Metamorphoses

Ovid

Metamorphoses, a monumental epic poem in 15 books by Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid), is a comprehensive history of the cosmos, chronicling transformations from the timeless pre-creation void to the poet's own era.

Completed over six years, it is recognised as one of the world's great poems, uniquely combining fantasy, creativity, and philosophical complexity within Latin literature. The work traces primordial mythology through to human history, presenting a continuous thread of words that explore change as a fundamental aspect of existence.

Creation and the Ages of Man

The poem commences with the formation of the world from the confusion of chaos by the wisdom and power of the deity, establishing a harmonious system of the universe and the mutual dependences and operations of powers of nature.

Birds, beasts, and fishes are brought into existence before the creation of man, who is designed as a creature of a more exalted kind, conscious of thought, and formed for empire. Man's superiority to other animals is evinced in the structure of his body and the faculties of his mind, with his form beginning from rude principles, thus earth is metamorphosed into man.

The early history of humankind is divided into four successive ages:

##### Golden Age:

During the reign of Saturn, inhabitants of the earth enjoy a state of primeval happiness, secure from evil passions. Man knows no rule but uncorrupted reason and pursues good with a native bent, unforced by punishment and unurged by fear.

Words are simple and souls sincere, with no need for written law as it is inscribed in the breast. There are no judges or courts. Flowers rain unsown, and Western Winds maintain immortal spring. Milk and nectar break from valleys, and honey sweats through the pores of oak.

##### Silver Age:

With Saturn banished, the world falls under Jove's dominion and exhibits marks of degeneracy. Summer, autumn, and winter appear, making spring merely a season.

The sun makes its annual course obliquely, contracting good days and enlarging bad ones. Air begins to glow with sultry heats, winds become clogged with ice and snow, and mortals seek shelter in caves or homely sheds. Plows first break furrows for seed, and oxen labour beneath the yoke.

##### Brazen Age:

This age introduces a warlike offspring, prompt to bloody rage, though not yet impious.

##### Iron Age:

Hard steel and stubborn men characterise this era. Truth, modesty, and shame forsake the world, replaced by fraud. Mankind is broken loose from moral bands, with no rights of hospitality remaining, and acts of extreme violence and treachery become common. Faith and piety flee, and injustice reigns universally.

The Great Deluge and Renewal

Men of enormous stature, the Giants (sons of Coelus and Terra), attempt to scale the walls of heaven by piling hills on mountains but are overthrown by Jupiter's thunder.

The earth, impregnated by the blood of these monsters, begets new men of similar impious, arrogant, and cruel dispositions. Jupiter, horrified by the universal depravity of mankind, especially the barbaric acts of Lycaon (Tyrant of Arcadia, who murders a legate and serves human flesh to Jupiter disguised as a man), convenes a counsel of the gods in the Milky Way.

He transforms Lycaon into a wolf and resolves to destroy the entire human race by a universal deluge.

The world is covered in water, with only Deucalion and Pyrrha surviving on the summit of Mount Parnassus. The most upright of mortal men and the most sincere and holy woman, they implore relief from Themis.

Guided by her oracle to throw their "mighty mother's bones" behind their backs, they interpret this as casting stones upon the earth. The stones soften, swell, and grow warm, taking on rudimentary human forms, thus peopling the earth with a new race. Following this, new creatures are produced from the teeming earth, digested by the sun's heat and quickened by vital seed.

A huge serpent named Python, born from the slime of the flood, excites universal terror until it is destroyed by the shafts of Apollo, in honour of which the Pythian games are instituted.

Notable Transformations

The Metamorphoses comprises a vast array of tales, each illustrating the theme of change:

• Daphne and the Laurel:

Apollo falls passionately in love with Daphne, a nymph who has vowed virginity. Shot by Cupid's golden arrow, Apollo pursues her, but Daphne, struck by a leaden shaft, flees his embrace. Fearing capture, she invokes her father, the river god Peneus, who transforms her into a laurel tree. Apollo, still loving her, adopts the laurel as his sacred tree, making it a symbol of honour for poets and victors, perpetually green.

• Io and Argus:

Io, daughter of Inachus, becomes the mistress of Jupiter, who transforms her into a beautiful white heifer to conceal her from the jealousy of Juno. Juno, suspecting the deception, obtains the heifer and commits her to the custody of Argus Panoptes, a hundred-eyed guardian. Jupiter sends Mercury, who lulls Argus to sleep with a tuneful pipe and then slays him. Juno takes Argus's eyes and places them on the tail of her sacred bird, the peacock. Io, tormented by a gadfly sent by Juno, wanders across the earth until she reaches Egypt, where Jupiter restores her to human form, and she is worshipped as a deity.

• Phaeton's Folly:

Phaeton, son of Apollo and Clymene, rashly demands to guide the sun's chariot for a day to prove his divine parentage. Despite Apollo's dire warnings about the dangers of the celestial path and the fiery steeds, Phaeton persists. His inexperience leads the horses astray, threatening the heavens and earth with universal conflagration. Rivers dry up, seas shrink, and the earth begs Jupiter for intervention.

Jupiter strikes Phaeton with a thunderbolt, hurling him into the river Po. Phaeton's sisters, the Heliades, weep inconsolably and are transformed into poplar trees, shedding amber tears. Cycnus, Phaeton's friend, also mourns deeply and is changed into a swan, forever loving the waters in opposition to fire.

• Callisto's Fate:

Callisto, a nymph in Diana's chaste train, is seduced by Jupiter disguised as Diana. When her pregnancy is revealed, Diana banishes her. Juno, consumed by jealousy, transforms Callisto into a bear. Later, Jupiter places both Callisto and her son, Arcas, in the heavens as constellations, the Great Bear and Little Bear. Juno, enraged, appeals to the sea gods to deny them the cleansing of their waters.

• Coronis, Aesculapius, and Ocyrhoe:

Apollo's mistress, Coronis, is discovered to be unfaithful by his raven (which was originally white). Despite a crow's warning (who recounted her own transformation from a maiden punished by Minerva for revealing secrets), the raven reports Coronis's infidelity. Apollo, in a fit of rage, kills Coronis but saves their unborn son, Aesculapius, from her womb, entrusting him to the centaur Chiron. The raven is punished with black plumage. Chiron's daughter, Ocyrhoe, a prophetess, foretells Aesculapius's future divinity and Chiron's immortality. For revealing these secrets of the gods, Ocyrhoe is transformed into a mare.

• Battus and Aglauros:

Mercury, stealing cattle from Apollo, is witnessed by Battus, an old peasant, who promises silence for a bribe. Mercury tests him, and Battus betrays the secret for a larger bribe, whereupon Mercury turns him into a touchstone. Later, Mercury falls in love with Herse, sister of Aglauros. Aglauros demands a bribe for her assistance, incurring the wrath of Minerva, who sends Envy to infect her. Aglauros, driven by envy, obstructs Mercury's path, and she is transformed into a stone, embodying her frozen malice.

• Cadmus and Actaeon:

Cadmus, searching for his sister Europa, founds the city of Thebes after slaying a dragon sacred to Mars and sowing its teeth, from which armed men spring. His grandson, Actaeon, a hunter, accidentally sees Diana bathing with her nymphs. Enraged by this sacrilege, Diana splashes water on him, transforming him into a stag. Actaeon is then tragically hunted down and torn to pieces by his own hounds.

• Semele and Bacchus:

Jupiter's affair with Semele incurs Juno's wrath. Juno, disguised as Semele's old nurse, persuades Semele to ask Jupiter to appear to her in his full divine glory. Jupiter, bound by an oath on the River Styx, appears in a less potent form of his lightning and thunder, but it is still too much for the mortal Semele, who is consumed by fire. Jupiter saves their unborn child, Bacchus, by sewing him into his thigh until the full term of birth.

• Echo and Narcissus:

Juno punishes the loquacious nymph Echo, who often distracted her from Jupiter's infidelities, by limiting her voice to merely repeating the last words she hears. Echo falls in love with the handsome youth Narcissus, but he cruelly rejects her. Pining away, she wastes until only her voice and bones remain, her bones turning to stone. Narcissus, for his disdain, is cursed to fall in love with his own reflection in a pool. Unable to embrace his beloved image, he wastes away from unrequited love, and upon his death, a flower bearing his name grows in his place.

• Pentheus and the Bacchanals:

Pentheus, King of Thebes, vehemently opposes the worship of the new god Bacchus. Despite warnings from the prophet Tiresias and the testimony of Acoetes (a sailor who witnessed Bacchus transforming mariners into dolphins when they tried to betray him), Pentheus resolves to stop the Bacchic rites. He goes to spy on the Maenads, including his own mother Agave and aunts. Enraged, the Maenads, under Bacchus's influence, mistake Pentheus for a wild beast and tear him limb from limb.

• Minerva's Daughters and Arachne:

The daughters of Minyas, who disdain Bacchus's rites and continue their weaving during his festival, tell stories, including the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe. As punishment for their impiety, Bacchus transforms them into bats. Later, Arachne, a mortal woman of extraordinary skill in weaving, boasts of her talent and challenges Minerva, the goddess of crafts, to a contest. Arachne weaves a tapestry depicting the numerous illicit loves of the gods, while Minerva portrays a scene of divine power and justice. Enraged by Arachne's flawless work and disrespectful subject matter, Minerva strikes her. In despair, Arachne hangs herself, and Minerva transforms her into a spider, condemned to weave forever.

• Niobe's Pride:

Niobe, Queen of Thebes and daughter of Tantalus, boasts of her fourteen children (seven sons and seven daughters) and her noble lineage, claiming superiority to the goddess Latona, who has only two children, Apollo and Diana. Latona, offended by Niobe's arrogance, calls upon her divine children to avenge the insult. Apollo slays all of Niobe's sons, and Diana slays all of her daughters. Grief-stricken and hardened by sorrow, Niobe is transformed into a stone statue, which still weeps tears.

• Lycean Peasants:

While fleeing Juno's wrath, Latona, weary and thirsty, seeks water from some Lycean peasants. They rudely refuse, muddy the water, and mock her. As punishment for their barbarity, Latona transforms them into frogs. They are condemned to live in the muddy pool, croaking and quarrelling.

• The Tereus Cycle:

Tereus, King of Thrace, marries Procne, daughter of King Pandion of Athens. He later lusts after Procne's sister, Philomela, rapes her, and cuts out her tongue to prevent her from revealing his crime. Philomela, however, weaves her story into a tapestry, which she sends to Procne. In a gruesome act of revenge, Procne and Philomela kill Itys, Procne's son by Tereus, and serve him as a meal to his unwitting father. When Tereus discovers the horrific truth, he pursues the sisters with a sword. The gods intervene, transforming Tereus into a lapwing, Procne into a swallow, and Philomela into a nightingale.

• Medea's Arts:

Medea, a sorceress and princess of Colchis, falls in love with Jason, leader of the Argonauts. She uses her magic to help him overcome King Aeetes' formidable tasks, such as yoking fire-breathing bulls, sowing dragon's teeth (from which armed men spring and fight each other), and charming the sleepless dragon guarding the Golden Fleece. Later, at Jason's request, Medea restores his aged father, Aeson, to youthful vigour through a magical ritual involving potent herbs and incantations. However, when Jason abandons her for Glauce, princess of Corinth, Medea exacts a terrible revenge, killing Glauce, her father King Creon, and her own children with Jason before escaping on a chariot drawn by winged dragons.

• Daedalus and Icarus:

Daedalus, a brilliant Athenian craftsman, is exiled to Crete after pushing his nephew Perdix (Talos), who showed greater inventive genius, from the top of Minerva's temple, with Minerva transforming Perdix into a partridge. On Crete, Daedalus builds the Labyrinth for King Minos to imprison the Minotaur. To escape Crete, Daedalus constructs wings of feathers and wax for himself and his son, Icarus. Despite Daedalus's warnings, Icarus flies too close to the sun; the wax melts, his wings fail, and he falls into the sea and drowns.

• Meleager and Atalanta:

King Oeneus of Calydon neglects to honour Diana during a harvest festival, so the goddess sends a monstrous boar to ravage his lands. Meleager, Oeneus's son, gathers a band of heroes and the huntress Atalanta to pursue the beast. Atalanta is the first to wound the boar, and Meleager deals the fatal blow, awarding the head and hide to her. Meleager's uncles, Plexippus and Toxeus, insult Atalanta and try to take her prize, so Meleager kills them. Meleager's life is tied to a magical brand; when his mother Althaea (sister of Plexippus and Toxeus) learns of her brothers' deaths, she throws the brand into the fire, causing Meleager to die. Overwhelmed by grief and remorse, Althaea takes her own life. His mourning sisters, except for Gorge, Deianira, and a third sister, are transformed into birds.

• Achelous' Horn:

Achelous, the river god, contests with Hercules for the hand of Deianira. During their struggle, Achelous transforms himself into a snake and then into a bull. Hercules, overcoming each form, ultimately tears off one of Achelous's horns. This horn is later filled with fruits and flowers by the Naiads, becoming the cornucopia, a symbol of plenty.

• Hercules' End:

Nessus, a centaur, attempts to abduct Deianira, Hercules' wife. Hercules shoots him with a poisoned arrow. As he dies, Nessus gives Deianira a tunic soaked in his poisoned blood, falsely claiming it is a love charm to ensure Hercules' fidelity. Years later, Deianira, believing Hercules has fallen in love with Iole, sends him the tunic. The poison, activated by fire, consumes Hercules. In his agony, Hercules throws Lichas, the messenger, into the Euboean Sea, transforming him into a rock. Hercules then mounts a funeral pyre on Mount Oeta, and as his mortal part burns away, he is apotheosised, ascending to Olympus as a god.

• Orpheus and Eurydice:

Orpheus, a legendary musician, marries Eurydice. When she dies from a viper's bite, Orpheus descends to the Underworld, charming Pluto and Proserpine with his lyre. They agree to return Eurydice to the world of the living on the condition that Orpheus does not look back at her until they reach the upper world. However, just as they near the light, Orpheus glances back, and Eurydice vanishes forever. Heartbroken, Orpheus shuns the company of women. Later, the Thracian Maenads, enraged by his misogyny, tear him to pieces during a Bacchic frenzy. His head and lyre float down the Hebrus River to Lesbos, where they continue to sing mournful songs. Apollo turns a serpent attempting to bite Orpheus's head into stone. Orpheus's ghost descends to the Underworld and is reunited with Eurydice.

• Midas' Curses:

King Midas of Phrygia shows hospitality to Silenus, tutor of Bacchus. Bacchus grants Midas a wish, and he foolishly asks that everything he touches turn to gold. He soon nearly starves and begs Bacchus to reverse the gift. Bacchus instructs him to wash in the River Pactolus, which then gains gold-bearing sands. Later, Midas judges a musical contest between Pan and Apollo, declaring Pan the winner. Apollo, to punish Midas's poor judgment, transforms his ears into those of an ass. Midas attempts to conceal them, but his barber discovers the secret and whispers it into a hole in the ground, from which reeds grow, revealing the secret to the world.

• Achilles and Ajax:

After Achilles' death, a fierce dispute arises between Ajax and Odysseus over who should inherit the hero's armour. Ajax, a powerful warrior, argues based on his strength, lineage, and direct battlefield accomplishments, including saving Odysseus himself. Odysseus, renowned for his cunning and eloquence, argues that strategic wisdom and intelligence are more valuable than brute force, detailing his diplomatic missions, night raids (like capturing Rhesus's horses), and his role in discovering Achilles. The Greek chiefs award the armour to Odysseus. In despair and humiliation, Ajax commits suicide, and from his spilt blood, a flower (the hyacinth) blossoms, inscribed with the Greek cry of lamentation, "AI AI".

• Hecuba's Grief:

Following the fall of Troy, King Priam's daughter Polyxena is sacrificed at Achilles' tomb. Priam's son Polydorus, sent to King Polymestor of Thrace with gold for safekeeping, is murdered by Polymestor for his riches. Hecuba, Priam's widow, discovers Polydorus's body, and in a fit of grief and rage, she brutally blinds Polymestor. Pursued by the Thracians, she is transformed into a raging bitch, forever howling her sorrow.

• Aeneas' Odyssey:

The poem follows Aeneas, son of Venus, as he flees burning Troy. He visits Delos, where King Anius's daughters, gifted by Bacchus with the power to transmute whatever they touch, are transformed into doves when Agamemnon tries to seize them. Aeneas sails to Crete (which he must abandon due to pestilence), passes the Cyclops' island (rescuing Achaemenides, a stranded companion of Odysseus), navigates the treacherous waters of Scylla and Charybdis, and lands in Latium, where he eventually establishes the Roman race. His ships, set on fire by Turnus, are miraculously transformed into sea nymphs by Cybele. Aeneas triumphs in war, marries Lavinia, and is ultimately deified, becoming the god Indiges.

• Pygmalion's Love:

Pygmalion, a sculptor, creates an ivory statue of a woman so beautiful that he falls deeply in love with his own creation. He prays to Venus, who, moved by his devotion, brings the statue to life. Pygmalion marries the animated statue, and they have a son, Paphos.

Other notable transformations include the Cerastae (transformed into oxen for their cruelty to strangers), the Propoetides (turned to stone for denying Venus's worship), Hippolytus (restored to life by Aesculapius and transformed into Virbius), Iphis (a girl disguised as a boy, transformed into a man by Isis), Cycnus (son of Neptune, invulnerable, strangled by Achilles and transformed into a swan), and the Arcadian stream Arethusa (a nymph pursued by the river god Alpheus, transformed into a spring).

Philosophical Underpinnings

The Metamorphoses incorporates Pythagorean philosophy through the teachings of Numa, the successor to Romulus, who seeks wisdom from Pythagoras.

Pythagoras advocates the transmigration of souls, asserting that the spirit does not die but repeats new life in other forms, constantly changing seats. Forms are changed, but nothing is destroyed, and all things are but altered. This philosophy underpins the entire narrative, suggesting that all of nature is in perpetual flux. Pythagoras argues for vegetarianism, urging abstinence from flesh, as souls may reside in animals, and consuming them could mean devouring one's kin.

Ovid's Vision and Impact

The Metamorphoses explores profound themes such as identity, the relationship between the female and male elements, the body, nature, and entropy. The work vividly portrays the gods as capricious, childish, and often violent, offering no Christian consolation, reflecting an implacable divine will.

Ovid's literary ambition led him to write this epic, which was six years in the writing and consists of 15 books.

Despite being condemned by Emperor Augustus in 8 AD—Ovid cited "a poem and a mistake" as the reasons for his banishment to Tomis on the Black Sea—the Metamorphoses became one of the most influential works in European literature.

Ovid died in exile in 17 AD, but his genius endured, influencing countless artists, writers, and thinkers throughout Western culture. The stories within are iconic and archetypal, explaining humanity to itself, celebrating the mysteries and beauty of the universe, affirming the importance of the artist, and proclaiming the transcendent value of the written word and the enduring power of love.