Myrrha Character Analysis in Metamorphoses

Myrrha is a character in one of Orpheus’s songs who falls in love with her father. Unable to control her incestuous passion, Myrrha decides to hang herself. Before she can, her nurse discovers her and forces her to confess her torturous desire. The nurse then arranges for Myrrha to sneak into her father’s bedroom and sleep with him under cover of darkness. Myrrha sleeps with her father for several nights until he lights a torch, wanting to see what his mistress looks like. Horrified to recognize his daughter, Myrrha’s father banishes Myrrha. The gods transform Myrrha into a myrrh tree, retrieving her father’s baby from her womb before doing so.

Myrrha Quotes in Metamorphoses

The Metamorphoses quotes below are all either spoken by Myrrha or refer to Myrrha . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

).

I wonder, for daughterly duty
cannot condemn this love. All other creatures can mate
as they choose for themselves. It isn’t considered a scandal for bulls
to mount the heifers they’ve sired […] and even a bird
can conceive her chicks by a mate who happens to be her father.
How lucky they are to do as they please! How spitefully human
morality governs our lives!

Related Characters: Myrrha (speaker)

Page Number and Citation: 324

Explanation and Analysis: