RED AND WHITE IN OVID'S METAMORPHOSES: THE

MULBERRY TREE IN THE TALE OF PYRAMUS AND THlSBE

?Catherine Campbell Rhorer
Throughout the Metamorphoses Ovid draws special attention to the col-
ors red and white. Red (rubor, rutilus, rubesco, puniceus, purpureus, 'red'
or 'purple') is, of course, the color of blood,' of a blush,' of ripening fruit,3
Tyrean dye,4 and the sky at dawn.' White is the color of marble,6 ivory,'
lilies,' and the sky at noon.g If we examine this pair in erotic contexts,
however, we will find that white is associated with innocence and chastity,
with the frigid absence of sexual feeling and with emotional and physical
death. Red is associated with pudor, that sense of shame that afflicts the in-
nocent whose eyes have just been opened to erotic reality, and with the heat
of violence, both the violence of feeling (furor) and the violence of rape.
Perhaps one of the most familiar examples of this color contrast and its
erotic associations occurs in the story of Pygmalion and his ivory maiden, in
Book X. Ovid is emphatic that the statue is ivory (X.247-48: niveum . . .
ebur, 'snowy ivory'; 255: ebur, twice) and that the ivory is white. Her ivory
flesh, however, is so lifelike that the sculptor fears she will bruise. He
dresses her like a real woman, adorns her with countless gifts, and makes
her recline on a couch covered with red-dyed spreads (X.267: conlocat hanc
stratis concha Sidonide tinctis). Here the red coverlets must reflect not only
the value of the gifts, but also the heat of Pygmalion's own growing and
only half-admitted passion (X.252-53: miratur et haurit/pectore Pygmalion
sirnulati corporis ignes, 'Pygmalion marvels and in his breast drinks in fires
for the imitation body'). When the statue does finally begin to come to life,
the first sign is the appearance of warmth (X.281: visa tepere est, 'she seem-
ed to grow warm'; X.284-85: ut Hymettiasole/cera remollescit, 'as Hymet-
tian wax softens in the sun'), next the pulse of blood in her veins (X.289:
saliunt temptatae venae, 'the veins, tested, jump'). He kisses her and she
awakens: sensit et embuit ('she felt them and blushed', X.293). The two
verbs go together as naturally as the more common vidit et incaluit ('he saw
and grew hot'), the experience of the more aggressive partner in such
affairs. After her arousal to life, particularly to sexual life, the maiden is
rapidly married and gives birth. With the first blush comes her full
awareness as a sexual being.
The experience of Narcissus in Book 111 is quite similar. When first he
sees his reflection in the cold, silver pond (111.407: nitidis argenteus undk,
'silver with its shining waters'; 412: silvaque sole locum passura tepescere
nullo, 'and a thicket which let no sun warm the place') he is transfixed by
his own beauty: haeret ut e Pario formatum marmore signum ('he stays
there like a statue made of Parian marble', 111.419). Almost immediately,
however, his marble whiteness is infused with color, and he admires not
only the smooth paleness of his neck, eburnea colla ('ivory neck', 111.4221,
but also the gentle blush of his skin: et in niveo mixtum candore ruborem
79

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Tulane University Libraries, on 11 Dec 2018 at 14:16:45, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0048671X00040029
 CATHERINE CAMPBELL RHORER

('and redness mingled with snowy white', 111.423). From a cold and unfeel-
ing statue who, Ovid has told us, spurned all lovers, he has become a living
and hotly passionate boy (111.430: uritur, 'he burns'; 464: uror amore mei,
flammas moveoque feroque! 'I burn with love of myself, I inflame and am
inflamed!'). We see him as the first blush of feeling steals over his ivory
complexion, just as we saw Pygmalion's statue come to life.
Later, when he has discovered his disastrous error and grieves for his
unattainable love, he beats his breast with marble palms (111.481: mar-
moreis percussit pectora palmis) and his flesh takes on a rosy hue:
pectora traxerunt roseum percussa ruborem,
non aliter quam poma solent, quae candida parte,
parte rubent, aut ut variis solet uva racemis
ducere purpureum nondum matura colorem.
(111.482-85)
His breast, when struck, took on a rosy flush,
As apples often do, which white in part,
In part are red, or as grapes not yet ripe
In speckled clusters, acquire a purplish tint.
Narcissus has offered this demonstration of his grief after describing his
mirrored image as food for his passion (111.479: misero praebere alimenta
furori, 'to nourish wretched madness'), and just so, the more he feels, the
more he blushes, like fruit ripening in the warmth of the sun.'' But as soon
as he sees his own image growing rosy and ripe, he can endure his passion
no longer, and begins to melt away like wax or frost:
non tulit ulterius, sed, ut intabescere flavae
igne levi cerae, matutinaeque pruinae
sole tepente solent, sic adtenuatus amore
liquitur et tecto paulatim carpitur igni.
(111.487-90)

He could bear it no longer, but as yellow wax melts

In mild heat, or like the morning frost
In warm sun, reduced by love he wastes
And bit by bit is worn away by unseen fire.
He loses first of all the color that had indicated his coming to life: et neque
iam color est mixto candore rubori ('no longer has he the color of red and
whiteness mixed', 111.491). He dies but his unrequited love survives. Nar-
cissus himself spends the rest of eternity gazing at his reflection in a pool of
the Underworld, and on earth, in the place where he first encountered the
power of love, a yellow flower springs up in the midst of pale leaves:
croceum pro corpore florem/inveniunt foliis medium cingentibus albis
(111.509-10). Saffron-yellow, like red, is a color connected by Ovid with

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Tulane University Libraries, on 11 Dec 2018 at 14:16:45, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0048671X00040029
 RED AND WHITE IN OVID'S METAMORPHOSES

the dawn (111. ISO), and it is traditionally associated with the Roman wed-
ding." Furthermore, croceus is, elsewhere in Ovid, a synonym for the color
red in general.'' Even as a flower, Narcissus remains an image of innocence
brushed with the fire of passion."
Hermaphroditus is a similar figure, whose first encounter with passion in
the person of Salmacis is also described in terms of the contrast of red and
white:
pueri rubor ora notavit-
nescit enim quid amor-, sed et erubuisse decebat.
hic color aprica pendentibus arbore pomis
aut ebori tincto est, aut sub candore rubenti,
cum frustra resonant aera auxiliaria, lunae.
(IV. 329-33)

A redness marked the boy's face;

For he knew nothing of love; but the blush enhanced his
features,
Apples hanging on a sunny tree have that color,
And stained ivory, or the moon red under its pallor
When bronze instruments clang in vain to bring her aid.

The image of tinted ivory, like Narcissus' marble hands and ivory neck, like
Pygmali6n's ivory statue, suggests Hermaphroditus' innocence, here made
explicit: nescit enim quid amor ('for he knew nothing of love'). But the
ivory is dyed, and the other points of the simile, the ripening fruit, the
eclipsed moon being summoned back to life by the cymbals, suggest his
latent and awakening sexuality. The emphasis, however, remains on his re-
jection of passion, as Salmacis reaches out to clasp his ivory neck, eburnea
colla (IV.335). When Hermaphroditus sheds his clothes, she becomes still
more inflamed and her eyes, like the pool itself, gleam with the sun's heat
(IV.347-49). Hermaphroditus remains cool and white: ut eburnea si quid
signa tegat claro vel candida lilia vitro ('as if someone were covering ivory
statues or white lilies with clear glass', IV.354-55). Here that whiteness
seems still more frozen in its glasslike covering of water. Though Ovid does
not again refer to color in the tale, its final word (IV.388) is tinxit ('dyed').
As the blushing Hermaphroditus resembled dyed ivory, so his incorporation
with Salmacis, his brutal discovery of sexual passion, has been like being
dipped in the dye of what Ovid calls (IV.388) incestum medicamen, 'an
unchaste potency '.
A third parallel figure is Atalanta in Book X. She too, as an unawakened
virgin, has an ivory complexion: tergaque iactantur crinesper eburnea ('her
hair is tossed over her ivory back', X.592). Under the admiring gaze of Hip-
pomenes, however, she blushes:

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Tulane University Libraries, on 11 Dec 2018 at 14:16:45, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0048671X00040029
 CATHERINE CAMPBELL RHORER

inque puellari corpus candore ruborem

traxerat, haud aliter, quam cum super atria velum
candida purpureum simulatas inficit umbras.
(X .5 94-96)
And the girlish whiteness of her body reddened,
Just as when a purple curtain across a white hall
Discolors it with simulated shadows.
The association of the chaste blush with shadows is particularly striking.
Ovid elsewhere frequently associates pudor with shade, twilight or
darkness.14 Here, Atalanta's blush is the first sign of her awakening pas-
sion, the first symptom of pudor in the face of her unconscious love: ig-
norans amat et non sentit amorem ('unaware, she loves and does not under-
stand her love', X.637).
These general observations about the contrast of red and white in erotic
situations lend further poignancy to specific details in the story of Tereus,
Procne and Philomela. The contrast first appears, indirectly, in the double
simile that compares the raped Philomela to an injured lamb or dove:
illa tremit, velut agna pavens, quae saucia cani
ore excussa lupi nondum sibi tuta videtur:
utque columba suo madefactis sanguine plumis
horret adhuc avidosque timet, quibus haeserat, ungues.
(VI .527-30)
She shakes, like a frightened lamb which, cast wounded
From a grey wolf's jaws, distrusts apparent safety,
And like a dove, feathers wet with her own blood,
Which shudders still and fears the greedy talons which
had her trapped.

Both animals are white," and both are common parallels for the fleeing
virgin.16 The blood-smeared lamb and dove, then, are graphic representa-
tions of sexual innocence overcome by erotic violence. This same contrast,
with the same significance, occurs more prominently in Philomela's
tapestry: purpureasque notas filis intexuit albis ('she embroidered purple
designs on white cloth', VI.577). Philomela, like Ovid, chooses the colors
red and white to communicate her violated chastity. And at the end of the
tale, the spot of blood reappears on the breasts of the sparrows Procne and
Philomela (VI.670: signataque sanguine pluma est, 'their plumage is
stamped with blood'), the blood of the innocent child Itys, shed in the furor
of erotic vengeance.
It is in this context of violent, erotic red and innocent, unawakened white
that we must read the story of Pyramus and Thisbe in Book IV. The story is
framed by the miracle of the mulberry tree, whose berries have changed
from white to blood-red:" quaepoma alba ferebatht nunc nigra ferat con-

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Tulane University Libraries, on 11 Dec 2018 at 14:16:45, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0048671X00040029
 RED AND WHITE IN OVID'S METAMORPHOSES
tactu sanguinis arbor ('how a tree which used to bear white fruit now
through contact with blood bears black', IV.51-52) and nam color in porno
est, ubi permaturuit, ater ('for the fruit when ripened is black in color',
IV.165). We are referred to this miracle several times within the body of the
tale as well: arbor ibi niveis uberrima pomis ('there was a tree there laden
with snowy berries', IV.89); arborei fetus aspergine caedis in atram/vertun-
tur faciem, madefactaque sanguine radix/purpureo tingit pendentia mora
colore ('the tree's fruit sprayed with gore is darkened and the roots drench-
ed with blood taint the hanging mulberries with a purplish color', 125-27);
sic facit incertam pomi color ('still the fruit's color perplexes her', 132).
This tree, whose berries change from white to red, is kept constantly before
our eyes in a tale which appears to concernlovers who die with their chastity
intact.
Until this fateful day, the lovers have been content to talk to one another
in the daytime, through the crack in their wall. At night, we are told, they
would separate (IV.79: sub noctem dixere 'Vale', 'at nightfall they said
"Goodbye"'), only to come together again at the dawn:
postera nocturnos Aurora removerat ignes,
solque pruinosas radiis siccaverat herbas:
ad solitum coiere locum.
(IV.81-83)
The next day's dawn had ousted the fires of night,
And the sun's rays had dried the frost on the grass:
They met at the usual place.

Since most Ovidian lovers contrive to meet at night, and since in any event
one would have thought it easier for them to be unobserved at night, their
behavior seems inappropriate. Night and shadow, of course, are proper for
pudor, but unnecessary for innocence. Pyramus and Thisbe confine their
meetings to the daylight hours, when Aurora has taken away the night fires,
because they are still chaste and untouched by shame. Though they love,
they have yet to experience the real power of erotic desire.
Consequently their decision to meet outside the city walls at night,
although such a meeting would have been easier to arrange in the daylight,
when people were normally out and about, and when there would have been
no danger of losing the way (IV.87: neve sit errandum), represents a change
in the nature of their affection, a movement away from the innocent
whiteness of the noon sky.
Thisbe, like so many Ovidian females made bold by her desire (IV.96:
audacem faciebat amor), reaches the appointed spot too soon. She is just in
time to meet a lioness. The lion is the image of a violent predator, connected
by the poet with the wooing lover1*and with the erotic figures of Hip-
pomenes and Atalanta, who offended Venus and were aroused by her to
defile the sanctuary of Cybele with sexual intercourse.I9 Thisbe escapes

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Tulane University Libraries, on 11 Dec 2018 at 14:16:45, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0048671X00040029
 CATHERINE CAMPBELL RHORER

from the thirsty lioness, but leaves behind her cloak to be bloodied in her
place. One wonders why the draught of water did not wash the blood from
the beast's mouth, and must conclude that for Ovid the bloodied cloak, not
just a torn and shredded garment, is more important than logical consis-
tency.
The episode has sexual overtones. By this time in the Metamorphoses, we
must surely have become alert to the erotic dangers that lurk in forest pools
and rivers, dangers that have already overtaken Syrinx, Actaeon and Nar-
cissus and will soon catch up with Hermaphroditus. Thisbe's close brush
with the lioness is like a brush with sexuality itself, and the rape of her veil is
a symbolic violation of her chastity."
Pyramus finds the bloodied garment and quite properly rebukes himself
for arriving late. His first response is the pallor of fear (IV.106: totoque
expalluit ore, 'he grew pale throughout all his face'), a frequent symptom of
approaching death and the opposite of the innocent lover's blush." What
will destroy the pair, he exclaims, is night (IV.108: una duos nox perdet
amantes, 'a single night will destroy two lovers'), a statement whose sym-
bolic truth he can only dimly perceive. He fulfills his desire to be joined with
Thisbe by clutching her cloak and killing himself under their appointed tree,
leaving his body as prey to the lions he believes to have killed her. His death
is like an erotic embrace, as he kisses the garment, plunges his sword in his
groin (IV.119: demisit in ilia ferrum) and lies back, spent, while his hot
blood gushes forth22like water from a broken pipe to impregnate the fruit
of the tree (IV.125: arborei fetus) with its red dye.
Thisbe returns in fear lest she deceive her lover (IV.128: ne fallat
amantem) - fallat ('deceive') being a word with particular erotic
overtones,23especially significant here in the context of Thisbe's quasi-
erotic brush with the lioness. She grows pale at the sight of her dying lover
(IV.134-35: oraque buxo/pallidiora gerens, 'her face becoming paler than
boxwood') and mingles her tears with his blood, her first attempt at
physical union and the parallel to Pyramus' gesture with her cloak. When
she discovers his ivory scabbard empty of its sword (IV. 147-48: ense/vidit
ebur vacuum), her impulse, like Pyramus' before her, is to find union in
death. The symbol of this union is to be a shared tomb, and its offspring
(IV.161: fetus) is to be the darkened fruit of the mulberry tree.24She stabs
herself in the breast with the same sword, still warm with Pyramus' blood
(IV. 163: quod adhuc a caede tepebat), a second reference to the heat of his
wound (IV.120: ferventi . . . e vulnere). The gods hear her prayers, and the
mulberry ever after bears dark fruit.
Pyramus and Thisbe, then, is not merely a story of star-crossed lovers,
brought to death by cosmic accident.25 It is rather a tale of innocence
destroyed by passion, of the dangers that lurk outside the walls of civiliza-
tion and that threaten lovers who desire to obliterate the physical and
spiritual boundaries that separate them.26 Paradoxically Pyramus and
Thisbe, like so many other lovers in the Metamorphoses, share some of the

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Tulane University Libraries, on 11 Dec 2018 at 14:16:45, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0048671X00040029
 RED AND WHITE IN OVID'S METAMORPHOSES
problems experienced by the sophisticated Roman lovers of the Amores and
Ars Amatoria. In the beginning their love flourished under ideal Ovidian con-
ditions: they were physically separated but able to communicate through their
common wall.27Like the elegiac lover in this respect, though unlike him in
others, Pyramus and his beloved had been secure within their city and the
conventions of citified love. But when they leave behind the safety of that
world and seek a union that removes boundaries, they find the only such
union possible for them: they are joined in death and transformation. The
story of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, which concludes the cycle of the
Minyeides, makes the same point in a different way. For Hermaphroditus
too has ventured into the unknown wilderness (IV.294-95: ignotis errare
locis, ignota videre/flumina gaudebat, 'he rejoiced to wander through
unknown places, to see unknown rivers') and has been seized unawares by
an untamed passion. Thus the metamorphosis of the mulberry tree is far
from incidental t o the tale of Pyramus and T h i ~ b eRather
.~ it is the central
image of a story which speaks to Ovid's abiding concern with the confron-
tation of innocence and passion in a world where the boundaries of civiliza-
tion are only the lost dream of an irreclaimable past."

Wesleyan University

NOTES

1. In general, blood in Homer and late epic is dark or black, in contr,ast to the whiteness of
the wounded flesh. In lyric genres blood is usually red. See J. Andre, Etude sur les termes de
couleur duns la langue latine (Paris, 1949), 327-28 for the relevant evidence from Greek and
Latin poetry. In the Metamorphoses, blood is usually red: 11.607: candida puniceo perfudit
membra cruore ('she drenched her white limbs in red blood'); V.83: rutilum vomit iNe cruorem
('he vomits red blood'); VIII.383: exiguo rubefecit sanguine saetas ('it reddened the bristles
with a little blood'), and elsewhere. But it is also associated with ater and niger ('black' or
'dark') in the description of the mulberry tree, lV.51-52 and 125-27. See also note 17 below.
2. The red or rose-colored tint to the skin is commonplace in Greek erotic poetry and in
Roman poetry after Catullus. See Andre'(n. 1 above), 325. In the Metamorphoses, see these ex-
amples: 1.484: pulchra verecundo subfuderat ora rubore ('colored fair face with niodest red');
111.183-85: qui color infectis adversi solis ab ictu/nubibus esse solet autpurpureae Aurorae,/is
fuit in vultu visaesine veste Dianae ('the color clouds get, struck and tinged by the sun's angle,
or that of the purple dawn, was the one in the face of Diana seen naked'), and elsewhere.
3. Met. 111.483-84: non aliter quam poma solent, quae candida parte,/parte rubent ('as
apples often do, which, white in part, in part are red'); VIII.676: et de purpureis conlectae
viribus uvae ('and grapes gathered from the purple vines'), and elsewhere.
4. Met. X.267: conlocat hanc stratis concha Sidonide tinctis ('he arranges her on a bed col-
ored with Sidonian dye'); X.211-12: desinit esse cruor, Tyrioque nitentior ostro/flos oritur ('it
is no longer blood, and a flower outshining Tyrian purple springs up'), and elsewhere.
5. Met. 11.116: mundum rubescere vidit ('he saw the world redden'); V1.47-48: ut solet aer
purpureus fieri, cum prirnum Aurora movetur ('as the sky is known to become purple when the
dawn first shows'); V11.705: quodsit roseospectabilisore ('though she may be conspicuous by
her rosy face') - of Aurora; 111.183-85 in note 2, above, and elsewhere.
6. Met. XIV.313: niveo factum de marmoresignum ('statue made from snowy marble'). See
Andr6 (n. 1 above), 340: 'De toutes les variCtb du marbre, la blanche etait, k I'origine, la plus
recherchee. Aussi le d&riv6 marmoreus devint-il un synonyme de candidus.' There are in the
Metamorphoses numerous examples of humans and animals changing into stone or marble

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Tulane University Libraries, on 11 Dec 2018 at 14:16:45, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0048671X00040029
 CATHERINE CAMPBELL RHORER
statues who are described as growing pale and bloodless: 11.824: pallent amissosanguine venue
('the veins turn pale with loss o f blood'); V.249: ore Medusaeo silicem sine sanguinefecit
('with Medusa's face he turned it to bloodless flint'), and elsewhere.
7. Met. X.247-48: interea niveum mirafeliciter arte/sculpsit ebur ('meanwhile with amazing
skill he successfully carved snowy ivory'); and elsewhere where eburneus has the general
significance of white.
8. Met. IV.355: candida lilia ('white lilies'); X.212-13: formamque capit, quam /ilia, si
non/purpureus color his, argenteus esset in illis ('it takes the form lilies have, except the one is
purplish in color, the other silvery').
9. Met. VI.49: et breve post tempus candescere solis a b ortu ('and after a short time
becomes white when the sun is up'); XV. 194: candidus in summo est ('at its highest it is white').
See Andre (n. 1 above), 336: 'Le soleil est avant tout I'astre "au disque d'or" . . . Mais il est
aussi d2s Ennius le soleil "d'une blancheur tblouissante".'
10. Charles Segal, Landscape in Ovid's Metamorphoses: A Study in the Transformation of
a Literary Symbol, Hermes Einzelschrift 23 (Wiesbaden, 1969), 46, refers the image of apples
and unripe grapes t o the traditions of Greek lyric. Though the erotic associations of these fruits
are indeed of great antiquity, it is Ovid's contribution to have shifted the focus from their red
or purple color to their contrasting tones of red and white.
11. Ovid dresses the god Hymenaeus in saffron-dyed clothes, Met. X.I. Anderson notes,
Ovid's Metamorphoses Books 6-10 (Norman, Okla., 1972), 476, note to X.l-3, that 'saffron
was the color for Roman brides to wear'.
12. Croceus refers to colors from yellow through orange and red. See Andre (n. 1 above),
154. Hermann Fraenkel, Ovid: A Poet between Two Worlds (Berkeley, 1945), 214, note 36:
'Ooceus in line 509 stands for "reddish" in general, not distinguishing a particular shade, as
can be seen from Ovid's describing the crocus flower as ruber (Fasti I. 342; Am. 11.6.22, next
to Punica; Ars. Amat. 1.104) or puniceus (Fasti V.318).' See also Boemer, Metamorphosen
1-111(Heidelberg, 1969), 570, note to lines 509-10, for additional examples of the poetic treat-
ment of the narcissus as a reddish flower.
13. Bernd Manuwald, 'Narcissus bei Konon und Ovid', Hermes 103 (1975), 365-66, argues
that the emphasis on red and white in the description of Narcissus is indicative of his beauty
alone, and that his loss of color before death merely signals the loss of his beauty. He appears
to base his argument upon Andre, who says of the color red (n. 1 above, 326): 'Le rouge se
pr&te avant tout a' I'Cvocation des sentiments qui s'expriment sur le visage, colkre et surtout
honte et pudeur, et le thtme de la pudeur rejoint celui de la beaut6 fchinine, puisqu'il n'est
qu'un charme de plus.' Of the combination of red and white, AndrC says (347): 'La moiti6de
ses exemples interessent les tons gracieux du visage, blanc, rose et rouge, du visage ftminin sur-
tout . . . Les autres associations ont un caractere en gCntral accidental.' It is the aim of this
essay to demonstrate that, in the Metamorphoses at least, the other associations of red and
white are not accidental, and that Ovid's fascinati~nwith this color contrast is more than an in-
terest in physical beauty or a reliance upon poetic cliche. Segal (n. 10 above), 34-35, finds the
flower expressive not in its color contrast but in its self-enclosure: 'The detail underlines both
the ambiguous irony of Narcissus' "innocence" and the self-enclosed character of his sur-
render t o love.' While I do not quarrel with Segal's interpretation, I would go further to say
that the flower represents not only the particular psychic experience of Narcissus but a more
general experience of Ovidian lovers who meet passion for the first time.
14. See particularly Am. 1.5.7-8: illa verecundis lux est praebenda puellis,/qua timidus
latebrassperet haberepudor ('that light should be given to bashful girls, so timid modesty may
hope for concealment').
15. I cannot find reference in Ovid to the whiteness of the lamb, though it is called nitida
('shining') by Horace (Sat. 11.3.214) and mndidus ('white') by Tibullus (11.5.38). According to
Andre (n. 1 above), 338: 'L'agneau est toujours blanc . . .' The dove is termed white in Met.
XlII.674: niveas columbas ('snowy doves'). Again according to And&, 339: 'I1 n'Rait pas non
plus d'autre pigeon ou colombe que blanc.'
16. Daphne fleeing Apollo is compared to both the dove and the lamb, 1.505-6. Arethusa,
fleeing the river Alphaeus, is also compared to the dove (V.605-6) and the lamb (V.626).
17. On the use of words denoting 'darkness' or 'blackness' (niger, ater) for the redness of
blood see note 1 above. The color o f the mulberry is defined in the Oxford dictionary as 'red-
dish black'. In the Pyramus and Thisbe story Ovid on the superficial level emphasizes the
blackness of the fruit for a very obvious reason: it stands for mourning and death:

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Tulane University Libraries, on 11 Dec 2018 at 14:16:45, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0048671X00040029
 RED AND WHITE IN OVID'S METAMORPHOSES
signa tene caedis pullosque et luctibus aptos
semper habe fetusj gemini monimenta cruoris. (IV. 150-51)
Retain the signs of death and always keep your fruit
Dark and suitable for mourning, a memorial of coupled bloodshed.
vota tamen tetigere deos, tetigere parentes:
narncolor in pomo est, ubi permaturuit, ater . . . (IV. 164-65)
And her prayers moved the gods, they moved her parents;
For the fruit, when ripened, is black in color . . .

Permaturuif is significant because the mulberry becomes very dark only when very ripe. When
unripe it is white, when almost ripe it is a definite shade of red. Ovid clearly depends upon the
reader's knowledge of this process. Pyramus' blood makes the berries red (purpureo, 127), this
color darkening to a funereal black (ater, 165) by the time their bodies are placed upon the pyre
(166). On the symbolic level it is the reddish aspect that is most important.
18. When Daphne is compared to a lamb o r a deer, Apollo is the wolf or the lion (1.505).
19. X.681-707; cf. esp. 704. For the particular association of the lioness with Inanna/Istar/
Aphrodite, see. T. T. Duke, 'Ovid's Pyramus and Thisbe', CJ 66 (1971), 323-24.
20. Segal (n. 10 above), 50, includes the veil among the other, more overt, sexual symbols
such as the sword and the gush o f Pyramus' blood. The torn veil also represents the violation
of a personal boundary, and as such has more than erotic significance.
21. Pallor frequently follows the blush of shame. It is a response of fear and grief, ex-
perienced by the beloved who is on the point of being captured (Daphne, 1.543: viribus
abncmptis expalluit ora, 'her strength exhausted, she grew pale in the face') and by the lover
recently committed to a shameful course. When Medea first conceives her passion for Jason,
she blushes (VII.78: erubuere genae). Later, when she sees him surrounded by the sown men
and is confirmed in her love, she grows pale (VII.136): palluit et subito sine sanguine frigida
sedit, 'she grew pale and, suddenly bloodless, cold, sat down'). When Byblis first imagines
making love to her brother, she blushes (IX.471: erubuit), but when she is rejected by him and
desperate, she grows pale (IX.581: pallesaudita, Bybli, repulsa, 'you grow pale, Byblis, when
you hear you are rejected'). Myrrha, on the threshold of her father's bedchamber, also pales:
fugitque/et color et sangub ('both color and blood depart', X.458-59). In a non-erotic context,
perhaps the best example of the two states of mind represented by blush and pallor occurs in
Althaea as she contemplates the death of her son: saepe metu sceleris pallebant ora
futuri:/saepesuum fervens oculis dabat ira ruborem ('often her face grew pale with fear of the
future crime; often raging anger would lend its own redness to her eyes', VIII.465-66). In an
erotic context, the lover who grows pale does so in the face of death, his own (Narcissus,
111.491) o r his beloved's (Apollo, X. 185), as well as in the face of his intended crime (Myrrha).
Pallor is the significant mark of the Underworld (1V.436: pallor hiemsque tenent late loca sen-
fa, 'pallor and cold occupy the rugged tract'), where it is also associated with cold as in the
above example of Medea. Pallor is the sign as well of Invidia (11.775: pallor in ore sedet, 'a
pallor settles on her face') and of Hunger (VIII.801: pallor in ore). Invidia and Hunger are
manifestations of cupido, which leads lovers like Pyramus and Thisbe to seek total possession
of one another and which instead often results in death.
22. eiaculatur. For the erotic associations o f this word, see P. Pierrugues, Glossarium
Eroticum Linguae Latinae (Paris, 1826; reprinted Amsterdam, 1965), 190.
23. Fallere is a word commonly used for the deception of the elegiac coniunv or his agents,
the custodes. Cf. in this tale IV.85 (fallere custodes, 'deceive the guardians') and 94 (fallitque
suos, 'and deceives her own').
24. We should again note that the mulberries are dark when thoroughly ripe (IV.165: ubi
permaturuit), like the ripe fruit of the lover's passion (see also note 17 above). Compare the
ripening apples in the simile for Narcissus (111.483ff .).
25. Brooks Otis, Ovid as an Epic Poet (Cambridge, 1970), 215: 'Pyramus and Thisbe were
only the youthful victims of an accident.'
26. Segal (n. 10 above), 49-50, also sees the tale as one which 'involves the confrontation
between purity and violence and the loss of innocence'. He sees loss of innocence, however, as
the inevitable sacrifice made upon crossing the boundary from childhood to maturity, and
points to the maturation of the mulberries as the emblem of this initiation. Again, while I can-

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Tulane University Libraries, on 11 Dec 2018 at 14:16:45, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0048671X00040029
 CATHERINE CAMPBELL RHORER
not disagree with this interpretation, 1 wish to shift the emphasis. The boundary which
Pyramus and Thisbe attempt to cross, with such disastrous consequences, is not the threshold
of adulthood, but the boundary of the self. Throughout the Metamorphoses, it is not just the
young and innocent who are destroyed by the erotic obliteration of personal boundaries, but
all those who are overtaken by a similar passion. Refined love in Ovid is neither cool white nor
fiery red. Rather it is the thoroughly urbane and civilized experience of the elegiac lover, who
cultivates boundaries and obstacles and maintains at all cost his self-integrity.
27. I cannot help but compare the crack in the wall to the little opening in the door through
which the lover of Am. 1.6 hopes to slip his body, made thin by his long love. Throughout the
elegies, Ovid emphasizes the beneficial aspects of boundaries like the door and obstacles like
the coniunx. See especially elegies 11.19 and 111.4. He is also very clear about the importance of
some judicious deception between lovers, as in 1.4 and 111.14. The proper goal of the Ovidian
lover is not total possession or even mutual possession, but mutual disengagement, a will-
ingness to submit to the fantasy of love so as to be spared its real torment.
28. Otis (n. 25 above), 155: 'Though the metamorphosis is slight and inconsequential, the
theme of mutual love (love too strong to endure separation) is fully developed.' This is precise-
ly the sort of love which Ovid seems to find so dangerous, as witnessed by the pathos of the tale
of Ceyx and Alcyone. He himself recommends a little separation now and then (Ars. Amat.
II.349ff.) and demonstrates how love can not only be made t o endure separation but even to
profit by it (Am. 11.12).
29. I would like to acknowledge assistance in the completion of this paper from a great
many sources. An anonymous reader for Ramus provided sensitive and copious suggestions
which improved the tone and argument of the paper. Other readers contributing advice were
Eleanor Winsor Leach, Marylin Arthur, Roger Hornsby, Archibald Allen, Charles Segal, and
David Konstan, without whose help this effort could never have reached publication. I of
course accept responsibility for all errors of commission o r distortion.

Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Tulane University Libraries, on 11 Dec 2018 at 14:16:45, subject to the
Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0048671X00040029