Ovid: “Love, Myths and Other stories” - III
Metamorphoses Book I: Apollo and Daphne.
The pictorial repertoire of the early imperial period depicts the main moments in the story:
Apollo's declaration of love for Daphne,
her vain attempt to flee and her capture by the god.
This fresco illustrates the Ovidian moment in which Apollo captures her: Daphne's knees are bent, almost as if she is exhausted after her demanding flight from her pursuer, and she raises her right hand in a gesture of supplication. The peculiar iconographical position suggests that this is the moment in which the Nymph, in order to escape the god, appeals to her father Peneus.
Viribus absumptis expalluit illa citaeque
victa labore fugae spectans Peneidas undas
“fer pater” inquit “opem si flumina numen habetis. - 545
Qua nimium placui, mutando perde figuram”
[met. 1, 543-546]
“Now was her strength all gone, and, pale with fear and utterly overcome by the toil of her swift flight, seeing her father's waters near, she cried: "O father, help ! if your waters hold divinity ; change and destroy this beauty by which I pleased o'er well."”
According to her plea, Daphne is transformed into a laurel tree. Even thus transformed, the god still loves her and makes her his forever, eternally crowning his head with her verdant leaves.
Translation: Frank Justus Miller, “Ovid - Metamorphoses”
Fresco From Pompeii, “Marcus Lucretius house”
AD 60 – 79 (4th style)
Naples, “Museo Archeologico Nazionale”
Exhibition: “Ovidio: Loves, Myths & Other Stories”
Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome
Ovid: “Love, Myths and Other stories” - III
Metamorphoses Book I: Apollo and Daphne.
The pictorial repertoire of the early imperial period depicts the main moments in the story:
Apollo's declaration of love for Daphne,
her vain attempt to flee and her capture by the god.
This fresco illustrates the Ovidian moment in which Apollo captures her: Daphne's knees are bent, almost as if she is exhausted after her demanding flight from her pursuer, and she raises her right hand in a gesture of supplication. The peculiar iconographical position suggests that this is the moment in which the Nymph, in order to escape the god, appeals to her father Peneus.
Viribus absumptis expalluit illa citaeque
victa labore fugae spectans Peneidas undas
“fer pater” inquit “opem si flumina numen habetis. - 545
Qua nimium placui, mutando perde figuram”
[met. 1, 543-546]
“Now was her strength all gone, and, pale with fear and utterly overcome by the toil of her swift flight, seeing her father's waters near, she cried: "O father, help ! if your waters hold divinity ; change and destroy this beauty by which I pleased o'er well."”
According to her plea, Daphne is transformed into a laurel tree. Even thus transformed, the god still loves her and makes her his forever, eternally crowning his head with her verdant leaves.
Translation: Frank Justus Miller, “Ovid - Metamorphoses”
Fresco From Pompeii, “Marcus Lucretius house”
AD 60 – 79 (4th style)
Naples, “Museo Archeologico Nazionale”
Exhibition: “Ovidio: Loves, Myths & Other Stories”
Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome