Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Iphis.
The gallery
Iphis and Anaxarete
Virgil Solis, c. 1563
Solis’ Ovid woodcut names the Cypriot youth Iphis before hard-hearted Anaxarete — the inset Vertumnus tells Pomona. Carefully distinct from Cretan Iphis whom Isis transforms for Ianthe.
Iphis and Anaxarete
Unknown (NGV Ovid cycle), c. 17th century
National Gallery of Victoria plate of the Metamorphoses tale: Iphis’ hopeless suit and Anaxarete’s scorn. Print culture kept the Cypriot lovers legible beside the more famous Cretan Iphis.
Anaxarete Turns to Stone at Iphis' Funeral
Johann Ulrich Krauss, 1690
Krauss freezes Ovid’s climax: Anaxarete watches Iphis’ funeral pass and hardens into stone. The youth’s death is the moral engine of the Cypriot metamorphosis.
Death of Iphis
Netherlandish printmaker (Metamorphoses series), c. 17th century
Rijksmuseum RP-P-2014-34-82: Iphis hanged — the humble lover Anaxarete mocked until Aphrodite’s revenge. Northern Ovid cycles made his suicide a stock warning against hard-heartedness.