Never, ever, ever boast about a trait or skill as being better than one of the
gods. It’s a lesson that apparently bears repeating despite having been through
this before. Unfortunately, the wife of King Cinryas boasted that her daughter,
Smyrna, was more beautiful than Aphrodite.
Much like Andromeda, it is Smyrna
who becomes the focus of Aphrodite’s revenge. Unlike Andromeda, there’s no hero
to swoop in and save the day. Aphrodite causes Smyrna to fall madly in love
with her father, Cinryas. Smyrna came to her father’s bed one dark night and
did the deed. Later, Cinryas learned that he was both father and grandfather to
Smyrna’s child. The myths don’t say, but it’s likely that Cinryas believed that
he had been with his own wife that night.
Horrified and angry, Cinryas chased
her from the castle with a sword, intent on killing her. Aphrodite transformed
her into a myrrh tree just as the sword was coming down on her. The sword split
the tree, and then the baby tumbled out.
This is a curious story as the
revenge is indirect. Cinryas’s wife is the one who is guilty, here, yet it is
both Cinryas and Smyrna who bear Aphrodite’s wrath. Smyrna, especially, is
violated in this story. The ability to make her fall in love with her father
must be considered a form of rape. Then she raped her father. Finally, she
finds herself pregnant with an incestuous child, and her father is out to
murder her for what was not actually her fault—though Cinryas has no other
source of blame.
Cinryas is also shamed in this,
having slept with his daughter. His family is broken, his name immortalized and
associated with the shamefulness of what happened. The nameless wife, however, is
not directly affected, but must deal with the same aftermath that her family is
ruined.