Everything I know I stole from Ovid, Part iii

[dragonzfaerie]

This week I've been translating the story of Procne and Pilomela.  These are two sisters.  One of which marries a neighboring king and then after several years of marriage asked for her sister to visit.  When the king goes to get the sister, he is struck by her beauty and rapes her.  Having raped her he cuts out her tongue so she can't tell anyone of his crime. 

Cutting out of the tongue, sound familiar?  Well, if not you can cheat by remembering that in the last part of this series I promised to talk about Titus Andronicus.  Titus' daughter, Lavinia, is raped and her tongue cut out.  But Shakespeare does not leave it there because his characters also can read and write.  So, he has her hands cut off as well. 

Neither victim is long hindered by the mutilation.  Philomela weaves a tapestry which depicts what happened and Lavinia uses a stick which she guides with his teeth to write the names of her attackers in the sand. 

Both are ultimately avenged by their families, which involves feeding children to an evil mother or father depending on the story.  

Initially, Philomela believes Tereus will kill her and welcomes death.  However, ultimately she, along with her sister, flees in the form of a bird from Tereus.  This is very different from Lavinia who is killed by her own father in order to preserve her chastity. 

 

Ovid's story is interested in the sisters revenging themselves on Tereus, while shakespeare takes it a step further. For his characters revenge is not enough. Shakespeare is interested in a return to a functioning society, the lack there of is what has allowed the rape in the first place. In the end everyone involved with the murder, betrayal or disruption of society is killed and people untainted by these events step forward to take their place.

Later: this story also crops up in Cymbeline in some very disturbing ways.