When Diana sees Actaeon, the text describes: “She twisted her breasts away, showing him her back. / Glaring at him over her shoulder / She blushed like a dawn cloud… / And raged for a weapon, for her arrows / To drive through his body. / No weapon was to hand, only water.” What does the substitution of water for arrows most directly reveal about the nature of Diana’s punishment?

In her internal monologue, Myrrha reasons: “For all the creatures it is natural / When the bull mounts the heifer, his daughter, / Neither feels shame. / A stallion fights to breed from his own daughter… / Man has distorted that licence / Man has made new laws from his jealousy / To deprive nature of its nature.” What does Myrrha’s argument from animal nature most directly reveal about the structure of her reasoning?

The myth opens with the following declaration: “Destiny, not guilt, was enough / For Actaeon. It is no crime / To lose your way in a dark wood.” What does this opening statement most directly establish about the myth’s moral framework?

After the rape, Philomela declares to Tereus: “I may be lost, / You have taken whatever life / I might have had, and thrown it in the sewer, / But I have my voice. / And shame will not stop me. / I shall tell everything / To your own people, yes, to all Thrace.” What does Philomela’s declaration most directly establish about her understanding of her own situation?

After the assault, Callisto’s behavior within Diana’s company is described: “She no longer led the troop, / Was no longer the boisterous nearest / To the goddess. She hung back, eyes to the ground, / As if slinking along from hiding to hiding.” What does Callisto’s physical withdrawal from the group most directly reveal about the consequences of the assault?

During the nurse’s interrogation, the text records twice: “As if she had heard nothing else / That single word father went through Myrrha / Like a hot iron, and she sighed in misery. / The nurse missed that clue.” And later: “Again at the word father / Myrrha choked a cry.” What does the repeated triggering of this single word most directly reveal about Myrrha’s condition?

The text describes the completed ivory statue in the following terms: “She might have moved, he thought, / Only her modesty / Her sole garment, invisible, / Woven from the fabric of his dream, / Held her as if slightly ashamed / Of stepping into life.” What does the description of modesty as the statue’s sole garment most precisely reveal about what Pygmalion has created?

Juno transforms Callisto into a bear, and the text notes: “Her mouth / That Jupiter had kissed in his rapture / Was fanged jaws, like a torn open wound. / Then to empty her cries of their appeal / The goddess nipped off her speech. Instead of words / A shattering snarl burst from her throat.” What does the text’s specific emphasis on the silencing of Callisto’s voice most directly reveal about Juno’s punishment?

When Procne unrolls the tapestry and reads what has been done to her sister: “The tyrant’s wife / Unrolled the tapestry and saw / The only interpretation / Was the ruin of her life. / She sat there, silent and unmoving, / As if she thought of something else entirely. / In those moments, her restraint / Was superhuman.” What does Procne’s superhuman restraint most directly reveal about her response to the tapestry?

Which ion triggers the release of neurotransmitters at the synapse?