Fire Simile, 9/20/09

When I read the simile that is comparing Apollo's love for Daphne to a fire that burns a field of stocks and a hedge, I realized that Apollo loves Daphne so much more than I originally imagined. He doesn't have a small crush on her, his love for her is a fiery, burning, fierce passion that engulfs all of him ("the god burst into flames, his whole chest on fire"). I think that the fire in the field is the stronger, more meaningful fire for a number of reasons. A field with stalks is a lot larger than a hedge, and the field grows grains. Grains are one of our sources of food, and if all our food is burnt, then there is no way we can survive. I saw this as representative of the fact that Apollo loves Daphne so much that she is essential to his life, in the same manner that grains are essential toward humans as food. Without Daphne, Apollo is nothing and his life means nothing, because she is all he can think about. Another reason I felt that the fire in the field is the more meaningful one is because it is much harder to put out a fire in the field than it is to put out a fire burning a hedge - and symbolically it would be near impossible to put out Apollo's love for Daphne.