Apollo & Daphne

1. Apollo & Daphne Abbey Darmody, Dylan Hixson & Stanford McConnehey

2. Summary: • Daphne, the daughter of the river god Peneus, is a nymph who loves nature. • Apollo the god of music and medicine is an arrogant sportsman. • One day, Apollo sees Cupid playing with bows and arrows. Apollo, thinking he is all that, insults Cupid by telling him to “leave warlike weapons for hands worthy of them.” Cupid threatens that one day his arrows will Strike Apollo. • Cupid hits Apollo with an arrow of gold with a sharpened point that makes him seized with the desire for love. • Shortly after, Cupid strikes the nymph Daphne with a blunt-tipped arrow made of lead that makes her abhor the thought of loving. • Daphne views marriage as a crime. To her father’s dismay she pleads to him, “Dearest, father grant me this favor, that I may always remain unmarried.” Her father agrees to her request, but doubts that it will become true because Daphne is so beautiful. • Apollo becomes fascinated with Daphne to a point of obsession. He marvels at her physical beauty and has an undying lust for her. • Apollo details to Daphne how well suited of a bachelor he is for her. This does not affect Daphne and she walks away leaving Apollo’s declaration unanswered. Daphne flies away and Apollo begins to chase her. The chase is heated and very animalistic as if Apollo is a predator chasing after his prey. • Apollo becomes extremely frustrated and is motivated strongly by his love for Daphne. Daphne begins to fear that Apollo may actually catch up to her. • In realizing Apollo is going to catch up with her if she doesn’t do something, Daphne pleas to her father saying, “Help me! Open the earth to enclose me, or change my form, which has brought me into this danger!” • Immediately as she finished her request Daphne’s limbs became stiff, her hair turned into leaves, and her skin turned to bark. Daphne’s feet became rooted into the ground as she transformed completely into a laurel tree, looking nothing like she had before, but still equally as beautiful. • Apollo was amazed by Daphne’s transformation. Apollo declares his still undying love, now for the tree. He says that he will grant the tree eternal life and use it to decorate his crown. The nymph, now tree, bowed her head in grateful acknowledgement of this arrangement.

3. Significance: • Warns of the perils of pursuit of love and the dangers of obsession • Sets the stereotype that men should pursue women • Concept of Cupid: We don’t choose who we love

4. Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne • Life Sized, Marble, Created in the time between 1622-25 • Narrative in sculpture • Observing the sculpture from different angles reveals the progression of the story itself. • Daphne’s transformation • The emotion displayed on Daphne’s face tell of the archetype of ‘emotional women’ and the sculpture demonstrates her despair over being overtaken by Apollo even during her transformation • Apollo’s femininity • Apollo is portrayed as a beautiful boy in this story, God-like. A sense of feminine beauty displays the androgynous ideal of beauty at the time of sculpting and the emotions on his face, and his hanging onto Daphne during her transformation tell his story of obsession.

5. Tip-Offs -Cupid -Arrows -Love -Unrequitted love -Obsessive Love -Gold vs. Lead -Trees (Laurel) -Man chase women -Gods or Nymphs

6. Other Allusions: Apollo Chasing Daphne (1861) by Carlo Maratta • Girl in 80’s video game “Dragon Lair” is named Daphne • Knight goes through many trials all in chase of saving her from dragon

7. “Of Mice and Men” by Steinbeck • Lenny has issues with obsession that ultimately lead to him pursuing a woman to the point of killing her Handel’s opera “Apollo e Dafne”