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Contextualized-Theme Essay: ‘Jupiter and Callisto’, and ‘The rape of Proserpina’
Through Ovid’s collection of myths in his Metamorphoses, readers can glance into the
world of the past. These myths offer readers, a deeper look at the institutions within ancient
Rome, and the values held by the Roman people. Intertwined in Ovid’s portrayal of Jupiter and
Callisto, and The Rape of Proserpina is a theme of female inferiority. When we examine this
theme with historical context from ancient Rome, we can view societal institutions and values
that not only accepted, but perpetuated female inferiority. While it is easy to assume that this
vice is no longer present in society, this is not the case; female inferiority remains present in
society, manifested in new forms.
The myth of Jupiter, king of the Gods, and Callisto the nymph, located in Book Two of
Ovid’s Metamorphoses, opens with Jupiter surveying the earth for destruction caused by
Phaethon’s, son of the God of the sun Phoebus, attempt to drive his father’s chariot through the
sky. Jupiter consolidated his efforts in Arcadia; in his coming and goings as he restored rivers
and forests he became infatuated with an Arcadian Virgin, Callisto, who served as a soldier in
Phoebe’s (Diana) troop. Diana, the sister of Phoebus, and Goddess of the hunt “favored
[Callisto] best- but no one’s favor is lasting” (Met., 67).
Ovid tells us that “when Jupiter Spied her lying exhausted and unprotected, he reckoned:
‘My wife will never discover this tiny betrayal… if she does the joy will make up for the
scolding’” (Met., 68). Jupiter, disguised in Diana’s features and dress, approached Callisto, and
passionately kissed her, and once exposed, raped her. Following this felony, Jupiter re-ascended,
leaving Callisto to “detest the forest and woodlands which knew her secret” (Met.,68). Callisto
masked her impurity once Diana arrives, focusing her eyes downward and remaining clothed;
she is revealed to be pregnant when Diana’s other maidens stripped her to bathe. Her “naked
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body exposed her shame”, but it is said by Ovid that “Diana well could have detected her guilt
for a thousand tokens” (Met., 69-70). Diana cast Callisto out, having lost her virtue. Juno, queen
of the Gods and sister-wife of Jupiter, furious that Callisto had relations with her husband, turned
her into a bear following the birth of Callisto’s son, Arcas. She was turned into a bear to both
eliminated her beauty, and “prevent her appealing for pity, by prayers or words of entreaty… her
powers of speech were wrested away” (Met., 71).
While hunting at the age of fifteen, Arcas encountered his mother and unknowingly
attempted to kill her. Jupiter intervened, changing them both into constellations today known as
Ursa Major and Minor. Seeing her rival will sparkle for eternity enraged Juno, who traveled to
Tethys, her foster mother, and Tethys’ brother-husband the ancient Oceanus, and begged them to
deny the constellations’ reflection to pollute their waters, by moving the constellations below the
horizon (Met., 72-73). This summary can be further broken down to focus only on the main
events, including: Jupiter’s rape of Callisto, Diana’s reaction of sending Callisto away, and Juno
punishing Callisto by turning her into a bear.
The Rape of Proserpina—found in Book 5 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, begins by
illustrating that the island of Sicily rests on the back of the giant Typhon, who regularly
struggled to free himself. His strain was so colossal that even Lord Pluto feared he could
mistakenly open a chasm in the Earth’s crust, bringing light to the souls down under and
unsettling them. Out of this anxiety Pluto traveled on his black-horse-drawn chariot to the
surface where he spied Proserpina, daughter of the Ceres the Goddess of grain and agriculture,
“plucking violets and pure white lilies” (Met., 193), and abducted her. He escaped with her,
screaming for her mother. The most famous Sicilian river nymph, Cyane, attempted to stop him
from taking Proserpina without her mother’s consent. Refusing to hold back his rage from her
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attempts, Pluto hurled his scepter into Cyane’s pool, opening a portal to the underworld. Cyane,
feeling so violated after having a portal to Hades opened within her own body of water, sank into
her depths and became a lifeless being—she was one with the water, lacking all characteristics of
human form. Ceres, finding her daughter missing, searched for Proserpina until “no countries
were left for her to explore” (Met. 196). After nearly giving up, she found Proserpina’s girdle at
Cyane’s pool, as it had fallen off as Pluto fought with Cyane. In her rage, she wrecked the
ploughs, cursed the soil, killed livestock and farmers alike, and instructed the fields to stop
producing their fertile crops. The river nymph Arethusa then told Ceres what had occurred, and
where Proserpina had been taken; Cyane cannot tell her since she can no longer speak. Goddess
Ceres “drove her chariot straight to the realm of the sky” to speak to Jupiter to plead for help;
Jupiter claimed that Pluto has committed no crime, but an act of love (Met.,199). Jupiter settled
the conflict by dividing Proserpina’s time within the year between her mother and Pluto; she will
spend six months per year with each of them.
The details of these of two myths are significantly different from one another; however,
when we examine the deeper meaning within each myth, we can identify vital similarities that
lead to the theme of female inferiority being present. The myths differ in simple ways from the
particular God that acts as an abuser, Jupiter in the first myth and Pluto in the second. Within the
first myth the victim, Callisto, is raped, while Proserpina is not. She is forced into a marriage. In
the myth of Callisto the victim experiences two punishments; Callisto is transformed into a bear,
and then honored by metamorphosing into a constellation. Proserpina is not necessarily
punished; however, she is forced to spend half of every year with Pluto, her husband. Callisto,
the character that the myth is focused on, experiences a physical transformation while only a
nymph experiences a transformation in the myth of Proserpina’s rape. One similarity that can be
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seen between the two myths is the fact that the two Gods, who can be seen as the abusers, both
come to realm of the humans in order to inspect for possible damage – Jupiter, for damage
caused by Phaethon, and Pluto for damage caused by Typhon’s struggling.
Looking at the historical events that occurred during the lifetime of author Ovid can offer
even more context to these myths. While Ovid lived there are two important events that occurred
that I will focus on; his exile, and Augustus becoming emperor of Rome. It is interesting to
notice how Callisto is exiled by Diana, and Proserpina is, in a sense, exiled to the underworld.
This is a direct relation to the way Ovid was exiled from Rome. Both Ovid, and the female
characters in his myths have a desire to return, yet cannot. Looking at Augustus becoming
emperor, we see the power of the Roman people stolen in a sense, by a man of higher power. In
the myths written by Ovid, the dignity and rights of Callisto are violated by Jupiter, and further
by Juno. Proserpina also loses her right to free will, as she is violated by Pluto and forced to live
with him as his wife.
It is likely that the author of these two myths, Ovid (43BC-17AD), intended for the
original audiences to be women. I claim that these myths were likely told in order to propagate
the inferiority of women in that time period. We see here stories of two women who were
abused, violated, and demeaned by higher power males who then received no punishment; rather,
the women were punished. Stories like these were likely used during Roman times to keep
women ‘in their place’, and reassure the assertion that men were of greater position in society,
with more free will to act as they pleased: especially towards women. Author Valerie M. Warrior
of Roman Religion offers us clear historical evidence of the fact that men were given greater
position in society, while women were subjugated and treated as property. According to Warrior,
“it was the duty of the paterfamilias to tend to the family cult… and to ensure the well-being of
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the whole household” (RR, 28). We are given further insight into the institutional aspects of
female inferiority further into Warrior’s book when she asserts that “upon a marriage a woman
would pass from her father’s command to the manus (hand) of her husband… a marriage would
be arranged with the parents of the groom by the bride’s father” (RR. 30-1). What these pieces of
information offer us is an understanding of the fact that in ancient Rome women were regarded
as property of their male counterparts. Warriors assertion that “the gods… could be benevolent
or malevolent toward mankind; their existence and omnipresence were no guarantee of divine
good will” (RR., 5). Here Warrior offers perfect context to the malevolent actions taken by the
Gods in Ovid’s myths, and their lack of punishment due to their omnipotence and divine power.
Warrior goes on to explain how it was the role of the father to perform marriage rituals, which
were “arranged… by the brides father” (RR., 31). The purpose of marriage was the procreation
of sons in order to ensure a continued lineage (RR., 31). The father handed off the rights of the
daughter to her husband as if she were property. Warrior illuminates a picture “of male
predominance… women generally played subordinate roles” (RR., 30). Here she is speaking
about roles in rituals, yet this applies to their role in society as well. She speaks in her eighth
chapter of how men would perform ‘spells’ and rituals in order to win over the heart of a woman,
and if they failed, perform rituals begging for the woman to die, or experience torturous pain.
Looking at this historical context we can see even more so, how these myths displayed
aspects of Roman society. In the myth of Jupiter and Callisto we see a female raped out of lust,
with her feelings and rights uncared for. This is similar to how men would perform spells to
enchant women into loving them; their emotions and rights not cared for at the beginning, and
especially not if the spells failed to work, and the male asked the Gods to bring the woman’s life
to a brutal end. We see in the case of Proserpina, an example of an arranged marriage; handing a
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female off to another male like an object, not accounting for any real love felt by the woman. We
can clearly see the idea of male predominance in the Roman societal institutions, when Jupiter
and Pluto fail to receive any punishment, or anger as a result of their actions. As I mentioned
above, Callisto is the only one punished for her own rape; she is exiled, and attacked by Goddess
Juno. It is likely that Roman society would have responded to a rape victim in the same manner.
Proserpina is punished, and forced to wed Pluto merely because Jupiter believes he has
committed an act of love. Both women are violated with no consideration for their own rights
and dignity. Diana punishes Callisto with exile, rather than directing her anger towards Jupiter,
or Juno for their actions against one of her maidens. Ceres timidly goes to Jupiter to look for help
in retrieving her daughter from Hades, but does not act out to demand that Jupiter not allow this
arranged marriage to continue against her daughters will. Even Goddesses were lesser than Gods.
Now, the argument will of course be made that this issue is in the past, and cannot be
found in modern society; however, I disagree. The theme of female inferiority is still present in
societal institutions, and this is unacceptable. Female inferiority does not manifest itself in the
same fashion as it once did; arranged marriages are not as prominent, women are not openly
viewed as lesser than men by the majority of our society, and females have joined societal
institutions to a greater extent. By this I mean that females have entered the work force, the
political sphere, obtained the right to vote, and increased their standing in society to a great
extent. However, we continue to see remnants of these past institutions in new forms. By this I
mean vices such as rape culture. Rape culture is present in our society in the way that we blame
female victims when they are abused by a male. We have all heard things like: ‘she was asking
for it’, ‘she didn’t say no’, ‘she was dressed like she was looking for sex’, ‘he was drunk its not
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his fault’. All of these excuses take blame away from the male perpetrator, excusing their
behavior, and place blame on the female victim.
One specific example of this is the case of the Canadian judge Robin Camp. Judge camp
presided over a rape case in 2014, as a provincial judge—he later became a federal judge. The
female victim claimed to have been raped over a bathroom sink at a house party. Judge Camp
openly wondered “why couldn’t you just keep your knees together?”, and asked the victim why
she didn’t just “skew her pelvis”, as reported by CNN’s Aj Willingham and Carma Hassan. The
Judge is also reported to have said that “young women want to have sex, particularly if they’re
drunk” (Willingham, Hassan). This case is the perfect example of rape culture. Rather than
comment on the vile actions taken by the male defendant, this judge chose to question the actions
of the female victim. Asking a woman why she could not keep her knees together to ward off her
own rape is not only vile, but perfectly represents how female inferiority has manifested itself in
modern times. His decision to claim that she wanted the sex because she was drunk, is merely an
attempt to justify the actions taken by her rapist, in the same way Jupiter justified his actions to
himself, and justified Pluto’s actions to Ceres.
Ancient Roman institutions held values that left women inferior to men, both publicly
and privately. We see themes of such inferiority specifically in Ovid’s telling of Jupiter and
Callisto, and The Rape of Proserpina. Both of these myths involve females being abused in some
way by a superior male, who receives no punishment. While many people assume that female
inferiority is no longer present in modern societies, I disagree. We see an example of modern
female inferiority in the rape culture that our society has allowed to persist. The same female
inferiority seen in Roman society exists to a lesser extent today; it has simply taken new forms to
disguise itself.
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Works Cited
Warrior, Valerie M. Roman Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Ovid, and Mary M. Innes. The Metamorphoses of Ovid. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England:
Penguin Books, 1955.
Willingham, AJ, and Carma Hassan. “Judge to Woman in Rape Case: 'Why Couldn't You Just
Keep Your Knees Together?'.” CNN, Cable News Network, 13 Sept. 2016,
www.cnn.com/2016/09/12/world/robin-camp-rape-comments-trnd/.