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Davida And Ovid Character Analysis

Decent Essays
Myrrha and Byblis, two of Ovid's emotional, socially non-conforming female leads, confess to incestuous desires; Byblis lusts for her brother, Caunus, and Myrrha hungers for her father, Cinyras. As Byblis and Myrrha come to realize their secret feelings, they scrutinize the good and bad of such passions. In spite of the revolting relationships in question, each young woman offers tangible evidence and expresses in such a way that incites pity for her dilemma. Their variety of comprehension overlap, but Myrrha starts where Byblis ends and in retrospect; Byblis begins where Myrrha has finished. The dialogue used by Myrrha and Byblis incites consideration; at the onset of her story, Byblis proclaims, "Unhappy me!" to attract attention to her misery, and further states: “And I could love him if he weren’t my brother; it’s my curse to try to be his sister every day, not let him mount me, drag me into bed.” With this statement, Byblis shows her constant internal struggle, battling with her sexual desires for her brother; on one hand she wants him, regardless of his status as her brother, and on the other, she doesn’t care. Ovid states of Myrrha’s predicament that “It is wrong to hate a doting father, it’s twice as indiscreet to love him madly.” A bemused and but firm believing Myrrha utters “Where am I drifting, what’s my mind that drives me toward peculiar hopes and fears?” With this she addresses the wrongness of her lustful feelings for her father, but also goes on
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