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* Myrrha ( the Greek myth of incestual love between father and daughter )
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Myrrha and Greek
* Myrrha, mother of Adonis per Greek mythology
Myrrha ( Greek: ), also known as Smyrna ( Greek: ), is the mother of Adonis in Greek mythology.
The Latin Myrrha originated from the Ancient Greek múrrā, but, ultimately, the word is of Semitic origin, with roots in the Arabic murr, the Hebrew mōr, and the Aramaic mūrā, all meaning " bitter " as well as referring to the plant.
In Greek mythology, Theias was the King of Assyria and father of Myrrha and Adonis.
Its name entered the English language from the Hebrew Bible, where it is called mor, מור, and later as a Semitic loanword was used in the Greek myth of Myrrha, and later in the Septuagint ; in the Greek language, the related word μύρον became a general term for perfume.
Myrrha and myth
Although the tale of Adonis has Semitic roots, it is uncertain from where the myth of Myrrha emerged, though it was likely from Cyprus.
The myth details the incestuous relationship between Myrrha and her father, Cinyras.
The myth of Myrrha was one of 24 tales retold in Tales from Ovid by English poet Ted Hughes.
The myth of Myrrha is closely linked to that of her son, Adonis, which has been easier to trace.
It is likely that lack of clarity concerning whether Myrrha was called Smyrna, and who her father was, originated in Cyprus before the Greeks first encountered the myth.
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.
The myth of Myrrha has been chronicled in several other works than Ovid's Metamorphoses.
The myth of Myrrha has been interpreted in various ways.
Myrrha has also been thematically linked to the myth of Lot's daughters.
Building on Sigmund Freud's theories and psychoanalysis this is shown in Ovid's version of the myth of Myrrha.
One of the earliest recordings of a play inspired by the myth of Myrrha is in the Antiquities of the Jews, written in 93 A. D. by the Roman-Jewish historian Flavius Josephus.
Dante had already shown his familiarity with the myth of Myrrha in a prior letter to Emperor Henry VII, which he wrote on 17 April 1311.
The novella Mathilda, written by Mary Shelley in 1820, contains similarities to the myth and mentions Myrrha.
In her essay " A Problem Few Dare Imitate ", Susan J. Wolfson phrases and interprets the relation of the play Sardanapalus and the myth of Myrrha:
In 1997 the myth of Myrrha and Cinyras was one of 24 tales from Ovid's Metamorphoses that were retold by English poet Ted Hughes in his poetical work Tales from Ovid.
In 1997 American poet Frank Bidart wrote Desire, which was another retelling of the myth of Myrrha as it was presented in the Metamorphoses by Ovid.
The English poet John Dryden translated the myth of Myrrha for political purposes.
The translation of the myth of Myrrha as it appeared in Ovid's Metamorphoses is suggested as being a critique of the political settlement that followed the Glorious Revolution.
Dryden turned to translation and infused these translations with political satire in response-the myth of Myrrha being one of these translations.
Reading the translation of the myth of Myrrha by Dryden as a comment on the political scene, states Lee, is partly justified by the characterization done by the historian Julian Hoppit on the events of the revolution of 1688:
The concert was inspired by the myth of Myrrha in Ovid's Metamorphoses and includes excerpts from the volume that " move in and out of the music as though in a dream, or perhaps Myrrha ’ s memory of the events that shaped her fate ," as described by Kuster.
Myrrha and love
Myrrha falls in love with her father and tricks him into sexual intercourse.
In the play Sardanapalus by Byron, a character named Myrrha appeared, whom critics interpreted as a symbol of Byron's dream of romantic love.
Wrong as Myrrha's love was, Ovid blamed it on the Furies, stating that they cursed Myrrha.
Distraught that she had been discovered, Myrrha confided her forbidden love to the nurse.
Like Byblis who fell in love with her brother, Myrrha is transformed and rendered voiceless making her unable to break the taboo of incest.
The goddess then strikes her with desire to make love with her father and Myrrha is then made into a woman in the grip of an uncontrollable lust.
In her essay " What Nature Allows the Jealous Laws Forbid " literary critic Mary Aswell Doll compares the love between the two male protagonists of Annie Proulx ' book Brokeback Mountain ( 1997 ) with the love Myrrha has for her father in Ovid's Metamorphoses.
In the play, Myrrha falls in love with her father, Cinyras.
At a more abstract level Myrrha is the desire for freedom driving those who feel trapped or bound, as well as being the incarnation of Byron's dream of romantic love.
Cinna's literary fame was established by his magnum opus Zmyrna, a mythological epic poem focused on the incestuous love of Smyrna ( or Myrrha ) for her father Cinyras, treated after the erudite and allusive manner of the Alexandrian poets.
Myrrha and between
It has been suggested that the taboo of incest marks the difference between culture and nature and that Ovid's version of Myrrha showed this.
Over several verses, Ovid depicts the inner struggle Myrrha faces between her sexual desire for her father and the social sanctions and shame she would face for sleeping with him.
Myrrha and father
Incest appears in the commonly accepted version of the birth of Adonis, when his mother, Myrrha has sex with her father Cinyras during a festival, disguised as a prostitute.
The more widely accepted version, recounted in Ovid's Metamorphoses, is that Aphrodite compelled Myrrha ( or Smyrna ) to commit incest with her father Theias, the king of Assyria.
According to Ovid, Cinyras ' daughter Myrrha, impelled by an unnatural lust for her own father ( in retribution for her mother Cenchreis ' hybris ), slept with him, became pregnant, and asked the gods to change her into something other than human ; she became a tree from whose bark myrrh drips.
In art, Myrrha's seduction of her father has been illustrated by German engraver Virgil Solis, her tree-metamorphosis by French engraver Bernard Picart and Italian painter Marcantonio Franceschini, while French engraver Gustave Doré chose to depict Myrrha in Hell as a part of his series of engravings for Dante's Divine Comedy.
Myrrha, who could have her choice of men from far and wide, felt attracted to her father.
One night the household was asleep, Myrrha found herself sleepless due to the passion she felt for her father.
The transformation of Myrrha in Ovid's version has been interpreted as a punishment for her breaking the social rules through her incestuous relationship with her father.
[...] In the cases of both Lot's daughters and Myrrha, the daughter's seduction of the father has to be covert.
First then does Ovid begin telling the story describing Myrrha, her father and their relationship, which Doll compares to the mating of Cupid and Psyche: here the lovemaking occurs in complete darkness and only the initiator ( Cupid ) knows the identity of the other as well.
Here he compares Florence with " Myrrha, wicked and ungodly, yearning for the embrace of her father, Cinyras "; a metaphor, Claire Honess interprets as referring to the way Florence tries to " seduce " Pope Clement V away from Henry VII.
" Audra Dibert Himes, in an essay entitled " Knew shame, and knew desire ", notes a more subtle reference to Myrrha: Mathilda spends the last night before her father ’ s arrival in the woods, but as she returns home the next morning the trees seemingly attempt to encompass her.
The illustration of Myrrha depicts Myrrha's deceiving her father as well as her fleeing from him.
# The most commonly accepted version is that Aphrodite urged Myrrha or Smyrna to commit incest with her father, Theias.
# It was also said that Myrrha fled from her father and Aphrodite turned her into a tree.
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