The Tale of Neptune and Cornix (CA, V, 6145-6217)

Author/Editor
Ruyak, Natalie Epinger

Title
The Tale of Neptune and Cornix (CA, V, 6145-6217)

Published
Ruyak, Natalie Epinger. "The Tale of Neptune and Cornix (CA, V, 6145-6217)." In John Gower's Literary Transformations in the Confessio Amantis: Original Articles and Translations. Ed. Beidler, Peter G. Washington, D. C.: University Press of America, 1982, pp. 71-74. ISBN 081925962

Review
Ruyak summarizes Ovid's tale of Neptune's attempted seduction of Cornix ("Metamorphoses" 2.569-88) and identifies ways that Gower alters Ovid's version in his own account in CA 5.6145-6217. Gower emphasizes Cornix's despair and her desire to retain her virginity, and the poet adds "functional imagery," transforming the rape in Ovid's original into a matter of theft or robbery--a kind of avarice. [MA]

Date
1982

Gower Subjects
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations
Confessio Amantis