Ovid’s Cephalus and the dangers of mistranslation

Abstract

This paper considers misunderstandings found within the story of Cephalus and Procris in Metamorphoses 7, misunderstandings that are regularly repeated in the scholarly interpretations and English translations of this episode. The interpretive challenges posed by Cephalus’ tale are indeed akin to those faced by the Ovidian translator, whose interpretive choices will influence how later readers construe his often ambiguous words. Whereas others see Cephalus as an unreliable narrator whose claim to have been raped by Aurora is open to doubt, I argue that his words are best read as he tells us to read them. Misunderstanding is due not to Cephalus’ unreliability but to the interpretive challenges posed by the changeable Ovidian world he inhabits, a world that is labyrinthine and ambiguous. Ovid himself helps us navigate the mazelike structure of Cephalus’ narrative by verbal clues and intra-/intertextual parallels that clearly align Cephalus with other rape victims in the epic. By understanding Cephalus first and foremost as a rape victim, his actions and words become more intelligible and shed light on the themes of rape, masculinity, and power within the epic as a whole.