ORPHEUS AS A BOY-LOVER
FROM OVID'S METAMORPHOSES
Orpheus Ὀρφεύς was a supremely gifted mythological Thracian bard believed in antiquity to have lived about a generation before the Trojan War (so in the 13th century BC). While allusions to Orpheus’s musical genius and the story of his double loss of his beloved wife Eurydike are frequent in classical literature from the 6th century BC onwards, his love of boys, the subject of the extracts presented here, was only mentioned in the longest account of his life, that of the Roman poet P. Ovidius Naso in Books X-XI of his most famous work, the Metamorphoses, finished in AD 8.
The translation is by Frank Justus Miller for the Loeb Classical Library volume 43, published by William Heinemann in London in 1916.
X 78-85
Orpheus has just lost his adored wife Eurydike twice, first through mortal snakebite and then through failing to observe the conditions imposed on his rescuing her from Hades:
| Three times had the sun finished the year and come to watery Pisces; and Orpheus had shunned all love of womankind, whether because of his ill success in love, or whether he had given his troth once for all. Still, many women felt a passion for the bard; many grieved for their love repulsed. He set the example for the people of Thrace of giving his love to tender boys, and enjoying the springtime and first flower of their youth. | Tertius aequoreis inclusum Piscibus annum finierat Titan, omnemque refugerat Orpheus [80] femineam Venerem, seu quod male cesserat illi, sive fidem dederat; multas tamen ardor habebat iungere se vati, multae doluere repulsae. ille etiam Thracum populis fuit auctor amorem in teneros transferre mares citraque iuventam [85] aetatis breve ver et primos carpere flores. |
The grief-stricken Orpheus, in a grove with wild beasts and birds, raised his voice in this song:
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“From Jove, O Muse, my mother—for all things yield to the sway of Jove—inspire my song! Oft have I sung the power of Jove before; I have sung the giants in a heavier strain, and the victorious bolts hurled on the Phlegraean plains. But now I need the gentler touch, for I would sing of boys beloved by gods, and maidens inflamed by unnatural love and paying the penalty of their lust. The king of the gods once burned with love for Phrygian Ganymede, and something was found which Jove would rather be than what he was. Still he did not deign to take the form of any bird save only that which could bear his thunderbolts. Without delay he cleft the air on his lying wings and stole away the Trojan boy, who even now, though against the will of Juno, mingles the nectar and attends the cups of Jove. |
“ab Iove, Musa parens, (cedunt Iovis omnia regno,) carmina nostra move! Iovis est mihi saepe potestas [150] dicta prius: cecini plectro graviore Gigantas sparsaque Phlegraeis victricia fulmina campis. nunc opus est leviore lyra, puerosque canamus dilectos superis inconcessisque puellas ignibus attonitas meruisse libidine poenam. [155] “Rex superum Phrygii quondam Ganyme- dis amore arsit, et inventum est aliquid, quod Iuppiter esse, quam quod erat, mallet. nulla tamen alite verti dignatur, nisi quae posset sua fulmina ferre. nec mora, percusso mendacibus aere pennis [160] abripit Iliaden; qui nunc quoque pocula mis- cet invitaque Iovi nectar Iunone ministrat. |
In the following lines 162-219, Orpheus went on to sing of the metamorphosis of Hyakinthos, a boy loved by the god Apollo.
| While with such songs the bard of Thrace drew the trees, held beasts enthralled and constrained stones to follow him, behold, the crazed women of the Cicones, with skins flung over their breasts, saw Orpheus from a hill-top, fitting songs to the music of his lyre. Then one of these, her tresses streaming in the gentle breeze, cried out: “See, see the man who scorns us!” and hurled her spear straight at the tuneful mouth of Apollo’s bard. | Carmine dum tali silvas animosque ferarum Threicius vates et saxa sequentia ducit, ecce nurus Ciconum tectae lymphata ferinis pectora velleribus tumuli de vertice cernunt [5] Orphea percussis sociantem carmina nervis. e quibus una leves iactato crine per auras, “en,” ait “en, hic est nostri contemptor!” et hastam vatis Apollinei vocalia misit in ora, |
The crazed women then proceeded to stone Orpheus and tear him apart.
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