Editing Anaxarete (section)

== Mythology ==
In the ''[[Metamorphoses]]'', a Latin poem by the Roman poet [[Ovid]] from 8 AD, Anaxarete catches the eye of a young man named [[Iphis (mythology)|Iphis]]. He immediately falls in love with her, and while he attempts to suppress his feelings for some time, he finds himself unable to control his adoration. He arrives at her dwelling, and reveals his feelings to her nurse; he also tries to tempt her servants into aiding him in amorous endeavour, and places flowers, drenched in his own tears, outside the entrace to her house. However, Anaxarete, who is described as "more savage than the waves that rise at the setting of the Kids, harder than steel tempered in Noric fire", is resolutely unfeeling towards him, and rebuffs him with scorn; in doing so, she drains the hope of her would-be lover.{{sfn|Miller|pp=350, 351}}

Pushed to a place of mental torment, Iphis delivers distraught and suicidal final words while standing upon her doorstep. He then hangs himself there, but Anaxarete is still unmoved. When she mockes his funeral, calling it pitiful, [[Aphrodite]] turned her into a stone statue. According to Ovid, the statue was preserved at Salamis in Cyprus, in the temple of Venus Prospiciens.{{sfn|Miller|pp=350&ndash;353}}

A similar tale is told by [[Antoninus Liberalis]], although he names the maiden [[Arsinoë of Cyprus|Arsinoë]], and her admirer [[Arceophon]].<ref>[[Antoninus Liberalis]], [https://topostext.org/work/216#39 39]</ref>