ABSTRACT
The daughter of Amphisa, Chrysogone is mother of the twins Belphoebe and Amoret, whom she conceives by exposure to the sun’s beams (FQ III vi 4-10, 26-8). She may recall Chrysogone, the virgin wife of Amphicles, whom Theocritus praises for her charity and motherly virtue (Epigram 13). Her name (Gr chryseos gold +gonē race) has been taken as meaning ‘golden-born’ (J.W.Draper 1932:100). Another sense, more pertinent to Spenser’s emphasis on her beautiful children, is found in Cooper’s definition (1565) of chrysogonum as ‘that bryngeth foorth golde’ or Cotgrave’s (1611) of chrysogone as ‘gold-producing.’ The association with gold further reinforces an association with the myth of Danae, impregnated by Jove’s golden shower (III xi 31). Also, gold was traditionally associated with the sun and therefore with Spenser’s story of Chrysogone (cf Valeriano Hieroglyphica 21: ‘Alchemists consider gold a solar metal’).
