I hope Artemis gave him a good strong talking to for this one.

[bedlamsbard]

It is amazing how strong my feeling of DO NOT WANT is when translating Daphne and Apollo. Dude, if a girl would rather turn into a tree than have sex with you, SHE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU. Don't continue to assault her AFTER SHE'S BEEN TURNED INTO A TREE. "If you can't be my wife, at least you'll be my tree!" isn't sweet, it's just creepy, you asshole.

It's a good life lesson in general! If a girl is running away from you, DON'T CHASE HER. Don't chase her and say things like, "Run more slowly, and I will follow you more slowly!" Or talk about how lovely her body is when her garments are pressed against it because she's running so fast! JUST DON'T CHASE GIRLS. And don't start trying to kiss her when she's a tree, dude, I doubt she's any more into you now.

Comments

[bedlamsbard]

I knooooooow. And I can talk about it in some detail, since it was also a recurring theme in the Faerie Queene, though I will give Ovid credit for problematizing it from time to time. Ugh, the creep factor is serously strong here, though.

We're translating parts of the Metamorphoses, yeah. Daphne and Apollo we actually did a few weeks ago, but it's on the review for the test today, so a revisit to the creep factor! We have a copy of the famous statue (whose artist I can't remember right now, whoops) in my house, and just...wrong. And creepy. And wrong.

[deathsblood.livejournal.com]

Bernini, perhaps?

How is it treated in the Faerie Queene? I've never read that..

But in other times, it's as simply as "he raped her", which at least acknowledges the lack of consent, but then the focus shifts on to something else (often Juno being angry, and lashing out at the raped woman). The copy I have has a preface to each separate book, with some commentary, and in one of them Europa's abduction is described as erotic, whereas I found it horrible. It was somehting along the lines of her looking back at the shore helplessly, or struggling.

[bedlamsbard]

*ponders* It's been a while since I reread; I think there's less rape in the Faerie Queene, but there's definitely the use of transformation as punishment or whatever, and there's the innate knowledge of what similar situations would result in in the Metamorphoses.