February 14, 2008
Apollo and Daphne
By: Ovid from book 1 of the Metamorphoses[1]Now Daphne[2]—daughter of the river-god,
Peneus—was the first of Phoebus’ loves.[3]
This love was not the fruit of random chance:
what fostered it was Cupid’s cruel wrath.[4]
For now, while Phoebus still was taking pride 5
in his defeat of Python,[5] he caught sight
of Cupid as he bent his bow to tie
the string at the two ends. He said: “Lewd boy,
what are you doing with that heavy bow?[6]
My shoulders surely are more fit for it; 10
for I can strike wild beasts—I never miss.
I can fell enemies; j ust recently
I even hit—my shafts were infinite—
that swollen serpent, Python, sprawled across
whole acres with his pestilential paunch. 15
Be glad your torch can spark a bit of love:
don’t try to vie with me for praise and wreaths!”
And Venus’ son replied: “Your shafts may pierce
all things, o Phoebus, but you'll be transfixed
by mine; and even as all earthly things 20
can never equal any deity,
so shall your glory be no match for mine.”
. . .
notes
- ↑ Ovid (1993) [8]. The Metamorphoses of Ovid. Translated by Mandelbaum, Allen. New York: A Harvest Book. pp. 20–25.
- ↑ Δάφνη, meaning “laurel” in Greek.
- ↑ Phoebus is Apollo, but Ovid’s use of this name aligns the god with the sun in particular, more so here, then, with its heat, rather than its light. Sometimes, Plato suggests, the light, or understanding, can follow the heat, or passion, in the ladder of love. Since Daphne is the “first of [his] loves,” the suggestion is that he is all desire. This suggestion, along with Cupid’s arrow (see below) will be unfortunate for Daphne.
- ↑ Eros is his Greek counterpart. Both of these gods are very Ovidian, in that their form of love is lust or desire—usually what Ovid means when he uses the word “love.”
- ↑ Beginning here with Python, the snake that Apollo had to kill in order to found his oracle at Delphi, notice the phallic imagery throughout this verse paragraph.
- ↑ The bow is associated traditionally with Apollo.
