Beginning of Essay
, two of Ovid’s impassioned, transgressive heroines, confess incestuous passions. Byblis yearns for her brother, Caunus, and Myrrha lusts for her father, Cinyras. Mandelbaum translates these tales effectively, but sometimes a different translation by Crane brin ....

Middle of Essay
.... desires. Instead she is “forlorn- denied the very man for whom [she longs]” (339). In Crane’s translation, Myrrha considers herself “most depraved” (on-line). All of these revelations compel readers to feel sorry for the girls in their situations; they seem to be victims of their desires. both denounce their passions. After Byblis awakes from dreaming intimately about her brother, she claims she would never want to see this scene in daylight (Mandelbaum 308). Later in her speech, she refers to her incestuous pursuit as a “forbidden course” and to her burning desires as “obscene, foul fires” (309). According to Crane, Byblis c ....