Scansion

For my scansion analysis I decided to compare the first five lines of Pygmalion to the first five lines of Cinyras and Myrrha, to see how the tone of the story influences the meter of the text. The story of Pygmalion opens at a festival of Venus, the goddess of love, setting up for the story to be a romantic tale. As such, plenty of dactyls are used, hurrying the lines to their climax and only slowing down towards the last two lines, where Pygmalion is too shy to admit his love for his sculpture, instead asking for a wife that resembles her. In contrast, the story of Cinryas opens with a warning directly from the poet, that this story will be disturbing and immoral, advising fathers and daughters to not hear him, or if they do, to listen to the punishment that falls to the characters of the story. In keeping with the tone, the lines have a slightly slower pace, almost like the speaker is trying to drag their feet to avoid telling the story that follows. This is especially true in the last line, where it is laid out that the story will include a punishment for its characters that commit the act of sin.