ENGL 495 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Procris, Aeneid, Lelex
4 Jun 2018
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21 March, 2018
Ovid’s incessant representation of rape
- Aside from description of Philomela, Ovid’s rapes are not sexy, not about sex; O shows
quite clearly that rape is not erotic, rape is about power, draws attention to central
question of who has agency and freedom and who does not?
- Seems to be dualistic, gods have freedom/agency, humans do not
- O interested in characters that complicate this dichotomy, biforms
- O also seems to have sympathy for women, especially women as victims
- If O’s world is one of power hierarchy, those with power and those without, where does
the author fit into this?
- O is a poet, has a certain kind of agency and power
- Thinking about O trying to figure out way to distinguish between different kinds of
power -- author power, power of language
- End of O’s life, he had no agency, Augustus sent him into exile
- Relationship between art and power is a central subject
- Medea is one of O’s favourites, has absolute power and freedom, though that freedom is
not necessarily good, doesn’t have to be good to be free
- Still ways that Medea has been limited, limited to availability of roles for women
- Open-endedness of her story leaves her free in our imaginations
- Possibilities are more limited in Athens
Rise of Athenian power
- Theseus = certain type of hero, associated with killing monsters, linked with Hercules
- p 227, list of Theseus’ exploits, similar to Hercules from earlier -- Theseus is
Athenian version of Hercules (Hercules = pan-Hellenic, Theseus = indigenous to
Athens)
- Hero model: Perseus → Jason → Theseus → Romulus → Augustus; O moving through
evolution of hero figures
- Also providing a sketch of early Greek history, fictionalising Greek history, rivalry
between Athens and Crete
- In O’s version, struggle ends in Trojan War
- Jason is the generation before the Trojan War, shows movement towards that
- ex: Calydonian boar is a gathering of superheroes, rehearsal for Trojan War
- O wants to tell another story of war between two great nations, parallels to Trojan War
- Cretan heir, son of Minos, killed in Athens; Minos eventually exacts revenge
- Minos gathering allies to fight Athens, city-states lining up and choosing sides
- Both sides go to island of Aegina, where Juno has sent a plague that decimates
population; plague echoes Georgics 3, followed up by Georgics 4, end of
population resulting in rebirth, again using bugs
- People of Aegina reform as ants, origins of Greeks, of the people fighting for
Achilles (Myrmidons)
- Bees and ants -- both images for the worker, but ants are on the ground or
underground, bees fly, bees pollinate; ants collect for themselves, bees are
creative and transformative, artistry in work of bees, different kind of labour
- Ants = working class labour; bees = poetry, artistry
- Greeks criticised for being too soft and artsy, but this is Romanising the
Greeks a little bit
- O likes creating contrast -- this is a story about a people, etiological myth to
explain why some Greeks are more hard working
- Story of Cephalus and Procris
- Cephalus is old, represents dying generations of heroes; both a hero and a
devoted husband, heroes of this age can be happily married
- Most stories are about couples getting together, and then happily ever after; O
shows life after marriage as complicated
- Cephalus and Procris are so happy that they anger the gods -- Aurora kidnaps
Cephalus, type of rape towards a man, releases Cephalus when he won’t give up
his wife
- Cephalus becomes jealous of his wife, disguises himself to test her fidelity;
Procris resists and resists, at her brief moment of hesitation he throws off his
disguise
- Procris is angry and leaves him, but they get back together and are happy again,
second chance, two become one
- Cephalus is a hunter, needs things aside from animals → shade (UMBRA),
breeze (AURA = air, breeze); C calls for an aura, and someone tells Procris
Cephalus has taken a mistress
- P goes to spy on C, C mistakes her for an animal, accidentally hits her with his
spear
- AURA -- means breeze, but also means air, intangible, but everywhere,
necessary for living
- Word play: AURUM = gold, LAURUS = laurel
- Gold and Air: one is scarce, one is everywhere; air necessary to live
independently, gold necessary to live in a society; one is free, one is
expensive; weight difference, value and necessity
- Power of art, power of language -- this story, words kill, misinterpretation
becomes fatal, interpretation matters; what words can do in
personification, “words make something nothing, or make nothing
something” -- words can make the air seem like something substantial
- Story popular in Renaissance because of its representation of a couple, domestic
scene; story about the power of art, what art can do
- Related to narcissus, cannot tell the difference between UMBRA and
reality
- Crete and Athens
- Conflict between these two cities can be seen as Battle of Actium, forces of
chaos and order; epitomized in creature of the Minotaur
