In four pages an analysis of these two characters is presented. There are three other sources cited in the bibliography.
Name of Research Paper File: JR7_RAovid.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
In one case we have a daughters love for her father, and in the other we have a sisters love for her brother. Both stories are somewhat different, and end
differently, though they both also possess powerful images of a taboo condition of society. With that in mind the following paper examines how Ovid presents these two women, Byblis and
Myrrha, in his stories. Byblis "Although incest was allowed among the gods, it was not looked highly upon with mortals. Bybliss problem in love was hidden within
her own family" for "Byblis had fallen in love with her twin brother, Caunus" (Hertwig; Brown). The love she felt for her brother was an all-consuming sort of love as
it consumed all her thoughts and feelings. At one point she can take it no longer and decides that she must tell him. "She decided to write of her love
for Caunus in a letter, expressing all of her emotions. Caunus was furious with the words of his sister" and as would be expected Byblis was incredibly distraught (Hertwig; Brown).
She left her family and "mourned the loss with constant tears. So wasting by her weeping all away, Byblis became a spring (Ovid, p. 219)" (Hertwig; Brown). We see
that Byblis argued with herself that such desires were acceptable to some degree: "Twas thought no sin to wonder at his charms,/ Hang on his neck, and languish in his
arms;/ Thus wingd with joy, fled the soft hours away,/ And all the fatal guilt on harmless Nature lay" (Ovid Book IX). Myrrha "Ovid warns the squeamish away
from this story, especially encouraging fathers and daughters to skip over it, thereby drawing more lurid attention to it. Cinyras and Myrrha are father and daughter, and Myrrha harbors incestuous