Desire and Rape in the Feminine: The Tales of Echo and Salmacis: An Ovidian Answer to Propertius 1.20?

Abstract

In this paper I offer a comprehensive study of two stories told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses 3 and 4, each about the meeting between a boy (Narcissus/Hermaphroditus) and a nymph (Echo/Salmacis), consumed with desire at first glance. In both passages Ovid uses a narrative pattern recurring in many erotic tales of the Metamorphoses with male and female protagonists: the sudden sight of an erotically attractive young individual, followed by violent desire, declaration of love in vain, and attempted rape. Since the 1964 study of Hugh Parry,1 violence and rape2 in Ovid’s Metamorphoses have received serious scholarly attention. In the United States there is an ongoing debate on whether and how it is even possible to teach Ovid today, since his vivid depictions of rape and sexual assaults may be offensive for some students.3 Although I will not discuss this particular issue, it seems important to keep in mind that Ovid is the ancient author most interested in examining erotic feelings and sexual situations from a female perspective. In my opinion, the two passages I compare typify Ovid’s personal, authorial choice to empathize with women’s point of view and behavior by giving literary space to a female voice.4 I would argue that Ovid has derived the idea of constructing two parallel stories about erotically desirous nymphs, Echo and Salmacis, from Propertius 1.20. In this text Propertius provides the exemplum of mythical Hylas’s rape to support advice given to his friend, Gallus, about Gallus’s beloved, also named Hylas: huic . . . / nympharum semper cupidas defende rapinas (Ward off from him the ever lustful abductions by nymphs, 7.11). In both narratives, Ovid refers, through a wide range of textual echoes, to various passages from Propertius 1.20. Propertius is only interested in the masculine point of view. He describes in detail the sexual advances of Boreas’s sons, Hylas’s fascination for his own image seen in the water, and Hercules’ despair after Hylas’s abduction. Only at the end, and very briefly, does Propertius mention the kidnapping of the boy by the lustful 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 S39 R40