Chapter XIV: Book THE NINTH: Fable I. Ix.1-100 (3)

“Yet, lest Crete might not be the producer of {all kinds of} prodigies, the daughter of the Sun loved a bull; that is to say, a female {loved} a male. My passion, if I confess the truth, is more extravagant than that. Still she pursued the hopes of enjoyment; still, by a subtle contrivance, and under the form of a cow, did she couple with the bull, and her paramour was one that might be deceived. But though the ingenuity of the whole world were to centre here, though Dædalus himself were to fly back again with his waxen wings, what could he do? Could he, by his skilful arts, make me from a maiden into a youth? or could he transform thee, Iänthe? But why dost thou not fortify thy mind, and recover thyself, Iphis? And why not shake off this passion, void of {all} reason, and senseless {as it is}? Consider what it was thou wast born (unless thou art deceiving thyself as well), and pursue that which is allowable, and love that which, as a woman, thou oughtst {to love}. Hope it is that produces, Hope it is that nourishes love. This, the {very} case {itself} deprives thee of. No guard is keeping thee away from her dear embrace; no care of a watchful husband, no father’s severity; does not she herself deny thy solicitations. And yet she cannot be enjoyed by thee; nor, were everything possible done, couldst thou be blessed; {not}, though Gods and men were to do their utmost. And now, too, no portion of my desires is baffled, and the compliant Deities have granted me whatever they were able, and what I {desire}, my father wishes, she herself wishes, and {so does} my destined father-in-law; but nature, more powerful than all these, wills it not; she alone is an obstacle to me. Lo, the longed-for time approaches, and the wedding-day is at hand, when Iänthe should be mine; and {yet} she will not fall to my lot. In the midst of water, I shall be athirst. Why, Juno, guardian of the marriage rites, and why, Hymenæus, do you come to this ceremonial, where there is not the person who should marry {the wife}, {and} where both {of us females}, we are coupled in wedlock?”

After {saying} these words, she closes her lips. And no less does the other maid burn, and she prays thee, Hymenæus, to come quickly. Telethusa, dreading the same thing that she desires, at one time puts off the time {of the wedding}, and then raises delays, by feigning illness. Often, by way of excuse, she pretends omens and visions. But now she has exhausted all the resources of fiction; and the time for the marriage {so long} delayed is {now} at hand, and {only} one day remains; whereon she takes off the fillets for the hair from her own head and from that of her daughter,[74] and embracing the altar with dishevelled locks, she says, “O Isis, thou who dost inhabit Parætonium,[75] and the Mareotic fields,[76] and Pharos,[77] and the Nile divided into its seven horns, give aid, I beseech thee, and ease me of my fears. Thee, Goddess, thee, I once beheld, and these thy symbols; and all {of them} I recognized; both thy attendants, and thy torches, and the sound of the sistra, and I noted thy commands with mindful care. That this {girl}[78] {now} sees the light, that I, myself, am not punished, is {the result of} thy counsel, and thy admonition; pity us both, and aid us with thy assistance.”

Tears followed her words. The Goddess seemed to move, (and she {really} did move) her altars; and the doors of her temple shook. Her horns, too,[79] shone, resembling {those of} the moon, and the tinkling sistrum sounded. The mother departs from the temple, not free from concern indeed, still pleased with this auspicious omen. Iphis follows her, her companion as she goes, with longer strides than she had been wont; her fairness does not continue on her face; both her strength is increased, and her features are more stern; and shorter is the length of her scattered locks. There is more vigour, also, than she had {as} a female. {And} now thou art a male, who so lately wast a female. Bring offerings to the temple, and rejoice with no hesitating confidence. They do bring their offerings to the temple. They add, too, an inscription; the inscription contains {one} short line: “Iphis, a male, offers the presents, which, as a female, he had vowed.”

The following morn has disclosed the wide world with the rays {of the Sun}; when Venus, and Juno, and Hymenæus, repair to the social fires[80]; and Iphis, {now} a youth, gains his {dear} Iänthe.

[Footnote 65: _Phæstian land._--Ver. 668. Phæstus was a city of
Crete, built by Minos.]

[Footnote 66: _Anubis._--Ver. 689. This was an Egyptian Deity,
which had the body of a man, and the head of a dog. Some writers
say that it was Mercury who was so represented, and that this form
was given him in remembrance of the fact of Isis having used dogs
in her search for Osiris, when he was slain by his brother Typhon.
Other authors say, that Anubis was the son of Osiris, and that he
distinguished himself with an helmet, bearing the figure of a dog,
when he followed his father to battle.]

[Footnote 67: _Bubastis._--Ver. 690. Though she is here an
attendant of Isis, Diodorus Siculus represents her to have been
the same divinity as Isis. Herodotus, however, says that Diana was
worshipped by the Egyptians under that name. There was a city of
Lower Egypt, called Bubastis, in which Isis was greatly venerated.]

[Footnote 68: _Apis._--Ver. 690. This is supposed to have been
another name for Osiris, whose body, having been burned on the
funeral pile, the Egyptians believed that he re-appeared under the
form of a bull; the name for which animal was ‘apis.’]

[Footnote 69: _Who suppresses._--Ver. 691. This was the Egyptian
divinity Harpocrates, the God of Secresy and Silence, who was
represented with his finger laid on his lips.]

[Footnote 70: _Osiris._--Ver. 692. When slain by his brother
Typhon, Isis long sought him in vain, till, finding his scattered
limbs by the aid of dogs, she entombed them. As the Egyptians had
a yearly festival, at which they bewailed the loss of Osiris, and
feigned that they were seeking him, Ovid calls that God, ‘Nunquam
satis quæsitus,’ ‘Never enough sought for.’]

[Footnote 71: _Foreign serpent._--Ver. 693. This is, most
probably, the asp, a small serpent of Egypt, which is frequently
found represented on the statues of Isis. Its bite was said to
produce a lethargic sleep, ending in death. Cleopatra ended her
life by the bite of one, which she ordered to be conveyed to her
in a basket of fruit. Some commentators have supposed that the
crocodile is here alluded to; but, as others have justly observed,
the crocodile has no poisonous sting, but rather a capacity for
devouring.]

[Footnote 72: _A befriending Goddess._--Ver. 698. Diodorus Siculus
says, that Isis was the discoverer of numerous remedies for
disease, and that she greatly improved the healing art.]

[Footnote 73: _Be deceiving._--Ver. 709. The name ‘Iphis’ being
equally well for a male or a female.]

[Footnote 74: _Of her daughter._--Ver. 770. We must suppose that
Iphis wore the ‘vitta,’ which was an article of female dress, in
private only, and in presence of her mother. Of course, in public,
such an ornament would not have suited her, when appearing in the
character of a man.]

[Footnote 75: _Parætonium._--Ver. 772. Strabo says, that
Parætonium was a city of Libya, with a capacious harbour.]

[Footnote 76: _Mareotic fields._--Ver. 772. The Mareotic Lake was
in the neighbourhood of the city of Alexandria.]

[Footnote 77: _Pharos._--Ver. 772. This was an island opposite to
Alexandria, famed for its light-house, which was erected to warn
sailors from off the dangerous quicksands in the neighbourhood.]

[Footnote 78: _This girl._--Ver. 778. Pointing at Iphis, who had
attended her, Antoninus Liberalis says, that Telethusa prayed that
Iphis might be transformed into a man, and cited a number of
precedents for such a change.]

[Footnote 79: _Her horns too._--Ver. 783. Isis was sometimes
worshipped under the form of a cow, to the horns of which
reference is here made.]

[Footnote 80: _The social fires._--Ver. 795. On the occasion of
marriages, offerings were made on the altars of Hymenæus and the
other Deities, who were the guardians of conjugal rites.]

EXPLANATION.

The story of Iphis being changed from a young woman into a man,
of which Ovid lays the scene in the isle of Crete, is one of those
facts upon which ancient history is entirely silent. Perhaps, the
origin of the story was a disguise of a damsel in male dress,
carried on, for family reasons, even to the very point of marriage;
or it may have been based upon an account of some remarkable
instance of androgynous formation.

Ovid may possibly have invented the story himself, merely as a
vehicle for showing how the Deities recompense piety and strict
obedience to their injunctions.