The Vegetational Fatherhood

I was inclined to compare this story to a lot of what is in Ovid's Metamorphoses. My experience with these stories comes mainly from an art historical perspective rather than a classical one, but from what I have gathered from hours spent looking at slides of Rococo ceiling frescoes is that many of these stories were about the "Loves of the Gods," which basically amounts to divine beings seducing humans by transforming into something else (see: Leda and the Swan, Europa and the Bull, etc.) or else human (or humanlike) beings turning into nonhuman things to escape a horrible fate (Apollo and Daphne). These are to be taken metaphorically, as in a lot of cases these myths are used to explain natural phenomena (read up on the birth of Venus and where she came from...)

In this vein, then, the story is less of a stretch. However, at the beginning of this course we did establish the difference between fairy tales and myths, that they serve different purposes and arise from different traditions. That being said, this story comes from an author with access to both traditions, and there is no reason why one shouldn't inform the other--it makes for a richer story.

I think this story draws both from the metaphorical aspects of the classical myth and the dark, euphemistic traditions of the traditional fairy tale. The idea of a rose seducing a woman seems strongly Ovidian, while the expansion on the idea makes it seem more of a literary fairy tale (showing the mother and daughter in scene, developing their relationship, while still maintaining elements of the fantastic.)