1. In general, blood in Homer and late epic is dark or black, in contrast to the whiteness of the wounded flesh. In lyric genres blood is usually red. See André, J., Étude sur les termes de couleur dans la langue latine (Paris, 1949), 327–28Google Scholar for the relevant evidence from Greek and Latin poetry. In the Metamorphoses, blood is usually red: 11.607: Candida puniceo perfudit membra cruore (‘she drenched her white limbs in red blood’); V.83: rutilum vomit ille cruorem (‘he vomits red blood’); VIII.383: exiguo rubefecit sanguine saetas (‘it reddened the bristles with a little blood’), and elsewhere. But it is also associated with ater and niger (‘black’ or ‘dark’) in the description of the mulberry tree, IV.51-52 and 125-27. See also note 17 below.

2. The red or rose-colored tint to the skin is commonplace in Greek erotic poetry and in Roman poetry after Catullus. See André (n.1 above), 325. In the Metamorphoses, see these examples: 1.484: pulchra verecundo subfuderat ora rubore (‘colored fair face with modest red’); III. 183-85: qui color infectis adversi solis ab ictu/nubibus esse solet aut purpureae Aurorae, /is fuit in vultu visaesine veste Dianae (‘the color clouds get, struck and tinged by the sun's angle, or that of the purple dawn, was the one in the face of Diana seen naked’), and elsewhere.

3. Met. III.483-84: non aliter quam poma solent, quae candida parte/parte rubent (‘as apples often do, which, white in part, in part are red’); VIII.676: et de purpureis conlectae vitibus uvae (‘and grapes gathered from the purple vines’), and elsewhere.

4. Met. X.267: conlocat hanc stratis concha Sidonide tinctis (‘he arranges her on a bed colored with Sidonian dye’); X.211-12: desinit esse cruor, Tyrioque nitentior ostro/flos oritur (‘it is no longer blood, and a flower outshining Tyrian purple springs up’), and elsewhere.

5. Met. II.116: mundum rubescere vidit (‘he saw the world redden’); VI.47-48: ut solet aër purpureus fieri, cum primum Aurora movetur (‘as the sky is known to become purple when the dawn first shows’); VII.705: quod sit roseo spectabilis ore (‘though she may be conspicuous by her rosy face’) — of Aurora; III. 183-85 in note 2, above, and elsewhere.

6. Met. XIV.313: niveo factum de marmore signum (‘statue made from snowy marble’). See André (n. 1 above), 340: ‘De toutes les variétés du marbre, la blanche était, à l'origine, la plus recherchée. Aussi le dérivé marmoreus devint-il un synonyme de candidus.' There are in the Metamorphoses numerous examples of humans and animals changing into stone or marble statues who are described as growing pale and bloodless: II.824: pallent amisso sanguine venae (‘the veins turn pale with loss of blood’); V.249: ore Medusaeo silicem sine sanguine fecit (‘with Medusa's face he turned it to bloodless flint’), and elsewhere.

7. Met. X.247-48: interea niveum mirafeliciter arte/sculpsit ebur (‘meanwhile with amazing skill he successfully carved snowy ivory’); and elsewhere where eburneus has the general significance of white.

8. Met. IV.355: Candida lilia (‘white lilies’); X.212-13: formamque capit, quam Mia, si non/purpureus color his, argenteus esset in illis (‘it takes the form lilies have, except the one is purplish in color, the other silvery’).

9. Met. VI.49: et breve post tempus candescere solis ab ortu (‘and after a short time becomes white when the sun is up’); XV. 194: candidus in summo est (‘at its highest it is white’). See André (n. 1 above), 336: ‘Le soleil est avant tout l'astre “au disque d'or” … Mais il est aussi des Ennius le soleil “d'une blancheur éblouissante”.’

10. Segal, Charles, Landscape in Ovid's Metamorphoses: A Study in the Transformation of a Literary Symbol, Hermes Einzelschrift 23 (Wiesbaden, 1969), 46 Google Scholar, refers the image of apples and unripe grapes to the traditions of Greek lyric. Though the erotic associations of these fruits are indeed of great antiquity, it is Ovid's contribution to have shifted the focus from their red or purple color to their contrasting tones of red and white.

11. Ovid dresses the god Hymenaeus in saffron-dyed clothes, Met. X.1. Anderson notes, Ovid's Metamorphoses Books 6-10 (Norman, Okla., 1972), 476 Google Scholar, note to X.1-3, that ‘saffron was the color for Roman brides to wear’.

12. Croceus refers to colors from yellow through orange and red. See André (n. 1 above), 154. Fraenkel, Hermann, Ovid: A Poet between Two Worlds (Berkeley, 1945), 214 Google Scholar, note 36: ‘Croceus in line 509 stands for “reddish” in general, not distinguishing a particular shade, as can be seen from Ovid's describing the crocus flower as ruber (Fasti I. 342; Am. II.6.22, next to Punica; Ars. Amat. I.104) or puniceus (Fasti V.318).’ See also Boemer, , Metamorphosen I-III (Heidelberg, 1969), 570 Google Scholar, note to lines 509-10, for additional examples of the poetic treatment of the narcissus as a reddish flower.

13. Manuwald, Bernd, ‘Narcissus bei Konon und Ovid’, Hermes 103 (1975), 365–66Google Scholar, argues that the emphasis on red and white in the description of Narcissus is indicative of his beauty alone, and that his loss of color before death merely signals the loss of his beauty. He appears to base his argument upon André, who says of the color red (n. 1 above, 326): ‘Le rouge se prête avant tout à l'évocation des sentiments qui s'expriment sur le visage, colère et surtout honte et pudeur, et le thème de la pudeur rejoint celui de la beauté féminine, puisqu'il n'est qu'un charme de plus.’ Of the combination of red and white, André says (347): ‘La moitié ses exemples intéressent les tons gracieux du visage, blanc, rose et rouge, du visage féminin surtout … Les autres associations ont un caractère en général accidental.’ It is the aim of this essay to demonstrate that, in the Metamorphoses at least, the other associations of red and white are not accidental, and that Ovid's fascination with this color contrast is more than an interest in physical beauty or a reliance upon poetic cliché. Segal (n. 10 above), 34-35, finds the flower expressive not in its color contrast but in its self-enclosure: ‘The detail underlines both the ambiguous irony of Narcissus’ “innocence” and the self-enclosed character of his surrender to love.’ While I do not quarrel with Segal's interpretation, I would go further to say that the flower represents not only the particular psychic experience of Narcissus but a more general experience of Ovidian lovers who meet passion for the first time.

14. See particularly Am. I.5.7-8: ilia verecundis lux est praebenda puellis,/qua timidus latebras speret habere pudor (‘that light should be given to bashful girls, so timid modesty may hope for concealment’).

15. I cannot find reference in Ovid to the whiteness of the lamb, though it is called nitida (‘shining’) by Horace (Sat. II.3.214) and candidus (‘white’) by Tibullus (II.5.38). According to André (n. 1 above), 338: ‘L'agneau est toujours blanc …’ The dove is termed white in Met. XIII.674: niveas columbas (‘snowy doves’). Again according to André, 339: ‘Il n'était pas non plus d'autre pigeon ou colombe que blanc’

16. Daphne fleeing Apollo is compared to both the dove and the lamb, 1.505-6. Arethusa, fleeing the river Alphaeus, is also compared to the dove (V.605-6) and the lamb (V.626).

17. On the use of words denoting ‘darkness’ or ‘blackness’ (niger, ater) for the redness of blood see note 1 above. The color of the mulberry is defined in the Oxford dictionary as ‘reddish black’. In the Pyramus and Thisbe story Ovid on the superficial level emphasizes the blackness of the fruit for a very obvious reason: it stands for mourning and death:

Permaturuit is significant because the mulberry becomes very dark only when very ripe. When unripe it is white, when almost ripe it is a definite shade of red. Ovid clearly depends upon the reader's knowledge of this process. Pyramus' blood makes the berries red (purpureo, 127), this color darkening to a funereal black (atert 165) by the time their bodies are placed upon the pyre (166). On the symbolic level it is the reddish aspect that is most important.

18. When Daphne is compared to a Iamb or a deer, Apollo is the wolf or the lion (I.505).

19. X.681-707; cf. esp. 704. For the particular association of the lioness with Inanna/Istar/Aphrodite, see. Duke, T. T., ‘Ovid's Pyramus and Thisbe’, CJ 66 (1971), 323–24Google Scholar.

20. Segal (n. 10 above), 50, includes the veil among the other, more overt, sexual symbols such as the sword and the gush of Pyramus' blood. The torn veil also represents the violation of a personal boundary, and as such has more than erotic significance.

21. Pallor frequently follows the blush of shame. It is a response of fear and grief, experienced by the beloved who is on the point of being captured (Daphne, 1.543: viribus absumptis expalluit ora, ‘her strength exhausted, she grew pale in the face’) and by the lover recently committed to a shameful course. When Medea first conceives her passion for Jason, she blushes (VII.78: erubuere genae). Later, when she sees him surrounded by the sown men and is confirmed in her love, she grows pale (VII. 136): palluit et subito sine sanguine frigida sedit, ‘she grew pale and, suddenly bloodless, cold, sat down’). When Byblis first imagines making love to her brother, she blushes (IX.471: erubuit), but when she is rejected by him and desperate, she grows pale (IX.581: palles audita, Bybli, repulsa, ‘you grow pale, Byblis, when you hear you are rejected’). Myrrha, on the threshold of her father's bedchamber, also pales: fugitque/et color et sanguis (‘both color and blood depart’, X.458-59). In a non-erotic context, perhaps the best example of the two states of mind represented by blush and pallor occurs in Althaea as she contemplates the death of her son: saepe metu sceleris pallebant ora futuri:/saepe suum fervens oculis dabat ira ruborem (‘often her face grew pale with fear of the future crime; often raging anger would lend its own redness to her eyes’, VIII.465-66). In an erotic context, the lover who grows pale does so in the face of death, his own (Narcissus, III.491) or his beloved's (Apollo, X.185), as well as in the face of his intended crime (Myrrha). Pallor is the significant mark of the Underworld (IV.436: pallor hiemsque tenent late loca senta, ‘pallor and cold occupy the rugged tract’), where it is also associated with cold as in the above example of Medea. Pallor is the sign as well of Invidia (II.775: pallor in ore sedet, ‘a pallor settles on her face’) and of Hunger (VIII.801: pallor in ore). Invidia and Hunger are manifestations of cupido, which leads lovers like Pyramus and Thisbe to seek total possession of one another and which instead often results in death.

22. eiaculatur. For the erotic associations of this word, see Pierrugues, P., Glossarium Eroticum Linguae Latinae (Paris, 1826; reprinted Amsterdam, 1965), 190 Google Scholar.

23. Fallere is a word commonly used for the deception of the elegiac coniunx or his agents, the custodes. Cf. in this tale IV.85 (fallere custodes, ‘deceive the guardians’) and 94 (fallitque suos, ‘and deceives her own’).

24. We should again note that the mulberries are dark when thoroughly ripe (IV. 165: ubi permaturuit), like the ripe fruit of the lover's passion (see also note 17 above). Compare the ripening apples in the simile for Narcissus (III.483ff.).

25. Otis, Brooks, Ovid as an Epic Poet (Cambridge, 1970), 215 Google Scholar: ‘Pyramus and Thisbe were only the youthful victims of an accident.’

26. Segal (n. 10 above), 49-50, also sees the tale as one which ‘involves the confrontation between purity and violence and the loss of innocence’. He sees loss of innocence, however, as the inevitable sacrifice made upon crossing the boundary from childhood to maturity, and points to the maturation of the mulberries as the emblem of this initiation. Again, while I cannot disagree with this interpretation, I wish to shift the emphasis. The boundary which Pyramus and Thisbe attempt to cross, with such disastrous consequences, is not the threshold of adulthood, but the boundary of the self. Throughout the Metamorphoses, it is not just the young and innocent who are destroyed by the erotic obliteration of personal boundaries, but all those who are overtaken by a similar passion. Refined love in Ovid is neither cool white nor fiery red. Rather it is the thoroughly urbane and civilized experience of the elegiac lover, who cultivates boundaries and obstacles and maintains at all cost his self-integrity.

27. I cannot help but compare the crack in the wall to the little opening in the door through which the lover of Am. I.6 hopes to slip his body, made thin by his long love. Throughout the elegies, Ovid emphasizes the beneficial aspects of boundaries like the door and obstacles like the coniunx. See especially elegies II. 19 and III.4. He is also very clear about the importance of some judicious deception between lovers, as in I.4 and III. 14. The proper goal of the Ovidian lover is not total possession or even mutual possession, but mutual disengagement, a willingness to submit to the fantasy of love so as to be spared its real torment.

28. Otis (n. 25 above), 155: ‘Though the metamorphosis is slight and inconsequential, the theme of mutual love (love too strong to endure separation) is fully developed.’ This is precisely the sort of love which Ovid seems to find so dangerous, as witnessed by the pathos of the tale of Ceyx and Alcyone. He himself recommends a little separation now and then (Ars. Amat. II.349ff.) and demonstrates how love can not only be made to endure separation but even to profit by it (Am. II.12).

29. I would like to acknowledge assistance in the completion of this paper from a great many sources. An anonymous reader for Ramus provided sensitive and copious suggestions which improved the tone and argument of the paper. Other readers contributing advice were Eleanor Winsor Leach, Marylin Arthur, Roger Hornsby, Archibald Allen, Charles Segal, and David Konstan, without whose help this effort could never have reached publication. I of course accept responsibility for all errors of commission or distortion.