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MORE Ovid’s Women

 

Andromeda Chained

 

Andromeda’s mother was a foolish woman and claimed her daughter was more beautiful than the goddess of beauty herself, Venus. No god or goddess can be so challenged. The gods’ minion, Ammon, had Andromeda chained to rocks above the sea where a raging dragon was her jailer.

Not long after, Perseus happened by. Immediately his blood ran hot with the heat of love. He threw himself at the feet of her grieving parents and offered himself, a son of Jove, as a worthy son-in-law if he was successful at slaying the dragon.

A battle too fierce to relate ensued, but all ended gloriously with the dragon’s bloody death. Perseus celebrated the victory by raising altars to his favorite gods, Mercury, Minerva and great Jove, and then went on to regale the wedding guests with his tales of valor, including his triumph over Medusa whose snake-haired head he carried everywhere.

 

 

 

Ecce Daphne!

Because of an argument, Cupid pierced the flesh of the god Apollo with an arrow that made him hot with love for Daphne, daughter of a river god. Ah, but the wily Cupid had pierced Daphne with an opposite arrow that made her flee any thought of men, lovers and marriage.

No amount of pleading by Apollo persuaded her for, after all, Cupid’s arrow had hit its mark. During one of their chases, Daphne, exhausted and almost caught, called to her father to rid her of the body Apollo found so attractive.

Instantly she grew to the earth, her hair turning to leaves, her arms barked branches. She was laurel. Still in love, Apollo embraced the laurel tree and pledged it as his symbol. Thenceforth, winners at games, victorious generals, and the heads of Emperors all wore the sacred laurel.




 


 

Semele Sees Jove Unmasked

 

Semele was one of the human lovers of Jove, whose wife, Juno, in a rage of jealousy, plotted her demise. Until that time Jove had only appeared to Semele in human form, as no one can look upon the true form of a god and survive.

The disguised Juno cozied up to the naive Semele and told her that if Jove really loved her, he would show her his true form. Semele took the bait. Jove protested, but finally succumbed to his lover’s wish.

Semele, upon seeing his true form, instantly was burnt to a crisp, but not before Jove plucked from her womb their unborn son. He put the babe in his thigh until it was due, and it was from thence the great god of wine and merriment, Bacchus, was born.




 


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