Bulfinch’s Mythology · Chapter
Vertumnus and Pomona explained
Pomona, a wood-nymph devoted to gardening and fruit cultivation, spurns all suitors, including the god Vertumnus, who repeatedly gains access to her orchard in various disguises.
What happens
Pomona, a wood-nymph devoted to gardening and fruit cultivation, spurns all suitors, including the god Vertumnus, who repeatedly gains access to her orchard in various disguises. Finally, he appears as an old woman and tells her the story of Iphis and Anaxarete to warn against cruelty in love. He then reveals his true youthful form, and Pomona, won over by his arguments and appearance, returns his love.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Transformation
Vertumnus transforms into many disguises to approach Pomona, and the story of Iphis and Anaxarete illustrates the transformative power of love and its tragic consequences.
Hubris and Divine Retribution
Anaxarete's cruel pride leads to her being turned to stone by the gods, a punishment for her hard-heartedness.
Characters to notice
- Pomona
A Hamadryad nymph devoted to gardening and fruit cultivation; she initially spurns all suitors but eventually accepts Vertumnus.
- Vertumnus
A god who loves Pomona and uses various disguises to gain access to her orchard; he finally wins her by revealing his true form.
- Iphis
A young man of humble birth who hangs himself after being cruelly rejected by Anaxarete; his story is told by Vertumnus to Pomona.
- Anaxarete
A noble lady who scorns Iphis and is turned to stone as punishment; her statue stands in the temple of Venus.
Key passages
“Her right hand bore for its weapon not a javelin, but a pruning-knife. Armed with this, she busied herself at one time to repress the too luxuriant growths, and curtail the branches that straggled out of place; at another, to split the twig and insert therein a graft, making the branch adopt a nursling not its own.”
Pomona's tool was a pruning knife, not a spear, and she used it to trim overgrown branches and graft new shoots onto trees.
Describes Pomona's gardening activities.
“She was deafer than the surges which rise in the November gale; harder than steel from the German forges, or a rock that still clings to its native cliff.”
She was more unresponsive than stormy waves, harder than forged steel, or a rock rooted in a cliff.
Describes Anaxarete's cruel indifference to Iphis.
“It appeared to her like the sun bursting through a cloud.”
To Pomona, Vertumnus's true form was as striking as sunlight breaking through clouds.
Pomona's reaction when Vertumnus reveals himself.