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The Ceyx Legend in Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book XI

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

A. H. F. Griffin
A. H. F. Griffin
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
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Extract

The saga of Ceyx, king of Trachis, begins at Met. 11.266 and continues to 11.748. Ceyx' adventures form the longest single episode in the Metamorphoses (482 verses), slightly longer than the Phaethon legend (432 verses, Met. 1.747–2.400). Three metamorphoses take place in the course of the Ceyx narrative. The first is that of Ceyx' brother Daedalion who is transformed into a hawk. The second transformation occurs in the course of the exiled Peleus' visit to Ceyx when a wolf attacks Peleus' cattle and sheep and is eventually turned into stone. The third metamorphosis is that of Ceyx and his wife Alcyone into halcyons.

The linking together of these three metamorphoses was entirely an Ovidian invention: it had never been done before. It is therefore important to see the Ceyx story as a whole, as it was put together by Ovid. Attention naturally concentrates on the most interesting episode in it – the Ceyx–Alcyone – but the Daedalion and Peleus episodes are integral parts of the narrative and not separate legends. The story is framed by the contrasting transformations of the two brothers. The fierce and bellicose Daedalion becomes a bird of prey (Met. 11.344). The gentle and uxorious Ceyx becomes a happily paired halcyon (11. 741–8). It is ironic that we first meet Ceyx when he is mourning the transformation of his brother into a bird, since the same end awaits him. The brothers' characters are very different but their fates are similar. Ceyx' dealings with Peleus (11. 268–409) bring out the king of Trachis' hospitable, peace-loving, godly and husbandly qualities and give us a rounded and detailed picture of his personality to balance the developed character-study of his wife Alcyone which is to follow. The spotlight passes from Ceyx to Alcyone at Met. 11. 410.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , May 1981 , pp. 147 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1981

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References

1 The importance of the Ceyx–Alcyone is widely recognized. ‘The story of Ceyx and Alcyone (11. 410–748)…could hardly fail to impress the ordinary reader…as one of the most moving and powerful episodes in the entire poem’ (Kenney, E. J., CR N.S. 15 (1965), 295Google Scholar). It is a mistake, however, to treat the Ceyx–Alcyone as an entirely independent story, quite apart from the 150 verses about Ceyx (including Alcyone's first appearance) which precede it. See, for example, Hartman, J. J., Mnemosyne, 2nd ser. 46 (1918), 337–57Google Scholar. Crump, M. M., The Epyllion from Theocritus to Ovid, p. 214Google Scholar. Met. 11. 410 marks the beginning of a new episode, not a new story.

2 Probus, , Commentary on Georgics 1. 399Google Scholar: ‘dilectae Thetidi alcyones’. Gowand, A. S. F.Scholfield, A. F., Nicander (Cambridge, 1953)Google Scholar suggest the mid-second century or somewhat later as the most likely floruit for Nicander.

3 Antoninus Liberalis 38. Λύĸος. (‘(Iστορεῖ Νíĸανδρος ἑτεροιουμένων ὰ.)

4 Hyginus CC. Pherecydes of Athens, the ‘genealogist’ (floruit 456 b.c.?) told the story of the twin births of Autolycus and Philammon, fathered by Mercury and Apollo, but the mother, according to Pherecydes, was Philonis, daughter of Deion, not Chione, daughter of Daedalion, as in Ovid. (Schol. Horn. Od. T. 432).

5 See Gow and Scholfield, op. cit. p. 5.

6 Otis, Brooks, Ovid as an Epic Poet 2 (Cambridge, 1970), 48Google Scholar.

7 The geography fits tolerably well. Trachis, where Ceyx is king, Mt Parnassus where Daedalion's metamorphosis takes place, and Thisbe where, as a hawk, he harries the famous doves, are all situated in central Greece within easy reach of each other (Met. 11. 269–72, 300, 339).

8 Hercules was a guest at Ceyx' wedding in Trachis, an incident treated by Hesiod in his Κήυĸος γάμος (see fr. 263–9, Merkelbach, et West, , Fragmenta Hesiodea, Oxford, 1967)Google Scholar. Since Peleus and Hercules were both fellow Argonauts there is nothing ‘chronologically’ improbable about Ovid inventing a visit of Peleus to Ceyx.

9 Marriage of Peleus and Thetis: Met. 11. 217–65. Peleus' visit to Trachis after his murder of Phocus: Met. 11. 266–409.

10 See Apollodorus, , Library 3. 12. 6–3. 13. 8Google Scholar.

11 Antoninus Liberalis 38 can be summarized as follows: ‘Peleus was purified of the murder of Phocus by Eurytion, son of Iros. He accidentally killed Eurytion during a hunt. Peleus fled to Acastus and thence, accused by Acastus' wife of an attempt to seduce her, to Chiron on Mt Pelion. Peleus there collected a herd of cattle and sheep and took them as a peace offering to Iros. Iros refused to accept them. A wolf attacked and slaughtered the animals. The wolf was turned into stone by divine intervention and stood for a long time on the border between Locris and Phocis.’ In Nicander (Ant. Lib. 38) Peleus' visit to Acastus preceded the wolf episode: in Ovid it follows it (Ovid. Met. 11. 408–9).

12 Nicander, , Theriaca 958Google Scholar. See Gow and Scholfield, op. cit. pp. 3–5.

13 The Roman tradition of the literary sea-storm is, of course, based on the Greek tradition and goes back ultimately to Homer, (Od. 5. 291 ffGoogle Scholar). The subject is discussed by Morford, M. P. O., The Poet Lucan, pp. 20–36Google Scholar.

14 The Halcyon can be found in vol. viii of the Loeb Classical Library Lucian, pp. 303–17. Macleod, the editor, discusses its date on pp. 303–5. The dialogue, transmitted with the works of Lucian, is now generally dated by scholars to the Hellenistic period. I have discussed the significance of this dating in an article in Acta Conventus Omnium Gentium Ovidianis Studiis Fovendis (Bucurestiis, 1976), 321–4Google Scholar.

15 Met. 11. 592 in Von Albrecht, R. Ehwald–Otto Korn–Michael, P. Ovidius Naso Metamorphosen, ii (Zürich/Dublin, 1966)Google Scholar. Von Albrecht seems to have doubts about a common Hellenistic source for Ovid's and Lucian's dream episodes because Lucian claims to be the first to describe the island of dreams (Ver. Hist. ii. 32). This claim need not be taken seriously in view of Lucian's admission that everything in the Verae Historiae is a parody of some author or other. The many common features in Ovid's dwelling of sleep and Lucian's island of dreams require some explanation. Lucian hardly used Ovid as a source since he knew little or no Latin. A common Hellenistic source is the most likely explanation of the similarities. Lucian's claim to be the first to write about the island of dreams seems like a joke.

16 Thucydides 3. 92–3, καταστάντες δὲ ἐτεíχισαν τὴν πóλιν ἐκ καινῆς, ἥ νῦν ‘Hρκλεια καλεῖαι.

17 Halcyon 2.

18 See Merkelbach et West frr. 15 and 16 and notes ad loc.

19 See Schol. Horn. Il. 9. 562 and Eustathius 9. 538.

20 Pohlenz, M., ‘Die Abfassungszeit von Ovids Metamorphosen’, Hermes 48 (1913), 1–13Google Scholar. The sea-storm is found at Musaeus 309 ff., the dream at Ovid Ep. 19. 195 ff. and the return of the corpse and death leap at Musaeus 335 ff.

21 Hyginus (65) describes Alcyone's suicide as a death leap into the sea: ipsa se in mare praecipitavit; postea miseratione Thetidis et Luciferi conversi sunt ambo in aves marinas alcyones.

22 At Met. 11. 382 Ceyx arms his soldiers (not himself) when he hears of the marauding wolf. But he has no intention of allowing his men to use their weapons: as a good pacifist he regards prayer as more effective: non placet arma mihi contra nova monstra moveri; numen adorandum pelagi est (Met. 11. 391–2).

23 καì τὰ πρóβατα νομέων ἔρημα λύκος ἐπελθὼν κατέδει.

24 Brooks Otis op. cit. pp. 238–46.

25 Brooks Otis op. cit. pp. 247–51.

26 Verse 748 is framed by two nouns with the same vowels, Aeolus…aequor. Aequor, of course, is the calm sea, a splendid choice of final word.