Читать книгу A Student's Commentary on Ovid's Metamorphoses Book 10 - Shawn O'Bryhim - Страница 11

Book 10 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses tells the story of the mythic bard Orpheus, whose wife died just after their wedding from the bite of a snake. Thereupon he travels to the underworld to persuade its rulers to release her. Pluto agrees, on the condition that he not look back at her until he reaches the earth. When Orpheus violates this agreement at the last possible moment, she is forced to return to the underworld, and he is denied a second chance to rescue her. Because of this tragic experience, he renounces the love of women and devotes himself to a life of pederasty. Orpheus expresses his attitude toward sexuality in a song that recounts various stories about the love of the gods for boys and the punishment meted out to women who indulged their illicit lusts. This song consists of the myths of Ganymede, Hyacinthus, the Cerastae, the Propoetides, Pygmalion, Myrrha, Venus and Adonis, and Atalanta and Hippomenes. Book 10 ends with the conclusion of Orpheus’ song; Book 11 begins with his death at the hands of the Thracian women and his subsequent reunion with Eurydice in the Elysian Fields.