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Title
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Myrrha schlafft bey irem Vatter
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Description
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This engraving illustrates a young girl named Myrrha being led by her nurse to a bed with a man lying in it. The man is Myrrha’s father, Cinyras, who Myrrha is incestuously in love with. Myrrha’s nurse told Cinyras that she could provide him with a young girl who lusted over him, and Cinyras fully obliged. Without telling Cinyras that the girl is in fact his own daughter, the nurse leads Myrrha to him in the night so that he cannot see his daughter’s face. There is a screech owl depicted sitting above the bed. The owl represents an omen which warns Myrrha that she should not go through with the act. Myrrha ignores the omens and the father and daughter continue to have an affair, until one night when Cinyras desired to see his lovers face, he lit a candle and held up the light to see that it was his daughter. Cinyras is illustrated in the background of the engraving angrily chasing after Myrrha for what she had done.
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Image Creator
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Virgil Solis (Engraver)
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Identifier
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mta:23197
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Source Name
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P. Ouidij Nasonis, deß Sinnreichen und hochverstendigen Poeten, Metamorphoses oder Verwandlung, mit schönen figuren gezieret, auch kurzen Argumenten und außlegungen erkläret, und in Teutsche Reymen gebracht, durch Johann Spreng von Augspurg [Publius Ovidius Naso, the Ingenious and Highly Understandable Poet, Metamorphoses or Transformations, Adorned with Beautiful Images, and also descriptions of Short Arguments and Explanations, Brought into German Rhymes by Johann Spreng of Augsburg]
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Image
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mta_23197_OBJ.jpg
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Subject
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Myrrha
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Cinyras
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Incest
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Roman Mythology
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Greek Mythology
mta_23197_OBJ.jpg