ENGL 3336 Lecture Notes - Actaeon, Grotto
11 Mar 2014
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Document Summary
Throughout book three"s actaeon of ovid"s metamorphoses, female empowerment is illustrated by water and weapon imagery. The scene opens as several nymphs bathe and pamper. Diana"s virgin beauty in a limpid fountain near the gargaphia valley. Succumbing to vulnerability, the goddess removes her clothing and weapons in order to cleanse herself in the pool. In this scene, the water imagery acts as diana"s baptism. She strips herself of the violent and independent life of a warrior and becomes her purest and most vulnerable self. When the man enters the grotto and interrupts her bath, diana feels threatened, yet she has nothing to defend herself with except water. How she wished her arrows were at hand! But only having water, this she took and dashed it on his manly countenance (63). This quote exaggerates the struggle between weapons and water. With weapons, diana adopts a more masculine identity whereas with nothing, she submits to dependency.
