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.