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Spenser, Edmund, 1552?-1599. (Brief account of Saturn's seduction of Erigone depicted in tapestry of "Cupid's Wars," in) The Faerie Queene III.11.43. Romance epic. London: Ponsonbie, 1590, 1596.

Spenser's narrative recounts how Britomart, the warrior maiden wanders alone in Busirane's castle. She enters a decorated room in which gorgeous tapestries depict "Many faire pourtraits, and many a fair feate, / And all of love and lusty-led." (III.9.29) The loves of the gods — "Cupid's Wars" as the episode is often called — Britomart observes include the familiar seductions of Zeus; but, the seduction of Erigone by Saturn is disguise, as Spenser tells it, varies from the "classical" norm.

Typically Erigone (e.g. Ovid Met. 6.125, 10.451) is distraught at Dionysos' punishment of her father Icarius and hangs herself, then is catasterized into the constellation Virgo. (Erigone1.0000_Reid) Nor does any familiar classical myth spring to mind in which the Titan or any other god disguises as a centaur to seduce a nymph.

Note that Spenser's narrative is incorrectly summarized by Reid, ad loc, as "the story of Saturn and Philyra". The classical myth of Cronus' seduction of Philyra, the Oceanid, involves the Titan transforming himself and the nymph into a pair of horses, stallion and mare, from which mating the centaur Chiron was conceived. Instead, Spenser conflates in this stanza the seduction of Erigone by Saturn and the amorous advance of Dionysus (Bacchus) is enacted upon Philyra (as Phillira).

The image at right captures the Victorian masterful edition of Spenser's Faerie Queene edited by Thomas James Wise and illustrated by Walter Crane, Spenser's Faerie queene: a poem in six books, 6 volumes (London: G. Allen). — The full Wise & Crane edition is available on Internet Archive. Depicted is a detail of https://archive.org/details/gri_33125012901795/page/n299/mode/2up.