Week 2: Essay--Roman Stigmas Against Incestual Love in Ovid's Metamorphoses

[Soooo. . . I'm going to get nice and heavy with the topic of incestuous relationships.  Perhaps I can find a way to throw in a few underhanded comments and such, but if unnatural and stigmatized relations make you uncomfortable, consider this your warning.]

In traditional Roman society, incest was not only stigmatized by the greater population, but was also deemed an illegal act, with incestuous relationships seen as perverted and criminal desires.  This theme of incest being looked down upon and harshly criticized can be found in numerous stories of Ovid's Metamorphoses, including the tales of Byblis and of Iphis. But more particularly, throughout the language of the story of Myrrha and Cinyras, this sentiment of perversion and crime that defines incestuous relationships is clearly evident.  For example, it is stated that romantic love for your father is a crime greater than paternal hatred, and that Cupid adamantly denied having created such love so as not to be blamed for such a distasteful passion.

Indeed, even Myrrha recognizes the perversion in her feelings, constantly berating herself and attempting to deny her love.  But in addition to this denial, Myrrha also attempts to justify her desires, claiming that such love cannot in fact be sinful since it is so common among animals; in fact, if nature allows incestual acts then, she states, it most simply be the spiteful rule of humans which prevent expression of her passion.

But, even so, Ovid floods this story with a pervasive sentiment and vocabulary of crime, of sin, and of guilt.  In fact, in the description of her pregnancy terms such as "disgusting womb," "sinful burden," and "criminally conceived" mark Myrrha's actions with the greatest of stigmas and criticisms.  The profanity of her aberrant dalliance is clearly evident in Ovid's depiction of events, only further solidified by the satisfying end in which Myrrha receives her just punishment--a transformation into a tree which denies her both the joys of living and the relative peace of death.  Thus this myth serves to portray one of the traditional moral sentiments of ancient Roman society, that acts (or even feelings) of romantic passion between individuals sharing a familial relationship are among the most shameful of transgressions.



Image Information.  The Spirit of the Virgin Forest.  Mixed media photo manipulation by MaLize, 2012.  DeviantArt.

Sources.  Myrrha and Cinyras from Ovid's Metamorphoses, as translated by Tony Kline, 2000.  UnTextbook, Ovid's Metamorphoses Books 8-10.

Also, I utilized snippets and factoids from an essay of mine entitled "Stigma Against Incestual and Unnatural Romantic Attachment in Ovid's Metamorphoses," 2014.