To answer my question, I think the blame is Apollo’s. Cupid’s ego has been hurt by Apollo’s comment and that is the reason for his revenge. Daphne is the victim of both male egos.
Ovid gives us the cause in the first few lines of the poem: Apollo falls in love/lust with Daphne because of Cupid. Many translators use “malice” to describe Cupid’s behavior. Humphries translates the line as, “And this was no blind chance, but Cupid’s malice.” Frank Justus Miller, translator of the Harvard University Press edition, renders it, “It was no blind chance that gave this love, but the malicious wrath of Cupid.” In the original, Ovid uses the Latin “saeva Cupidinis ira.” Ira means wrath or anger. We derive “ire” from it. Saeva means violent or fierce. “Malice” is the desire to inflict injury because of hostility or meanness. In other words, it carries a connotation of some ignoble, petty or small-minded act. “Wrath” on the other hand has the connotation of indignation.
It seems to me that Cupid feels indignant because he is offended by the way Apollo speaks to him. “The torch, my boy, is enough for you to play with/…Do not meddle/ With honors that are mine.” Apollo is not only demonstrating the overweening pride of hubris (which in Greek means “insolence”); he is showing contempt for someone who does not have his strength and power. In other words, he is not wielding authority wisely.
We see the same arrogance in Apollo when Daphne flees from him: “I am no shepherd,/ No mountain-dweller, I am not a ploughboy,/ Uncouth and stinking of cattle. You foolish girl,/ You don’t know who it is you run away from.” It is inconceivable to Apollo that Daphne wants nothing to do with him. And what does Daphne feel?
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