Essays

Context

The story of Pomona and Vertumnus in book fourteen of Ovid’s Metamorphoses follows a young nymph too invested in her garden to love a man and the god willing to take a thousand forms just to see her. The story takes place immediately after Ovid’s history of the rulers of Rome, ending when the list eventually comes to Procas, who rules when the story of Pomona and Vertumnus takes place. In this story, Pomona, a young nymph, spends her time in the gardens tending to the plants more skillfully than any other nymph. She is beautiful, and her beauty is well known, causing satyrs and gods to pursue her, though without any luck. The shapeshifting god Vertumnus comes to Pomona in the form of an old woman and advises her to be with Vertumnus. In order to convince her to take a lover, he interestingly tells her the story of Iphis and Anaxarete. Anaxarete is a young noblewoman who captures the heart of Iphis, who repeatedly tries to woo her. Anaxarete, who did not return his feelings, scorns him until he cannot take it anymore. Iphis hangs himself in front of her door, yet she still disregards him. When his funeral parade passes her house, Anaxarete heartlessly gazes upon his body, and as punishment, she is turned to stone by Venus. Vertumnus tells this story to warn Pomona against not taking a lover, but Pomona displays no visible change. Vertumnus shows his true form at last, prepared to be with her without regard for her opinion. However, upon seeing his true form, Pomona is enchanted, and the two have their happy ending. The Metamorphoses continues to describe Roman history after the reign of Proca is over, particularly the story of the deified Quirinus and Hora. Overall, this section of Ovid’s Metamorphoses outlines Roman history and the tales associated with the reign of each ruler.

While Ovid was the first to tell the story of Pomona and Vertumnus, many authors have created retellings. One interesting take on the story is Mary Zimmerman’s theatrical adaptation of The Metamorphoses, which follows a storyline similar to Ovid’s tale, but with one major difference. In both tales, Vertumnus comes to pursue Pomona disguised as an old woman and tells her a story. In Ovid’s version, Vertumnus tells her about Iphis and Anaxarete, but in Zimmerman’s version, Vertumnus tells her about Cinyras and Myrrha. Cinyras and Cenchreis are Myrrha’s mother and father, but Cenchreis claims to be more beautiful than Venus, which results in a curse creating a lust in her daughter Myrrha for her father. After tricking him into sleeping with her and becoming pregnant with Adonis, Myrrha flees her father’s wrath and eventually prays to the gods to save her, only to be changed into a Myrrh tree. Both stories invoke a disturbing mood and serve as awful love stories intended to warn Pomona against rejecting love.

Artistic Analysis

This oil painting, named Vertumnus and Pomona (1625), was collaboratively created by artists Anthony van Dyck and Jan Roos. Similar to Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the painting depicts Pomona, on the left, sitting among fruits, and Vertumnus, on the right, disguised as an old woman. One common detail in both works is that Vertumnus approaches Pomona as an old woman and tries to speak to her, but his words have little effect. In the painting, the artists depict Pomona as disinterested and unaffected. Pomona’s eyes do not meet those of Vertumnus, and she stares into the distance almost as if she is zoning out. Similarly, in the Metamorphoses, Pomona displays no change of heart from Vertumnus’s storytelling, which leads Vertumnus to pursue her in a different manner. This painting also depicts Vertumnus differently from Ovid. Ovid writes Vertumnus as a master of disguise with lines like “mīles erat gladiō, piscātor harundine sūmptā” (651), which roughly translates to “a soldier with a sword having been taken up, a fisherman with a fishing pole having been taken up” to express how fluid his disguises were. However, in the painting Vertumnus and Pomona, his disguise is much less convincing. While Vertumnus, disguised as an old woman, has an aged face, his leg and arm are clearly much more chiseled than a typical old woman’s. This muscular detail hints to Pomona that the old woman is truly Vertumnus, but similarly to Ovid’s tale, she remains oblivious  to Vertumnus’s true identity. Even though the two representations of Vertumnus’s disguise are different, the core idea of Pomona’s obliviousness remains the same. 

Another key difference between the two works is the physical presence of Eros, or Cupid. Ovid never mentions the physical manifestation of Eros in his story, although he does make reference to Venys using antonomasia. The physical presence of Eros is a key difference in Roos’s and Dyck’s painting, even though the overall theme of love is a common factor in the two works. The simultaneous similarities and differences communicate the most important aspects of the story: Pomona’s oblivion to Vertumnus’ disguised charm and the theme of love.