Romantic
Warfare: Love as a Divine Weapon in Ovid’s Metamorphoses
Following
Phoebus’ slaughter of the python, he confronts Cupid about the bow he wields.
Phoebus mocks Cupid’s small form and tiny weapon and explains how a bow is not
fit for a child, as it is a means of war and death. Cupid replies with the
following passage: “Your shafts may pierce all things, o Phoebus, but you’ll be
transfixed by mine; and even as all earthly things can never equal any deity,
so shall your glory be no match for mine” (Ovid, 21). Although Phoebus’ arrows
have the ability to kill or injure living things, Cupid is the more powerful of
the two regardless of his size or physical strength. The reasoning behind this
argument is that Phoebus and all other Gods of physical warfare are limited to
the manipulation of life for mortal beings, while divine entities may be
victims of Cupid’s arrows. In this sense, the abuse of romantic love is used as
a more destructive tool of war between the Gods than physical violence.
