Apollo and Daphne - Chastity Vs. Lust

Chastity Vs. Lust

The myth of Apollo and Daphne has been examined as a battle between chastity (Daphne) and sexual desires (Apollo). As Apollo lustfully pursues Daphne, she is saved through her metamorphosis and confinement into the laurel tree which can be seen as an act of eternal chastity. Daphne is forced to sacrifice her body and become the laurel tree as her only form of escape from the pressures of Apollo’s constant sexual desires. Apollo takes Daphne’s eternal chastity and crafts himself a wreath out of her laurel branches turning her symbol of chastity into a cultural symbol for him and other poets and musicians.

Read more about this topic:  Apollo And Daphne

Famous quotes containing the words chastity and/or lust:

    A woman’s chastity consists, like an onion, of a series of coats.
    Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864)

    No man, said Birkin, cuts another man’s throat unless he wants to cut it, and unless the other man wants it cutting. This is a complete truth. It takes two people to make a murder: a murderer and a murderee.... And a man who is murderable is a man who has in a profound if hidden lust desires to be murdered.
    —D.H. (David Herbert)