AcontiusCydippe2.0002_Kauffmann

AcontiusCydippe2.0002_Kauffmann

OGCMA s.v. "Acontius and Cydippe"
Ovid Ars Amatoria 1.457 ff.

Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807), "Acontius and Cydippe Before the Altar of Diana", (before 1771?) oil on canvas, 35 3/4 x 28 in. (90.9 x 71.2 cm). from G.W.H. Bean (private collector), auctioned by Christies of London, July 2009, lot 5223110.

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.

The image at right is derived from The Eclectic Light Company: https://eclecticlight.co/2024/09/21/heroines-20-21-cydippes-apple-of-love/

Classical painting of figures making offerings before a statue of Diana, with a fire burning on an altar

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.