Byblis

Family: mortals · Role: daughter of Miletus · First appears: Fable 81

Life events

• Cyane gives birth to twins, Byblis and Caunus.(Fable81)
  • With: Cyane Caunus
  • “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: Caunus
  • “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: Caunus
  • “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: Caunus
  • “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.’”
• Byblis abandons her homeland and follows her fleeing brother.(Fable81)
  • With: Caunus
  • “Deprived of these {hopes}, she deserts her native land, and her hated home, and follows the steps of her flying brother.”
• Byblis dissolves into tears and is transformed into a fountain.(Fable81)
  • “so is Byblis, the descendant of Phœbus, dissolving in her tears, changed into a fountain, which even now, in those vallies, bears the name of its mistress, and flows beneath a gloomy oak.”

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”
• parent: Miletus “the daughter of Miletus, in her sadness, was bereft of all understanding”
• siblings with Caunus “brought forth a double offspring, Byblis, with Caunus, {her brother}”
• admired: Caunus “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 and Phœbus are treated as the same deity.) “so is Byblis, the descendant of Phœbus, dissolving in her tears, changed into a fountain”
• courtship with Caunus “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 Cupid (Cupid is identified as the force associated with Byblis's passion.) “long, in my wretchedness, have I struggled to escape the ruthless weapon of Cupid”

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