Writers of ancient myths were the first to sum up the difficulties between the genders, thousands of years ago recording a fact that has been recently rediscovered in our modern era – “men are from Mars and women are from Venus.” Earlier this year, faithful eCool readers may have noted that the gender-based miscommunication between Apollo and Daphne was the result of mischievous Cupid’s arrows, but as is demonstrated in today’s Myth Remastered dispatch, other ancient lovers faced crises compelled by miscommunications all their own.
One such story is painted on the walls of the Villa Farnesina, a Renaissance “love shack” built by Agostino Chigi, the richest man in the Renaissance. Chigi fancied himself a connoisseur of architecture and painting, as well as classical literature. In keeping with these interests, he commissioned the artists Raphael and Sebastiano del Piombo to adorn his walls with the ancient Roman myth of Galatea, a beautiful water nymph, and the hulking Cyclops she rejected, Polyphemus (see above).
Raphael painted Galatea as a representation of ideal beauty and she seems almost to be an ancient marble sculpture brought to life (though Renaissance rumor had it that the Galatea was a portrait of Agostino Chigi’s illustrious courtesan Imperia and that Raphael had spent some quality time with this gifted woman while sketching her for the painting). On the adjacent panel, the portrait of Polyphemus, painted by Sebastiano del Piombo, is the very antithesis of ideal beauty. The Cyclops is an incredibly hairy hulk who appears a bit out of place in the loosely rendered landscape that he inhabits.
The story of this mismatched pair comes from Ovid, who tells us that Galatea was madly in love with a handsome young man named Acis, and that their relationship was an exclusive one:
Son of river-nymph Symaethis
And Faunus was his father, a great joy
To both his parents, and a greater joy
To me; for me, and me alone, he loved.
Though Galatea swore her devotion to Acis alone, Polyphemus worshiped her. Sadly, his affections were not returned, for she found this uncivilized beast repugnant:
He wooed me endlessly and, if you ask
Whether my hate for him or love for Acis
Was stronger in my heart, I could not tell;
For both were equal.
Over and over Galatea politely rejected Polyphemus’s advances, but he was not to be dissuaded. To their family and friends, it seemed obvious that the relationship not meant to be – the two were utterly incompatible! Galatea was a water nymph and Polyphemus could not swim and was even deathly afraid of the water. Nonetheless, the Cyclops spent his days trying to lure his beloved to dry land. She never took the bait.
In his efforts to win a date with Galatea, Polyphemus heaped praise upon her. One day, in absolute desperation for her affections, the Cyclops composed a long speech in which he compared Galatea with all he found beautiful in untamed nature. In another demonstrative discourse, he promised her that his love and devotion would bring her great benefits and he recounted the many gifts he intended to give her when she at last succumbed to his embrace:
No easy gifts or commonplace delights
Shall be your portion—does and goats and hares,
A pair of doves, a gull’s nest from the cliff.
I found on day among the mountain peaks,
For you to play with, twins so much alike
You scarce could tell, cubs of a shaggy bear.
I found them and I said ‘She shall have these;
I’ll keep them for my mistress for her own.’
But none of these tactics convinced Galatea to leave Acis and give her love to Polyphemus. As is common in such situations, the Cyclops simply could not understand why the nymph he loved so much would continue to reject him. “What does she want,” he asked himself? “I come from a good family. My father, Neptune is the king of the sea. And, I’ve got a great career in front of me! I’ve been cast in an important role in Homer’s Odyssey. I’m going to be a star!” Thinking that the problem might be with his looks, Polyphemus exercised vigorously and spent the rest of his time examining his reflection in pools of water, carefully tending the masses of hair that covered his body. As he gazed at his likeness, it seemed impossible that Galatea would not find him attractive:
For sure I know—I have just seen—myself
Reflected in a pool, and what I saw
Was truly pleasing. See how large I am!
No bigger body Jupiter himself can boast
Up in the sky—you always talk of Jupiter
Or someone reigning up there. My ample hair
O’erhangs my grave stern face and like a grove
Darkens my shoulders; you must not think me
Me ugly, that my body is so thick
With prickly bristles. Trees without their leaves
Are ugly, a horse is ugly too
Without a mane to cover its sorrel neck.
Feathers clothe birds and fleece grace sheep:
So beard and bristles best become a man.
Upon my brow I have on e single eye,
But it is huge, like some vast shield. What then?
Still, however, Galatea could not be seduced. No longer able to stand the pain of unrequited love, Polyphemus tore through the woods and fields in a fierce rage, looking for the nymph and her lover. When he discovered them frolicking together at the river’s edge, he gave a shout so loud it made Mt. Etna tremble. Thus warned of his presence, Galatea dove into the sea, but before Acis could escape, the massive Cyclops tore a boulder from a mountaintop and hurled it at the youth. The stone crushed Acis, but in that moment Galatea implored the Fates to allow her to remain forever with her lover.
Her wish was granted: as Acis’s blood began to flow from underneath the rock that crushed him, it turned into a clear stream of water. Then, the boulder cracked open, and from the crevice emerged a tall, green reed from which a fountain of water gushed skyward. Only an instant later, a young river god stood waist-deep in the water, his glistening face colored wave-blue like the finest of aquamarines. Acis had been transformed into an immortal river god so that he and Galatea might spend eternity together.
