Ismenia disguises herself to deceive Selvagia

Ismenia’s deception of Selvagia turns a ritual gathering at the Temple of Minerva into a private drama of mistaken identity, borrowed words, and unexpectedly durable affection. Recounted by Selvagia, the episode begins with a veiled shepherdess who seems to love her, shifts when the stranger claims to be a man, and acquires its full meaning only when the real Alanio enters the story.

Setting and Occasion

The encounter takes place during the annual celebration at the Temple of Minerva, where the festival draws shepherds and shepherdesses from the surrounding province. On the eve of the ceremonies, Selvagia goes to keep vigil with her companions. A group of shepherdesses arrives with several shepherds; after praying, the men leave, in keeping with the local rule that they may enter the temple only to offer their obedience and must then go back outside until the following day’s ceremonies. The women and nymphs remain inside to celebrate together.

The separation gives the vigil its distinctive social arrangement: the women sing, dance, and keep one another company while the shepherds wait beyond the temple. It also creates the conditions for Ismenia’s approach. Her company is disguised, their faces covered by white veils attached to finely worked straw hats. Seated beside Selvagia, Ismenia can look at her and touch her hand while concealing who she is. A sacred observance thus becomes the setting for a personal deception conducted under the cover of festival custom.

The Courtship and the Claimed Identity

Ismenia repeatedly watches Selvagia, lowering her eyes whenever Selvagia looks back. When she takes Selvagia’s hand and examines it, Selvagia responds by offering not only the hand but also the heart and thoughts that belong to it. Ismenia answers in a low voice, professing devotion and suggesting that the sight of Selvagia has overcome her self-command. Selvagia, already drawn to the beautiful eyes visible beneath the veil, returns the avowal with earnest promises of attachment.

Their exchange grows more intimate as the vigil continues. The two embrace and speak affectionately, so absorbed in one another that Selvagia says they pay no attention to the songs of the shepherdesses or the dances of the nymphs. Yet Ismenia continues to withhold her name and face. When Selvagia presses to know whom she loves and how she could find her again, Ismenia leads her away from the others and finally removes the veil. Selvagia sees a face whose beauty astonishes her, though its appearance seems somewhat masculine. Ismenia then claims to be a man, explaining that her companions, who are all her kinswomen, dressed her as a shepherdess for amusement.

That announcement does not undo the attachment Selvagia has formed. She recognizes that the revelation has complicated the encounter: she had responded believing the stranger to be a woman, and now must judge both the avowal and the disguise. She nevertheless tells the apparent Alanio that the deception has not made her cease to desire him. The scene’s reversal therefore changes the terms of Selvagia’s love without extinguishing it.

The Prank Behind the Disguise

Selvagia’s later account reveals that the person who presented herself as a man was Ismenia, not the male cousin whose name she used. Ismenia had a cousin called Alanio, whom she loved more deeply than herself. The two resembled each other so closely in face, eyes, and other features that, as Selvagia tells it, they might have been taken for one another if they had not been of different sexes. The name Alanio came readily to Ismenia because he already occupied her thoughts.

The deception began as a prank, but Ismenia’s performance was persuasive enough to give it emotional consequences. After the vigil, she left with her companions while Selvagia returned home carrying the stranger’s words and embraces in her imagination. Ismenia then met her cousin Alanio and, without considering what the disclosure might cause, told him in detail what had happened, laughing with him about the shepherdess who believed she had loved a man disguised as a woman. Alanio drew the story out of her and learned how strongly Selvagia had been affected.

Eight days later, the real Alanio went to Selvagia’s village and placed himself where she would see him as she passed with other young women on her way to the fountain. Selvagia recognized the face and believed she was seeing the person who had spoken to her at the temple. She signaled for him to come over; he understood and joined her. Their conversation gave the affection born of the deception a new object: Selvagia now dealt with the actual Alanio, and their love was kept secret for a time.

Consequences and Narrative Significance

The prank unsettles Ismenia’s own affections. She realizes that, by deceiving Selvagia and telling Alanio what had happened, she has helped direct his attention toward her rival and given him cause to love Selvagia. She consoles herself with the expectation that Selvagia will forget him once she learns the truth. That expectation proves wrong: Selvagia says the discovery does not make her love Alanio less, but makes her love him more and feel more deeply bound to him. The deception that was meant as amusement consequently produces a genuine courtship, while leaving Ismenia to confront the consequences of having helped bring it about.

The episode also makes identity something performed and interpreted rather than immediately known. The veil, the borrowed name, the resemblance between cousins, and Ismenia’s claim to be a man successively shape what Selvagia believes. The temple’s separation of men and women sharpens the contrast between public ritual and private play, but the story does not treat the encounter as a passing illusion: its emotional effects continue after the disguise is explained. Because Selvagia tells the episode as part of her own history, the reader receives both the confusion as she experienced it and the later explanation that revises its meaning. The narrative’s central irony is that Ismenia’s false courtship does not simply trick Selvagia; it helps the real Alanio enter her life and become the object of an affection that survives the truth.