AcontiusCydippe1.0012_Bulwer-Lytton

AcontiusCydippe1.0012_Bulwer-Lytton

OGCMA s.v. "Acontius and Cydippe"
Callimachus Aet. 3.1.26ff
Ovid Heroides 20 - 21
Ovid Ars Amatoria 1.457 ff.

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, "Cydippe, or the Apple," poem in The Lost Tales of Miletus (London: Murray, 1866)

"'Are there not letters? Read thou what is written.' | So the girl read these words: 'I, at the altar | Artemis hallows, vow to wed Acontius.' | With the sweet blush of angry innocence || Scornful maiden cast away the apple; But, tho' in whisper she the words had spoken,| Heard by the Cean, heard by the great goddess.| 'Joy!' said the lover, suddenly grown bold."

For .pdf of poem, or for archive.org click.

D. Bush, Mythology and the Romantic Tradition in English Poetry (Cambridge, MA, 1937 ; rev. 1963) p. 556

J. Boswell, Past Ruined Ilion: a bibliography of English and American literature based on Greco-Roman mythology (Metuchen, NJ, 1982), 11.

Title page with the text "CYDIPPE; OR, THE APPLE." on a faded yellow background

Acontius binds unwitting Cydippe to marriage by writing on an apple (or orange) the words "I will marry no man but Acontius." When Cydippe reads the oath, she is bound.

A tale originating with Callimachus, it was of interest to Ovid (the most Callimachean of the Roman poets?). Dryden is not the first, but perhaps the most influential English poet to treat the tale. Interesting that Bulwer-Lytton mentions recent "recent ... exquisite" treatment by Charles Kent.

"In the more matter of fact mode in which the legend is here told, the original plot has been somewhat amplified, and the vengeance of Artemis extended from Cydippe to her father and one of her suitors." (B-L preface)

OGCMA slides are designed by Roger T. Macfarlane for use in Classical Civilization 241 courses at Brigham Young University.
The present resource contains information assembled for The Oxford Guide to Classical Mythology in the Arts, 1300 - 1990's, edited by J. Davidson Reid (Oxford 1994), and it is used with express permission from Oxford University press.
Address concerns or inquiries to macfarlane@byu.edu.