How did roman authors change monsters from Greek myth?

Polyphemus

Theocritus, Idyll 11.30-53

Shows unrequited love “pretty maid, why you avoid me like this” feelings
of sympathy and pity as polyphemus is shown to be more humane,
possessing feels we are familiar with. He seems more thoughtful and
considerate as he talks about taking care of her “spend a pleasant night
with me in my cave: laurels and slender cypresses, dark ivy, sweet fruited
vines.” He tries to paint a romantic image of the both of them which
makes him more gentle. There is more character depth, in comparison to
his depiction in the odyssey.

Comedic too – as he is comparing his domestic world to hers – two

different spheres that cannot be compared – she can never understand his
sphere and his hers – “logs and fire” are in direct contrast to her world in
the sea. “eleven fawns” are not particularly romantic, neither is “dear
sweet apple” a compliment. The romantic nature of the poem is in tension
with his domestic lifestyle. He appears uneducated in poetry, as he lacks
the correct terminology.

“burn my soul too, and my eye,” foreshadowing of his eye being burnt out
later in the odyssey when Odysseus blinded by using a heated rod – they
doing by getting him drunk foreshadowing with the “ambrosial drink”

Cicero, tusculan disputations 5.115

Acknowledges that Homer portrays Polyphemus as a “savage monster”

and suggests that the “cyclops himself had no more sense than the ram”
which shows that the romans fully understood homers portrayal of
polyphemus.

Oddyssey – Polyphemus asks the ram why is so slow, suggesting he is

completely blind to Odysseus plans, which is humorous in the fact that he
is actually blind. His inability to stop Odysseus from escaping, despite his
physical strength suggests that he lacks human skills such as cunning and
intelligence, and is therefore likened more closely to an animal. The
humour that comes with this scene separates him further from human
nature, as he is unable to understand what is obvious to the reader.
Homer odyssey 9.216-223

Domestic scene of polyphemus – “flat baskets laden with cheeses” “pens

filled with lamps” “well made dairy vessels”

He seems accomplished at being a Sheppard, and does not seem to be

aggressive at this point. There are many animals, however no sign of any
human life. Polyphemus seems isolated, and the fact that his main social
interaction Is between his animals, suggests that he is more primitive, as
a result of this absence from a civilised society.

Odyssey 9.269-295

“we care for none of the gods I heaven, being much stronger ourselves
than they are.” - Polyphemus ignores important customs such as xenia,
hospitality, which Zeus himself believed was important to uphold. He is
also arrogant, as he believes his physical strength is enough that he needs
not to respect the gods, which is his hubris, and leads to his downfall. As a
result, his fate can be seen as a cautionary tale showing the importance of
respecting divine law.

“battered them on the floor like puppies; their brains gushed out and
soaked the ground.” Shows Polyphemus violence, which comes with ease
against Odysseus men, who made to look weak and feeble in comparison.
He appears completely monstrous and villainous, with no sympathy given
to him.

Ovid met 13

“While I pursued him with a constant love, the cyclops followed me as

constantly. And, should you ask me, I could not declare whether my hatred
of him, or my love of Acis was the stronger.”

“you have even combed your stiffened hair with rakes. It pleases you, to
trim your shaggy beard with sickles”
“Love of flesh, ferocity and your keen thirst for blood have ceased.”

“he made fun of Telemus, who warned him vainly of the truth.” – refers to
oddyseus making him blind in the odyssey. Here, Polyphemus is shown to
be just as arrogant and ignorant as he is in the odyssey: he is unable to
see the truth in Telemus’ warning, portraying his ignorance, similar to how
he is easily tricked in the odyssey. The laughing in Telemus’ face is a
parallel between him laughing at the idea of respecting the gods.

“giant savage”

“he played his shepherds pipes”

“fairer than the flower of snow white privet…..softer than soft swan down
and the softest curdled milk”

“that you are wilder than all untrained bullocks”

“Not even jove in his high heaven is larger than my body; this I say
because you tell me how imperial jove surpasses. – who is he? I never
knew.”

“My long hair plentifully hangs to hide

unpleasant features; as a grove of trees
overshadowing my shoulders. Never think
my body is uncomely, although rough,
thick set with wiry bristles. Every tree
without leaves is unseemly; every horse,
unless a mane hangs on his tawny neck;
feathers must cover birds; and their soft wool
is ornamental on the best formed sheep:
therefore a beard, and rough hair spread upon
the body is becoming to all men.
I have but one eye centered perfectly
within my forehead, so it seems most like
a mighty buckler. Ha! does not the Sun
see everything from heaven? Yet it has
but one eye.”

“I, who despise the power of jove”

‘If I am given an opportunity
he will be shown that I have every strength
proportioned to a body vast as mine:
I will pull out his palpitating entrails,
and scatter his torn limbs about the fields
and over and throughout your salty waves;
and then let him unite himself to you.

Virgils Aenid 3.651-683

“A monster, grisly, misshapen, titanic, his eye gone.”

“He washed the socket of his eye, which oozed blood, with sea-
water,

Gritting his teeth and groaning”

- Parallels the story of how he lost he eye in Odyssey.

- Disturbing and grotesque nature maintains the idea that he is
completely monstrous and disturbing

“Yet even there the water did not come up to his waist.”

- He is huge in size, which resembles the description of himself in the

odyssey.

“swarmed upon the beach…..with baleful eyes and their sky-scraping

heads.”

Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror (trans. Roudiez 1992)

“… It is thus not lack of cleanliness or health that causes abjection but
what disturbs identity, system, order. What does not respect borders,
positions, rules. The in-between, the ambiguous, the composite”

This other category is adjected due to its ability not to conform or respect
societal laws and order. Monsters in myth that are depicted as unlawful
and immoral are isolated from a civilised community as a result.
Physically, these monsters defy order, as they do not conform to typical
understanding of being human or being an animal.

Polyphemus is presented as being isolated from society, which explains

his regard for the civilised customs. The masculinity that he exhibits is so
extreme, that he defies characterisation, and his unnatural features, such
as his one eye, emphasis him further as this other being. Polyphemus as
an isolated and other is present in roman sources, and are the reason for
his violent and unlawful behaviour.

Scylla

Barbara Creed, The Monstrous-Feminine: Film

Superficial and deceptive, while hiding their true monstrous nature

underneath. Their superficiality is usually made by an image of a
stereotypical beautiful women, or a nurturing figure, such as a mother.
Female monsters in films have been depicted as vampires (the hunger
1983), witches (carrie 1976), woman as non-human animal (cat people,
1942).

Images of the fear of the female womb: woman as monstrous womb (the
brood, 1979) – gives birth to loads of monstrous children

Images of repressed emotions/desires: the castrating mother (psycho,

1960), woman as bleeding womb (dressed to kill, 1980) – both about men
pretending to be woman, while they are in their female state they are
murderous.

Freud

“To decapitate = to castrate.”

- Freud suggests that medusa’s depiction is a parallel to the male fear

of castration. The many snakes on medusa’s head are suggested to
 represent male genitilea, which embodies the fear of castration. Her
decapitated head, emphasising this fear further.
- Scylla’s own portrayal is shown to be similar, as the canine dogs
protrude from her womb, embodying the male genitlea, and thus
the fear of castration. The multitude of dogs is similar to the many
snakes of medusa’s head, which draws further parallels to this fear.

“medusa’s head makes the spectator stiff with terror”

- The transformation to stone can be seen as a reassurance that the

man has not been castrated.

Thomson Philip, The grotesque (London 1972)

Phillip described one popular view of the grotesque as “Of the

interweaving of totally disparate elements, producing a strange and often
unpleasant conflict of emotions.”

The roman depiction of Scylla reflects this view point, as her beautiful
upper half exists with her monstrous lower half. The human combined with
the animalistic. The combination of these two elements, which are viewed
as completely separate, create a disturbing and unnatural image. Scylla’s
beauty presents her as dangerous in the sense that she is tempting and
seducing, and combined with her monstrous lower half, can make her
appear even more fearful.

Bagehot view (1864) – grotesque as negative, which is in opposition with

the “beautiful and sublime.”

Scylla in the Odyssey is shown to reflect this view as the animalistic and
dangerous aspects of her are embodied completely.

Polyphemus and Cachus grotesque nature is presented negatively

through their exaggerated male characteristics, which is in opposition with
the desirous characteristics of masculinity.

Ruskin (1851-3) – defines true grotesque as relating to “the realisation of

mans tragic and imperfect nature” . False grotesque as “wilful frivolity”.

Frankenstein’s monster as grotesque – containing the moralistic tragedy

which elevates the monster from false grotesque to true grotesque.
Frankenstein’s monster begins monstrous in the sense that he is ugly, but
becomes truly monstrous when he is unable to commit to being good,
which he initially starts off as. Ovids Polyphemus is similar, as he too is
hideous to look at, but tried to abstain from violent behaviour, but in the
end, he too eventually fails, becoming truly grotesque. While the Greek
Polyphemus does not have this tragic personality, and according to Ruskin
would not be part of the “true grotesque”.

Georges Bataille, “formless” (1929)

The formless “serves to bring things down in the world, generally

requiring that each thing have its form.”

Similar to Kristeva’s point about the disturbance of identity and system,

the formless goes against the desire that everything should have a
particular form.

Scylla is isolated from society, and defies logic and order by being a
hybrid being, which contributes to her monstrous nature, which is an
explanation for her unnatural and uncivilised behaviour, and she herself is
unnatural and uncivilised. Her human upper half combined with her
monstrous lower half, serve to emphasise that she can’t be categorised,
which highlights her threatening nature.

Scylla further

Horace, Ars Poetica (trans. Kline) 1-9:

There is a natural form to a text, anything that didn’t fit this natural form,
and wasn’t harmonious would be ridiculous. He uses the example of the
human head on a horses neck, to show how this would be ridiculous to
look at, as it doesn’t portray a natural form.

“could you stifle laughter, my friends?”

“That neither its head nor foot could be related to a unified form.”

Horace Is suggesting that the painting was supposed to be beautiful, but

you would be laughing because you had found it ridiculous. The hybridity
which is ridiculous to horrors, and thus inappropriate.
Hybridity combines something positive with something negative to create
an unnatural form. Hybrid woman bring out the worst in feminity,
suggests there is a mistrust in feminity and women’s roles, embodying a
paranoid fear of what is imagined to be the feminine.

Anne Carson, “putting her in her place: Woman, dirt, and desire” (1990),
page 154:

“In myth, woman’s boundaries are plaint, porous, mutable. Her power to
control them is inadequate, her concern for them unreliable. Deformation
attends her. She swells, she shrinks, she leaks, she is penetrated, she
suffers metamorphoses. The women of mythology regularly lose their
form in monstrosity.”

Widespread prejudice that women are materially different, relating to the

hippocractic texts, which led to this metamorphic portrayal of woman
within Greek myth, which is shown to carry on through to roman literature.

Ann Hanson “The medical writers’ woman” (1990) page 317;

“fluids exit from the body of the mature woman in quantity far greater
than they do from the body of a man: she menstruates, she produces
lochial fluid and milk… the greater sponginess of her mature flesh enables
her to store blood and other fluids as they await use or evacuation. “

She suggests that there is a medical understanding that women’s bodies

were more liquid than men, as they released more fluids suggesting that
woman were materially different. This idea parallels to the depiction of
woman in classical mythology, suggests that medicine was influenced by
this portrayal through their own ingrained beliefs. This medical belief is
classical Greek, not roman, but the similar portrayal of roman female
monsters suggest that prejudice continued.

Scylla wielding sword boetian red figure bell-crater 450-425 bc

Scylla accompanying zeus’ abduction of Europa red figure calyx crater
circa 340 bc getty museum

Two tailed Scylla wielding a rudder inscription commander of the fleet and
shore by decree of the senate denarius of sextus pompeius 38-37 bc

Homer, odyssey (book 12) (Hom. Od. 12.)

“Therein dwells Scylla, yelping terribly.” (85) - dog like quality

“she herself is an evil monster, nor would anyone be glad at the sight of
her.” (85) - completely monstrous, with no feminine beauty.

“she has twelve feet, all misshapen,2 [90] and six necks, exceeding long,
and on each one an awful head, and therein three rows of teeth, thick and
close, and full of black death.”

“ Scylla seized from out the hollow ship six of my comrades who were the
best in strength and in might.” (245) – considerably powerful and strong,
to have easily taken the strongest of Odysseus’ men in one go.

- She is portrayed as an obstacle, a part of Odysseus hardship,

character development and story.
- Reflects Greek fears of the unknown, and the inevitable hardships of
life, and loss
- Her monstrosity is extreme, which portrays the worst of humanity.

Ovid, metamorphosis (book 13-14)

13

“Scylla's dark waist is girt with savage dogs.

She has a maiden's face.”

“she was in olden time

a maiden. Many suitors courted her,
but she repulsed them;”
14

“Scylla came there and waded in waist deep,

then saw her loins defiled with barking shapes.
Believing they could be no part of her,
she ran and tried to drive them back and feared
the boisterous canine jaws. But what she fled
she carried with her. And, feeling for her thighs,
her legs, and feet, she found Cerberian jaws
instead. She rises from a rage of dogs,
and shaggy backs encircle her shortened loins.”

“But Scylla did not leave

the place of her disaster; and, as soon
as she had opportunity, for hate
of Circe, she robbed Ulysses of his men.
She would have wrecked the Trojan ships, if she
had not been changed beforehand to a rock
which to this day reveals a craggy rim.”

There is more focus on revenge, jealousy, love and passion. More human
and personal struggles, rather than her monstrous nature. Her attack on
Odysseus in Metamorphosis becomes a part of her revenge at Circe,
rather than as an obstacle for Odysseus. Scylla undergoes a tragic
metamorphosis. This became more popular, for example the portrayal of
medusa in the theogony vs in Ovid’s metamorphoses.

Virgil, Aenid (book 3) 374

“shapeless Scylla in her vaulted cave,

where grim rocks echo her dark sea-dogs' roar.”

“the parts that first be seen

are human; a fair-breasted virgin she,
down to the womb; but all that lurks below
is a huge-membered fish, where strangely join
the flukes of dolphins and the paunch of wolves.”
“Then take the leftward way…far from that billowy coast, the opposing
side….”

Minotaur

Theseus and the minotaur – red figure attic pelike from Cerveteri in taly,
480 – 460 BC

Minotaur – acting humanly as he stretches his hound, almost asking for

mercy

Theseus is grabbing the horn, like he is sacrificing a bull to the gods

Theseus stands tall above the minotaur

Theseus executes the minotaur – attic red figure stamnos circa 500-450 bc

Theseus is got his foot on top of the minotaur – more human like nature of
killing

He is grabbing his throat like the execution of an animal

Theseus is wearing clothes while the minotaur is not – more animalistic

Roman paintings

Mosaic copies from Pompeii of a lost painting of Theseus wrestling the

minotaur

More like a wrestling match, they are wearing no clothes, and more
entwined with each other, they are the same height – like sports men
would wrestle

He appears more human like in this way, as he is partaking in this human

combat form

Skulls on the ground, make it more animalistic

Spectators onlooking the wrestle, including woman and children, while

Greeks had a more isolated portrayal (in the labyrinth) – the onlookers
make it appear more like a game or a match, a battle that is done for
sport.

Virgil, Aeneid (trans. Day Lewis) 6.20-41

“Here’s the insouluble maze contrasted by Daedalus; Yet, sympathising

with Ariadne in her great passion, He gives her himself the clue to the
maze’s deceptive windings, and guides with a thread the blind steps of
Theseus.” – this version it is Daedalus idea to help Theseus, rather than
Ariadne ideas. There a greater theme of passion and heart ache.

“if his father’s

Grief had allowed.”

“also the legend

Of how the Athenians, poor souls, were forced to pay yearly tribute

With seven of their sons.”

Sympathy towards the Athenians, presenting Minos as cruel.

There is no scene of Theseus fighting the minotaur, and instead there is a

description of pasiphae actions, ariadne’s passion for Theseus, and
Daedalus grief at loosing his son Icarus. The human side and emotional
side of the story take more prominence in this roman source, rather than
the focus on the supernatural hybrid nature of the minotaur.

The minotaur is a myth that explores the dynamics of relationships. This is

the reason why woman become more prominent in roman sources, such
as Ariadne importance, Pasiphae’s shame and that the onlookers within
roman art. The humanisation of the Minotaur within Roman art is
purposefully done to bring out and explore human relationship dynamics.

Ovid, Ars Amatoria (trans. Green) 1.294-304 – Pasiphae’s love for the bull

“Pasiphae proudly rejoiced in her role as bull’s mistress, eyed his cows
with envious hate.”
“plucked leaves and lush grass”

“unrestrained by concern for her husband”

“why dress richly, Pasiphae? Your lovers blind to your wealth.” - comical
treatment of this love, as she is behaving as this bull is a person. Ovid
explores the idea of intense passion and human emotion, presenting her
passion as extreme through the comedic aspect of how unnatural this
situation is.

Ovid, Heroides 4 – Phaedra to Hippolytus (trans. Isbell) 55- 64

Exploring the emotional state of the characters

Phaedra describes how her family tree are overwhelm by passions, and
that when you are taken by passion, you just have to go with it.

“It is our common fate that one house took us—

Your great beauty has conquered my heart.”

Ovid heriodes 10 – Ariadne to Theseus (trans. Isbell) 99-110

Describes her heartbreak at Theseus, and showing the focus emotional

hardships. There is a more critical analysis of Theseus, rather than his
portrayal as a hero.

“Even his great horns could not have pierced

your iron heart.”

“Your flesh displayed the hardness of flint

and the toughness of fine steel, there you displayed

a Theseus harder than anything.”

Ovid metamorphoses (trans. Raeburn) 8.136-137

Suggesting that Theseus is worst the minotaur, expressing extreme hate –

the hybrid creature is used as a tool to show extreme emotion, by
comparing his hideous and features and violent nature with that of a
human.
 “Now no wonder at all that Pasíphaë worshipped her bull-mate

More than she worshipped you, as you were the beastlier creature.”

Ovid, Metamorphoses (trans. Raeburn) 8.152-176

“Here Minos confined his monster son, half man, half bull,

and fed him twice on the blood of Athenian youths and maidens,

chosen by lot as tribute exacted at nine-year intervals.”

- Reflects pasiphaes shame by detaiing the hybrid nature of the

minotaur which is unautural and monstrous, inevitably leading to
death
- Labrynth is a way to conceal pasiphaes shame

“rewinding the thread she gave him. He found the elusive entrance which
none had regained before him.”

“He carried the princess off

and sailed to Naxos, but there on the shore he cruelly abandoned

his loving companion.”

- Themes of betrayal and heartbreak which is empahsised in the fact

that Ariadne is a pivotal figure in the success of Theseus

Apollodorus, Bibliotheca

Includes a summary of the minotaur story

“But angry at him for not sacrificing the bull, Poseidon made the animal
savage, and contrived that Pasiphae should conceive a passion for it.”
(Apollod. 3.1.4)

- Pasiphae is punished for minos’ crimes, and is subject to Poseidon’s

wrath. She is presented as having no control over passions.

“He had the face of a bull, but the rest of him was human; and Minos, in
compliance with certain oracles, shut him up and guarded him in the
Labyrinth. Now the Labyrinth which Daedalus constructed was a chamber
“ that with its tangled windings perplexed the outward way.” (3.1.4)

“When the war lingered on and he could not take Athens, he prayed to
Zeus that he might be avenged on the Athenians. And the city being
visited with a famine and a pestilence.” (Apollod. 3.15.8)

- Zeus is used as a turning point in the story, showing the importance

of divine law

But when this was of no avail, they inquired of the oracle how they could
be delivered; and the god answered them that they should give Minos
whatever satisfaction he might choose. So they sent to Minos and left it to
him to claim satisfaction. And Minos ordered them to send seven youths
and the same number of damsels without weapons to be fodder for the
Minotaur.4 Now the Minotaur was confined in a labyrinth, in which he who
entered could not find his way out; for many a winding turn shut off the
secret outward way. (Apollod. 3. 15 .8)

“Ariadne, daughter of Minos, being amorously disposed to him, offered to

help him if he would agree to carry her away to Athens and have her to
wife.” (Apollos. Epit. E. 1.8)

“And having found the Minotaur in the last part of the labyrinth, he killed
him by smiting him with his fists.” (Apollod. Epit. E.1.9)

Contains a brief description of Theseus battle with the minotaur.

Plutarch, life of theseus – different interprations and rationalisms, that arnt

compatible with the myth in poetic sources. But they try and make
Theseus into a historical character fighting against a man, taurus, instead
of the minotaur.

(15) “The most dramatic account of Theseus confronting the tribute

situation with Minos is that the 14 young people were destroyed by the
Minotaur in the Labrynth, or else wandered about and died because they
were unable to find an exit, and that the minotaur was, in Euripides words
a “hybrid monster of human and bull conjoined”

Contains the hybridity of the monster, and a destructive nature that

needs to be defeated by a hero.

(16) “Philochorus says that the Cretans said the Labrynth was an ordinary
dungeon and that the Athenian youth were given prizes and funeral
games commemorating Androgeos, at which Minos’ general tauros won
the first year and mistreated the Athenians as slaves.”

Mythology is redacted, suggesting that tauros or the minotaur was a cruel

general.

(16)“Homer and Hesiod praised Minos but the tragedians have won out
with their criticisms of him as cruel and violent.”

Suggests that early accounts focused on the heroic aspect of defeating a

beast, but later this evolved into more complex dynamics.

(17) “Hellanicus says that Minos used to hand pick the young people and
that they had to sail unarmed, and if the minotaur was killed the tradition
would stop.”

Reflects a cruel depiction of what Minos was like.

(19)“Most people write and sing that Theseus was helped by Ariadne to
make his way through the windings of the labrynth, killed the minotaur
and sailed away with Ariadne and the youths. Philochorus says that
Theseus conquered all his opponents in the games, including disgracing
Taurus at wrestling, and won minos’ favour. Cleidemus says Theseus beat
Minos’ army at the gate of the labyrinth.”

The idea that Ariadne helped theseus is present in many versions,

however her emotions are explored more thoroughly in roman sources.

Philocorus presents the idea of two men wrestling, which appeared in

roman art, for power, excellence, favour and recognition, rather than just
a good vs evil set up.
Euripides hoppolotus – pasiphae is presented as not being in control of
her lust, in the same way that Phaedra fights her uncontrollable lust.
Shows the power of the gods and the punioshments they are capable and
presents both of them as subject to the gods divine punishment,
suggesting they are victims to it.

Vases – minotaur

Theseus and the Minotaur: red-figure Attic pelike from Cerveteri in Italy,
480-460 BC
Theseus executes the Minotaur

Attic red-figure stamnos circa 500 - 450 BC

Two mosaic copies from Pompeii of a lost painting of Theseus wrestling the
Minotaur

(note background, spectators, human remains)