Page "Myrrha" Paragraph 12

Published in 8 A. D. the Metamorphoses of Ovid was ahead of its time stylistically and has become one of the most influential poems by the Latin writers.

The Metamorphoses showed that Ovid was more interested in questioning how the laws interfered with and ruined people's lives rather than writing epic tales like Virgil's Aeneid and Homer's Odyssey.

The Metamorphoses is not narrated by Ovid, but rather by the characters inside the stories.

The myth of Myrrha and Cinyras is sung by Orpheus in the tenth book of Metamorphoses after he has told the myth of Pygmalion and before he turns to the tale of Venus and Adonis.

As the myth of Myrrha is also the longest tale sung by Orpheus ( 205 lines ) and the only story that corresponds to his announced theme of girls who are punished for their madness from forbidden desire, it is considered the centerpiece of the song.

Ovid opens the myth with a warning to the audience that this is a myth of great horror, especially to fathers and daughters: