and the human mind, I love it when Ovid explores the conflicts, the contradictions in his characters. Ovid doesn’t really explore the mind of Procne or Medea, for example (though in the case of Medea, it could be because Ovid wrote a play about Medea that unfortunately didn’t survive), but he does portray Althaea getting torn between her love for her own son and the urge to avenge her brothers, and Byblis struggling with her incestuous feelings for her twin brother. He depicts their streams of thoughts, as in a novel—gives them more complexity, more depth—and these are some of my favourite parts in Metamorphoses. 

“… Ay me! How do I fall! 

What fire my heart has caught! With trembling hand 

She starts the sentences her thoughts have framed. 

Her right hand holds the pen, her left the wax. 

She starts, she pauses, writes and thinks it wrong. 

Restarts, erases, alters, likes, dislikes, 

Puts down the tablet, picks it up again, 

Not knowing what she wants, and finding fault 

With everything as soon as settled. Shame

Mingles with resolution in her face.

‘Your sister’ she had written, but decided 

‘Sister’ were best erased, and on the wax, 

Its surface smoothed, incised these sentences.” 

(Book 9) 

(translated by A. D. Melville) 

Now this is very good—this brings Ovid closer to Shakespeare and Tolstoy. 

(The quote in the headline comes from the myth of Althaea and Meleager in Book 8). 

4/ The myth of Iphis in Book 9 probably appeals to some readers because of the “transgender” aspect—she is transformed into a man at the end—but to me it’s much more interesting as a story about misogyny, about being raised as the other sex (still a thing today), and about same-sex love. 

“… Only nature stands 

Unwilling, nature mightier than them all—

To work my woe. See now the longed-for time

Is come, the day to link our love dawns bright; 

Ianthe shall be mine… It cannot be! 

No, in the midst of water I shall thirst…” 

(Book 9) 

Metamorphoses does contain everything. 

My time in America

After the work event, I explored a bit of Washington, DC and saw a bit of Northern California. A bit of the east and a bit of the west. 

In Washington, DC, I visited the Library of Congress, saw the Gutenberg Bible and the content of Abraham Lincoln’s pockets when he was shot and the exhibition about George Washington and King George III (for the 250th anniversary); went to the National Archives Museum, saw the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence; explored the National Air and Space Museum and saw many cool things including Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 Spacesuit and a space rock older than the Earth. Envious, aren’t you? It’s awesome—in the original sense of inspiring awe—to finally see these foundational documents after having grown up with American films and history. 

That’s not all. I also had a burger at Lucky Buns, ate Vietnamese food at Eden Centre in Virginia (quails!), went to a few supermarkets (why is everything huge in America?), looked inside a Trader Joe’s (America is a strange place), and met a Twitter friend (Susan). 

The contrast between that and my time in Northern California is fascinating, not only because of the differences between East and West Coast but also because my time in DC was (primarily) an American experience—going back to its foundation, seeing the documents that made the States the States—whereas my time in Northern California was (primarily) a Vietnamese American experience. I did see San Francisco (how could I not?)—the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge, de Young Museum and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art—but my visit was mostly to see my relatives—on both my mum’s side and my dad’s side—and experience Tết in San Jose. And what an experience that was. My first Tết in California. My first Tết with firecrackers. My time with Vietnamese people in California has made me realise I’m a very bad Vietnamese—I can only console myself that at least I still love mắm tôm and nước mắm, I have read Truyện Kiều and Cung oán ngâm khúc and Chinh phụ ngâm, I got an áo dài. 

And I can’t help wondering what kind of person I would have become—how different I would have been—if I had stayed in Vietnam or moved to the US instead of Europe.