Traditions: Greek mythography, Apollodorus; Roman poetry, Ovid Motif: A hunting weapon kills a spouse Connection verdict: Related named tragedy with different psychological detail Article status: Expanded Date: 2026-10-29
Summary
Apollodorus, Library 3.15.1, and Ovid, Metamorphoses 7, recount the death of Procris through Cephalus’s weapon.
Read the two scenes
Procris and Cephalus are bound to a weapon that never misses, a gift that becomes tragic when Cephalus mistakes movement in the brush for prey. The mythographer gives the essential trajectory of mistrust and accidental killing. Ovid gives more space to the language of “Aura,” the breeze, and to how overheard words can produce suspicion. A reader should distinguish the death shared across versions from Ovid’s particular staging of desire, jealousy, and mishearing. The poem’s emotional logic cannot simply be projected into every earlier account.
What connects—and what does not
Ovid turns a misunderstanding about Cephalus calling for a breeze into a sustained scene of jealousy and mistaken perception; Apollodorus summarizes more directly.
The same couple and fatal weapon connect the accounts, while poetic dialogue changes the emotional explanation.
Why read them side by side?
A tragic accident becomes especially painful when the story makes misunderstanding part of its cause.
Sources and reading notes
- Apollodorus, Library 3.15.1 — Textual witness; verify the named section and edition.
- Ovid, Metamorphoses Book 7 — Public-domain edition; locate the named book or episode.
Research limit
A named parallel can establish literary reuse or related tradition; a general resemblance alone cannot prove borrowing. Linked editions and translations vary. Where a source is identified as secondary orientation, the comparison does not claim direct close reading of that tradition’s primary text.