Ovid: Phaedra & Hippolytus - “Love, Myths and Other Stories” – LII
The lovesick heroine is portrayed as a desirable woman of high social standing. Ovid in his Heroides IV describes the unrequited love of Phaedra for her stepson Hippolytus
… qui mihi nunc saevit, sic tibi parcat Amor!
non ego dedignor supplex humilisque precari.
lieu! ubi nunc fastus altaque verba ? iacent !
et pugnare diu nee me submittere culpae
certa fui—certi siquid haberet amor ;
victa precor genibusque tuis regalia tendo
bracchia ! quid deceat, non videt ullus amans.
depuduit, profugusque pudor sua signa reliquit.
Da veniam fassae duraque corda doma !
[Her. IV, 149 – 155]
“… so may Love be merciful to you who is bitter to me now ! I do not disdain to bend my knee and humbly make entreaty. Alas! Where now are my pride, my lofty words; fallen! I was resolved—if there was aught love could resolve — both to fight long and not to yield to fault; but I am overcome. I pray to you, to clasp your knees I extend my queenly arms. Of what befits, no one who loves takes thought. My modesty has tied, and as it fled it left its standards behind. Forgive me my confession, and soften your hard heart!”
Phaedra, Cretan princess, daughter of Minos and Pasiphaë, the Minotaur’s mother, closes the letter by writing:
“Flecte, ferox, animos ! potuit corrumpere taurum
mater; eris tauro saevior ipse truci ?
[Her. IV, 165 – 166]
“Bend, O cruel one, your spirit! My mother could pervert the bull; will you be fiercer than a savage beast?”
Since Hippolytus, Theseus’ son, surely knows the story of the Minotaur, these lines, so gross in their exaggeration, must be a deliberate caricature: we cannot help but think that there is a touch of irony here, since a bull will ultimately destroy Hippolytus. And the final verses of the poem, pathetic in the triviality of the good wishes Phaedra confers upon Hippolytus, particularly the final one “may you have water to drink,” leave us with a sense of parody of the tragic fate of the heroic hunter killed by monstrous bull hidden inside the huge wave created by Poseidon, Theseus’ father.
sic tibi dent Nymphae, quamvis odisse puellas
diceris, arentem quae levet unda sitim !
[Her. IV, 173 – 174]
“so may the Nymphs—though you are said to loathe womankind—give you the flowing water to relieve your parching thirst!”
Translation: Grant Showerman, “Ovid, Heroides and Amores” - LOEB
Source: Howard Jacobson, “Ovid’s Heroides”
Fresco 104 cm x 104 cm
AD 60 - 79 (4th style)
From Ercolano
Naples, “Museo Archeologico Nazionale”
Exhibition: “Ovidio: Loves, Myths & Other Stories”
Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome
Ovid: Phaedra & Hippolytus - “Love, Myths and Other Stories” – LII
The lovesick heroine is portrayed as a desirable woman of high social standing. Ovid in his Heroides IV describes the unrequited love of Phaedra for her stepson Hippolytus
… qui mihi nunc saevit, sic tibi parcat Amor!
non ego dedignor supplex humilisque precari.
lieu! ubi nunc fastus altaque verba ? iacent !
et pugnare diu nee me submittere culpae
certa fui—certi siquid haberet amor ;
victa precor genibusque tuis regalia tendo
bracchia ! quid deceat, non videt ullus amans.
depuduit, profugusque pudor sua signa reliquit.
Da veniam fassae duraque corda doma !
[Her. IV, 149 – 155]
“… so may Love be merciful to you who is bitter to me now ! I do not disdain to bend my knee and humbly make entreaty. Alas! Where now are my pride, my lofty words; fallen! I was resolved—if there was aught love could resolve — both to fight long and not to yield to fault; but I am overcome. I pray to you, to clasp your knees I extend my queenly arms. Of what befits, no one who loves takes thought. My modesty has tied, and as it fled it left its standards behind. Forgive me my confession, and soften your hard heart!”
Phaedra, Cretan princess, daughter of Minos and Pasiphaë, the Minotaur’s mother, closes the letter by writing:
“Flecte, ferox, animos ! potuit corrumpere taurum
mater; eris tauro saevior ipse truci ?
[Her. IV, 165 – 166]
“Bend, O cruel one, your spirit! My mother could pervert the bull; will you be fiercer than a savage beast?”
Since Hippolytus, Theseus’ son, surely knows the story of the Minotaur, these lines, so gross in their exaggeration, must be a deliberate caricature: we cannot help but think that there is a touch of irony here, since a bull will ultimately destroy Hippolytus. And the final verses of the poem, pathetic in the triviality of the good wishes Phaedra confers upon Hippolytus, particularly the final one “may you have water to drink,” leave us with a sense of parody of the tragic fate of the heroic hunter killed by monstrous bull hidden inside the huge wave created by Poseidon, Theseus’ father.
sic tibi dent Nymphae, quamvis odisse puellas
diceris, arentem quae levet unda sitim !
[Her. IV, 173 – 174]
“so may the Nymphs—though you are said to loathe womankind—give you the flowing water to relieve your parching thirst!”
Translation: Grant Showerman, “Ovid, Heroides and Amores” - LOEB
Source: Howard Jacobson, “Ovid’s Heroides”
Fresco 104 cm x 104 cm
AD 60 - 79 (4th style)
From Ercolano
Naples, “Museo Archeologico Nazionale”
Exhibition: “Ovidio: Loves, Myths & Other Stories”
Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome