Home Classical, Ancient Near Eastern & Egyptian Studies Ovid’s ‘Good’ Women: The Cypriot Exemplum Against the Background of the Statue (R)evolution
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Ovid’s ‘Good’ Women: The Cypriot Exemplum Against the Background of the Statue (R)evolution

Become an author with De Gruyter Brill
Explore this Subject How to publish with us
The Reception of Ancient Cyprus in Western Culture
This chapter is in the book The Reception of Ancient Cyprus in Western Culture

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the mythological account of Cypriot Pygmalion and his statue, to investigate the literary evolution of the myth in British literary works, and to present the role of the statue motif in the literary representation of the female exemplum. Section I sheds light on the petrification motif in Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 10, in order to identify the narrative correspondences between the Cypriot myths delivered by Orpheus in the Underworld. Sections II and III examine the reprise of Pygmalion’s myth in English Later Medieval and Renaissance literature and, in particular, in the works of Gower, Caxton, Pettie, Marston and Morris, to identify the religious and socio-cultural shifts in the statue’s undergone transformation. Section IV discusses the adaption of the Ovidian myth into a modern setting in Carol Ann Duffy’s “Pygmalion’s Bride”, a poem which acts as a literary response to the statue’s timeless submission to gender stereotypes. This study is completed with a re-investigation of Pygmalion’s account in the Metamorphoses, to shed light on the intersection of Ovidian sexuality and geography as one that coincides with the historical annexation of the Cypriot landscape.

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the mythological account of Cypriot Pygmalion and his statue, to investigate the literary evolution of the myth in British literary works, and to present the role of the statue motif in the literary representation of the female exemplum. Section I sheds light on the petrification motif in Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 10, in order to identify the narrative correspondences between the Cypriot myths delivered by Orpheus in the Underworld. Sections II and III examine the reprise of Pygmalion’s myth in English Later Medieval and Renaissance literature and, in particular, in the works of Gower, Caxton, Pettie, Marston and Morris, to identify the religious and socio-cultural shifts in the statue’s undergone transformation. Section IV discusses the adaption of the Ovidian myth into a modern setting in Carol Ann Duffy’s “Pygmalion’s Bride”, a poem which acts as a literary response to the statue’s timeless submission to gender stereotypes. This study is completed with a re-investigation of Pygmalion’s account in the Metamorphoses, to shed light on the intersection of Ovidian sexuality and geography as one that coincides with the historical annexation of the Cypriot landscape.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface and Acknowledgements V
  3. Contents VII
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I: Cyprus in Latin Literature
  6. Cyprus and its Myths on the Roman Stage 13
  7. Venus on Cyprus: Interlinked Lists of Aphrodite’s Cypriot Sanctuaries in Latin Poetry 33
  8. Idalion, Satrachus and the Annales of Volusius: The Reception of Cyprus in the Carmina Catulli 51
  9. Nil desperandum …. cras ingens iterabimus aequor (Hor. Carm. 1.7): The Foundation of Salamis by a Bastard Archer as an Exemplum in Latin Literature 65
  10. Balance and Excess in Ovid’s Pygmalion Story 87
  11. Was Cyprus Special? The Case of Two Latin Poets 103
  12. Infamem nimio calore Cypron: Ancient Epigrams on Flacci in Cyprus 111
  13. The Digression on Cyprus in Claudian’s Epithalamium de nuptiis Honorii et Mariae 131
  14. Part II: Cyprus after Antiquity
  15. Venus and Adonis from Enheduanna to Shakespeare: The Significance of Ovid’s Cypriot Metamorphoses 153
  16. Pilgrims, Merchants and Lovers: The Island of Cyprus in Boccaccio’s Decameron (via Ovid’s Metamorphoses) 175
  17. Venus of Paphos in the Latin Poetry of the Quattrocento 201
  18. Ovid’s ‘Good’ Women: The Cypriot Exemplum Against the Background of the Statue (R)evolution 221
  19. Osmosis between High Genres: Ovid’s Tragic Formation of Myrrha’s Tale (Met. 10.298–502) and its Reception in Alfieri’s Homonymous Tragedy 249
  20. Travel, Classical Traditions and Empire: Western Travellers to Cyprus in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries 265
  21. List of Contributors 289
  22. General Index 293
  23. Index Locorum 299
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110984309-013

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface and Acknowledgements V
  3. Contents VII
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I: Cyprus in Latin Literature
  6. Cyprus and its Myths on the Roman Stage 13
  7. Venus on Cyprus: Interlinked Lists of Aphrodite’s Cypriot Sanctuaries in Latin Poetry 33
  8. Idalion, Satrachus and the Annales of Volusius: The Reception of Cyprus in the Carmina Catulli 51
  9. Nil desperandum …. cras ingens iterabimus aequor (Hor. Carm. 1.7): The Foundation of Salamis by a Bastard Archer as an Exemplum in Latin Literature 65
  10. Balance and Excess in Ovid’s Pygmalion Story 87
  11. Was Cyprus Special? The Case of Two Latin Poets 103
  12. Infamem nimio calore Cypron: Ancient Epigrams on Flacci in Cyprus 111
  13. The Digression on Cyprus in Claudian’s Epithalamium de nuptiis Honorii et Mariae 131
  14. Part II: Cyprus after Antiquity
  15. Venus and Adonis from Enheduanna to Shakespeare: The Significance of Ovid’s Cypriot Metamorphoses 153
  16. Pilgrims, Merchants and Lovers: The Island of Cyprus in Boccaccio’s Decameron (via Ovid’s Metamorphoses) 175
  17. Venus of Paphos in the Latin Poetry of the Quattrocento 201
  18. Ovid’s ‘Good’ Women: The Cypriot Exemplum Against the Background of the Statue (R)evolution 221
  19. Osmosis between High Genres: Ovid’s Tragic Formation of Myrrha’s Tale (Met. 10.298–502) and its Reception in Alfieri’s Homonymous Tragedy 249
  20. Travel, Classical Traditions and Empire: Western Travellers to Cyprus in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries 265
  21. List of Contributors 289
  22. General Index 293
  23. Index Locorum 299
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 13.11.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110984309-013/html?lang=en&srsltid=AfmBOoodlNoU84SfYMApUZwrfmTZnmYj3xoPzGb4MkQXAy2aI76slbqO
Scroll to top button