Talk:Myrrha/workpage

Byron
The tragedy Sardanapalus by George Gordon Byron published in 1821 and produced in 1834 is set in Assyria, 640 B.C., under King Sardanapalus. The play deals with the revolt against the extravagant king and his relationship to his favourite slave Myrrha. Myrrha made him appear at the head of his armies and he won three successive battles in this way, but was eventually defeated. A beaten man, Myrrha talked Sardanapalus into placing himself on a funeral pile which she would set on fire, then jump into the flames herself. The play has been interpreted as an autobiography, with Sardanapalus as Byron's alter ego, Zarina as his wife, and Myrrha as his mistress Teresa. At a more abstract level Myrrha is interpreted as the desire for freedom of those who feel trapped, as well as being the incarnation of Byron's dream of romantic love. It is known that Byron knew the story of the mythical Myrrha, if not directly through Ovid's Metamorphoses, then at least through Alfieri's Mirra, which he was familiar with. In her essay "A Problem Few Dare Imitate", Susan J. Wolfson phrases and interprets the relationship between the play Sardanapalus and the myth of Myrrha in this way: Although [Byron's] own play evades the full import of this complicated association, Myrrha's name means that it [the name referring to incest, red.] cannot be escaped entirely - especially since Ovid's story of Myrrha's incest poses a potential reciprocal to the nightmare Byron invents for Sardanapalus, of sympathy with the son who is the object of his mother's 'incest' (V.i.58).

Mottenen (talk) 15:43, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

Josephus
What Josephus says. --Mottenen (talk) 10:25, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

One of the earliest recordings of a play inspired by the myth of Myrrha is Flavius Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews. A tragedy entitled Cinyras is mentioned wherein the main character, Cinyras, is to be slain along with his daughter Myrrha. No further details are given about the plot of the play.



Desire
In 1997 American poet Frank Bidart wrote Desire, which was a retelling of the myth of Myrrha as it was presented in the Metamorphoses by Ovid. The case Myrrha, critic Langdon Hammer notes, is the worst possible made against desire, because the story of Myrrha shows how sex can lead people to destroy others as well as themselves. He comments that "the "precious bitter resin" into which Myrrha's tears are changed tastes bitter and sweet, like Desire as a whole". He further writes: "The inescapability of desire makes Bidart's long story of submission to it a kind of affirmation. Rather than aberrant, the Ovidian characters come to feel exemplary".

Art - Franceschini
In 1690, Italian Baroque painter Marcantonio Franceschini depicted Myrrha as a tree while delivering Adonis in The birth of Adonis. The painting was included in the art exhibition "Captured Emotions: Baroque Painting in Bologna, 1575-1725" at the J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, California which lasted from December 16, 2008 through May 3, 2009. Normally the painting is exhibited in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (English: Dresden State Art Collections) in Germany as a part of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (English: Old Masters Picture Gallery).

Picart
In 1717 a Latin-English edition of Metamorphoses was published, translated by Samuel Garth and with plates of French engraver Bernard Picart. The illustration of Myrrha was entitled The Birth of Adonis and featured Myrrha as a tree delivering Adonis while surrounded by women.

Nagle
Created: Mottenen (talk) 14:00, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

In her essay "Byblis and Myrrha: Two Incest Narratives in the Metamorphoses" Professor Betty Rose Nagle compares the stories of Myrrha and Byblis. Nagle points out that Byblis' passions for her brother Caunus is narrated by Ovid himself, while the story of Myrrha is sung by Orpheus. The stories, sharing the same theme, thus have a number of parallels as well as differences which Nagle suggests can be attributed to Orpheus' personal bias. As Ovid is more sympathetic towards Byblis, Orpheus tend to exploit the horror of Myrrha in a melodramatic way.

Ref: