Flipping through Ovid's Metamorphoses, two moments struck me that I hadn't noticed so much before.
The story of Bacchus and the story of Adonis each has the potential to become a pro-life narrative.
Bacchus, as you might know, was product of an adulterous affair between Jupiter and Semele. Unlike many of Jupiter's mistresses, Semele was actually a willing participant in the relationship and reveled in the fame she thought it would bring her to be Jove's lover. This annoyed Jupiter's wife, Juno, quite a bit. To get revenge Juno put doubts in Semele's mind as to whether Jupiter really was Jupiter or just some guy claiming to be Jupiter. The myth falls into epistemology, skepticism, and metaphysics pretty quick. Anyway, Juno convinces Semele to test Jove and demand him to appear in his full glory the next time they have intercourse. Apparently, when Jupiter has hanky-panky, he is not in his fullness of glory--and he divinity is therefore subject to interrogation. Jove's glory, however, would yield true and irrefutable knowledge of his being.
The problem with this is a god's glory cannot be endured by the human body.
Against his better judgment, Jupiter yields to Semele's request, and she is promptly incinerated.
But here's the interesting part--her unborn baby is, apparently, unaffected by the process. Jove pulls the fetus from his mother's charred remains and (I'm not making this up) implants him in his own godly thigh. Jove later gives birth to Bacchus. The fetus is an independent entity, spared the mother's fate.
Later in Ovid, we encounter the origin of Adonis--son of the perverse Myrrha who slipped into her father's bed and seduced him without his knowing her identity. When her identity is revealed, she flees his wrath and, in Ovidian fashion, is transformed into a myrrh tree.
Again, however, it turns out that her fetus has not been transformed with her...and the tree gives birth to Adonis.
In both cases, Ovid depicts a story in which the mother's body is disassociated with the fetus's body. Their fates might be intertwined, but they are still ultimately distinct and maintain their own individual integrity.
Certainly, I'm not suggesting that Ovid would have been a pro-lifer if he were alive today...and much of his reproductive biology is suspect. Nevertheless, he was capable of imagining human individuality occurring before birth.
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