Tales of Incest Amid Secret Assignations

Plutarch, Parallel Stories 311 22

“Because of Aphrodite’s rage, Kinyras’ daughter Smyrna lusted after her father and revealed the compulsion of this love to her nurse. The nurse brought her to her father with a trick. For she claimed that a neighboring girl wanted him but was ashamed to come to him in the open. Kinyras slept with her. At some point, because he wanted to know who his lover was, he asked for a light. But when he saw her, he pursued her with a sword as the most wanton woman. Aphrodite changed her into a tree of the same name thanks to her own forethought. This is the story Theodorus tells in his Metamorphoses

Thanks to the rage of Venus, Valeria Tusculanaria was lusting after her father Valerius and she shared the secret with her nurse. The nurse tricked the father, saying that there was some young neighborhood girl who wanted to sleep with him but was too ashamed to be seen. The father, drunk, kept asking for a torch, but the nurse got ahead of him and woke the daughter. She went to the country because she happened to be pregnant.

At some point, she threw herself over a cliff and the child survived. She stayed pregnant and eventually gave birth to Aegipan, named Silvanus in Latin. Valerius, overcome by despair, threw himself off the same cliff. Aristeides the Milesian tells this story in book three of his Italica.”

22. ΣΜΥΡΝΑ Κινύρου θυγάτηρ διὰ μῆνιν Ἀφροδίτης ἠράσθη τοῦ γεννήσαντος, καὶ τῇ τροφῷ τὴν ἀνάγκην τοῦ ἔρωτος ἐδήλωσεν· ἡ δὲ δόλῳ ὑπῆγετὸν δεσπότην· ἔφη γὰρ γείτονα παρθένον ἐρᾶν αὐτοῦ καὶ αἰσχύνεσθαι ἐν φανερῷ προσιέναι. ὁ δὲ συνῄει. ποτὲ δὲ θελήσας τὴν ἐρῶσαν μαθεῖν φῶς ᾔτησεν, ἰδὼν δὲ ξιφήρης τὴν ἀσελγεστάτην ἐδίωκεν. ἡ δὲ κατὰ πρόνοιαν Ἀφροδίτης εἰς ὁμώνυμον δένδρον μετεμορφώθη· καθὰ Θεόδωρος ἐν ταῖς Μεταμορφώσεσιν.

ΟΥΑΛΕΡΙΑ Τουσκλαναρία κατὰ μῆνιν Ἀφροδίτης ἐρασθεῖσα Οὐαλερίου τοῦ πατρὸς τῇ τροφῷ ἀνεκοίνωσεν· ἡ δὲ τὸν δεσπότην δόλῳ ὑπῆλθεν, εἰποῦσα ὡς αἰδεῖται κατ᾿ ὄψιν μίσγεσθαι, τῶν τε γειτόνων εἶναί τινα1 παρθένον. καὶ οἰνωθεὶς ὁ πατὴρ ᾔτει φῶς, ἡ δὲ τροφὸς φθάσασα διήγειρεν, ἥτις ἐπὶ τὰς ἀγροικίας ᾔει ἐγκύμων τυγχάνουσα· ποτὲ δὲ κατὰ κρημνῶν ἐνεχθείσης, τὸ βρέφος ἔζη· κατιοῦσα δ᾿ ἐγκύμων κατέστη καὶ εἰς τὸν ὡρισμένον χρόνον ἐγέννησεν Αἰγίπανα, κατὰ τὴν Ῥωμαίων φωνὴν Σιλουᾶνον. ὁ δὲ Οὐαλέριος ἀθυμήσας κατὰ τῶν αὐτῶν ἔρριψε κρημνῶν· ὡς Ἀριστείδης Μιλήσιος ἐν τρίτῳ Ἰταλικῶν.