Caunus

Family: mortals · Role: brother of Byblis · First appears: Fable 81

Life events

• Cyane gives birth to twins, Byblis and Caunus.(Fable81)
  • With: Cyane Byblis
  • “Here Cyane, the daughter of {the river} Mæander, that so often returns to the same place, while she was following the windings of her father’s bank, of a body excelling in beauty, being known by thee, brought forth a double offspring, Byblis, with Caunus, {her brother}.”
• Byblis develops an incestuous passion for her brother Caunus.(Fable81)
  • With: Byblis
  • “Byblis, seized with a passion for her brother, the descendant of Apollo, loved him not as a sister {loves} a brother, nor in such manner as she ought.”
• Byblis sends Caunus a letter confessing her forbidden love and requesting union.(Fable81)
  • With: Byblis
  • “The servant, having got a fit opportunity, goes {to her brother} and delivers the secret writing.”
• Caunus rejects Byblis’s letter and threatens the servant who delivered it.(Fable81)
  • With: Byblis
  • “The Mæandrian youth,[55] seized with sudden anger, throws away the tablets {so} received, when he has read a part; and, with difficulty withholding his hands from the face of the trembling servant, he says, ‘Fly hence, O thou accursed pander to forbidden lust, who shouldst have given me satisfaction by thy death, if {it was} not {that} thy destruction would bring disgrace on my character.’”
• Caunus flees his country and founds a new city in a foreign land.(Fable81)
  • “At length, when there is {now} no end {to this}, he flies from his country and {the commission of} this crime, and founds a new city[59] in a foreign land.”
• Byblis abandons her homeland and follows her fleeing brother.(Fable81)
  • With: Byblis
  • “Deprived of these {hopes}, she deserts her native land, and her hated home, and follows the steps of her flying brother.”

Fable 81

• parent: Cyane “Here Cyane, the daughter of {the river} Mæander, that so often returns to the same place, while she was following the windings of her father’s bank, of a body excelling in beauty, being known by thee, brought forth a double offspring, Byblis, with Caunus”
• siblings with Byblis “brought forth a double offspring, Byblis, with Caunus, {her brother}”
• admirer: Byblis “Byblis, seized with a passion for her brother, the descendant of Apollo, loved him not as a sister {loves} a brother, nor in such manner as she ought”
• with Apollo (Apollo is identified as Caunus's ancestor.) “Byblis, seized with a passion for her brother, the descendant of Apollo, loved him not as a sister {loves} a brother, nor in such manner as she ought”
• parent: Miletus (Miletus is the person addressed as 'thee'.) “while she was following the windings of her father’s bank, of a body excelling in beauty, being known by thee, brought forth a double offspring, Byblis, with Caunus, {her brother}.”
• courtship with Byblis “Byblis, seized with a passion for her brother, the descendant of Apollo, loved him not as a sister {loves} a brother, nor in such manner as she ought.”

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Extracted from the original text of The Metamorphoses of Ovid. Made with Rho MD.