A List of Those Who Boldly Rejected Romantic Love: M. Antonii Tritonii Utinensis, Mythologia

Content Warning: Attempted Rape, suicide

This author uses Ovid's myths to showcase his own medieval Christian beliefs.   The topic "protervi," ["bold, shameful, wanton"] lists women (and one man) who brazenly reject romantic love. Their one connecting attribute--an unapologetic demand for bodily autonomy--is seen as a vice instead of a virtue in the eyes of this medieval author.  

 

PROTERVI

• Anaxarete
• Arethusa
• Daphne
• Eperie
• Lotos
• Narcissus
• Scylla
• Syrinx

ANAXARETE Cypria sua protervitate fuit in causa, ut amator Iphis laqueo se strangularet, sed illa quoque protervitatis suae meritas poenas dedit, nam Veneris voluntate in saxum versa est.[lib.xiiii.fab.xvii] 

ARETHUSA nympha Alpheum amantem fugiens merito in fontem abiit. [l.v.f.xvii]

DAPHNE Penei fl[uminis] filia ab Apolline amata nunquam voluit amanti assentiri. unde in laurum versa est [lib.i.fab.ix]

 EPERIE nympha Aesacum amantem fugiens serpentis ictu interiit. [lib.ii.fab.ii]

LOTOS quoque Priapum evitans in arborem transfigurata est. [lib.ix.fab.6] 

NARCISSUS protervus extitit, cum Echo nympham aufugeret. [lib.iii.fab.viii] 

SCYLLA nympha quotiens a Glauco Deo marino blandis vocabatur verbis, toties se sub undas abscondebat, unde in saxum postremo nautis periculosum conversa fuit. [lib.xiiii.fa.i]

SYRINX Naiadum pulcherrima a Pane adamata flecti nunquam potuit, ob quam protervitatem in arundinem fuit commutata [lbi.i.fab.xii]

--M. Antonii Tritonii Utinenis, Mythologia, 1560

THE BOLD

Includes:

• Anaxarete
• Arethusa
• Daphne
• Eperie
• Lotos
• Narcissus 
• Scylla  
• Syrinx

·       ANAXARETE: In the case of her own boldness in regards to love, since she caused her suitor Iphis* to hang himself. But she also paid the penalty for her own boldness, for Venus turned her into a boulder because of this. [cf. Ovid’s Metamorphoses book 14, story 17]

ARETHUSA: a nymph who was deservedly transformed into a spring while fleeing her suitor Alpheus  [book 5, story 17]

DAPHNE: The daughter of the river god Peneus, who never caved in to her suitor [Apollo]. She was transformed into a laurel / bay tree. [book 1, story 9]  

EPERIE: a nymph who while fleeing her suitor Aesacus, was killed by a snake bite.  [book ii, story ii]

LOTOS: running away from Priapus, she was transformed into a tree [book 9, story 6]

NARCISSUS: displayed his boldness when he fled from the nymph Echo’s advances [book 3, story 8]

SCYLLA: a nymph who hid under the waves every time the sea god Glaucus flirted with her. Finally she was transformed into an underwater rock that was dangerous to sailors [book 14, story 1]

SYRINX: an exceedingly pretty Naiad whom Pan loved, who could never shake off Pan’s advances. Because of her boldness, she was transformed into a reed. [book 1, story 12]

* Iphis is a common name in the ancient world; this is not the same Iphis from the myth of Iphis & Ianthe