Summary

The poem begins with the promise that we will hear how "bodies are changed into different bodies." Ovid then summons the gods, asking them to reveal how the world was created and to aid him in his task. He says that first there was something we can call Chaos: darkness and formlessness. Then, a powerful being divides the chaos into substance. He creates earth and all of its waters, then its land masses, forests, and weather. He creates the winds and gives each a region of the earth to rule over, then he create the stars. After this he creates sentient life: everything from the gods in the heavens to the fish in the rivers. Everything, that is, except man, whose origin is disputed: either man came to be as a superior being to animals, or Prometheus sculpted man out of the clays of the earth.

At first men live in a Gold Age without war, cities, labor or commerce. Men feast on nature's abundance. Jove castrates Saturn, however, sending men into a Silver Age, when the four seasons come to be and men have to work for food. The Bronze Age follows and men become violent and warlike, though not so much as they will. Finally, in the Iron Age men become evil, greedy and dishonest. They treat gold as money and forge weapons of iron. The giants see the behavior of men and imitated it, attempting even to overthrow Jove, but he crushes them with thunderbolts and boulders. From the giants' blood new creatures arise: they look like men but think nothing of murdering each other. Distraught, Jove tells the gods that he must punish these men.

Jove tells the gods how he dealt with an especially corrupt man, Lycaon, who plotted to kill him and tried to trick him into eating human flesh. When Lycaon served him the flesh, Jove destroyed his household with thunderbolts. Lycaon survives as a madman, behaving like a wolf. Jove tells the gods that all men are like Lycaon and must be punished in turn; they must give way to a new and better humankind. Jove decides to flood the world, which he does with Neptune's help. Only two people, the best of humanity, survive the flood: Deucalion and his wife. They find shelter on Mount Parnassus, the only land that rises above the waters. Jove allows the waters to retreat, leaving them to repopulate the earth. They ask the gods how they can do such a thing, and an oracle sent by Themis tells them to throw behind them the bones of their mother. Pyrrha refuses to dishonor her mother's remains, but Deucalion interprets the oracle as referring to "mother earth," and so they throw stones, the earth's "bone's," behind them. The stones become a new race of people, who inherit the toughness of stone.

Other creatures return spontaneously, springing from the sun on the water-soaked soil, including monsters like Python, a gigantic snake, which Phoebus Apollo slays, thus initiating the Pythian games. Soon after, Apollo taunts Cupid who takes revenge by making Apollo fall in love with Daphne, Peneus's daughter. Daphne wishes to remain chaste, like Diana, and loves the woods and hunting rather than men. Nonetheless, Apollo chases Daphne through the woods. As she approaches the streams of her father's land, she begs to lose her beauty. As she speaks she is transformed into a laurel tree. Apollo makes the laurel his symbol and wears a laurel crown from then on.

Ovid turns to another tale of the gods' love, that of Jove and Io. When the beautiful Io resists Jove, he covers the earth with fog and rapes her. Juno, the jealous queen of the gods, notices the mists and suspects her husband. She clears the fog but not before Jove hides Io in the form of a cow. Juno claims the beautiful cow as her own, giving her for safe-keeping to the watchman, Argus, who has one-hundred eyes and never closes them all at once. Io is able to communicate her fate to her father by drawing in the dirt with her hoof. He mourns for her, but cannot stop Argus from taking her to pasture.

Jove orders Mercury to kill Argus. Mercury pretends to be a shepherd and tries to lull Argus to sleep with his reed pipe. Argus, intrigued by this unusual instrument, asks about its origin. Mercury tells Argus the story of the nymph Syrinx, whom Pan loves though she wishes to remain a virgin. She prays for aid and is turned into reeds at the riveer side. Pan signs unhappily and notices that his sighs make music through the reeds. Thus he fashions an instrument. As Mercury tells the story, he realizes that Argus has dozed off, and so he beheads the guardian. Juno takes Argus's eyes and sets them into the tail-feathers of her symbolic bird, the peacock. She then has one of the Furies chase Io, in cow form, all around the world, until she reaches the Nile, where she convinces Jove to appease her wife and return her to human form.

Io's son, Epaphus, is treated as the son of Jove. Epaphus becomes friends with a boy named Phaethon, who claims to be a son of Apollo. Epaphus does not believe him, and so Phaethon asks his mother, Clymene, how to prove his parentage. She sends him to seek Apollo himself in the east, and Phaethon makes his way to the palace of the sun, where bright Apollo acknowledges that he is the boy's father. When Phaethon asks for a token of proof, Apollo promises to give the boy anything he wants. Phaethon asks to drive the sun-chariot and Apollo replies that no one but himself, not even Jove, can drive the chariot. Phaethon, however, holds his father to his oath, and Phoebus takes him to the chariot where he rubs Phaethon's face with a sacred ointment to protect him from being burned. After giving the youth advice about the path Apollo tells him he must begin.

The chariot immediately goes off course because Phaethon is not strong enough to rein the horses in. He draws the horses too high, threatening the constellations, then too low, setting cities and mountains ablaze and, drying up rivers. Soon the whole world is on fire. Mother Earth herself begs Jupiter to intercede, and the god brings Phaeton down, chariot and all, with a thunderbolt. Phaethon falls to earth, where he is caught by the river god Eridanus and buried in a tomb far from his homeland. Phaeton's family mourns -- his sisters are transformed to trees in their morning; they are left with the ability to speak and Clymene, their mother, tries to rip them from the bark, before they are finally sealed inside the trees. Cycnus, a dear friend of Phaethon, wanders the woods in mourning until he becomes a new kind of bird, the swan. Distrustful of the sunny skies where his friend was struck down, this swan chooses to remain in standing water, never taking to the sky. Phoebus Apollo, also in mourning, refuses to act as the sun should, despite the entreaties of the other gods, and even the threats of Jove. Finally, he gives in, taking his anger out in lashes on the horses.

As Jove repairs the heavens and the earth, he notices Callisto, a beautiful girl from Nonacris. One of Diana's handmaids, Callisto roams the woods, chaste and beautiful. Jove disguises himself as Diana and rapes her. Shamed and afraid, Callisto rejoins the handmaids and attempts to hide her shame. But, months later, Diana and her maids discover her pregnancy during a bath. Juno's anger at the pregnancy grows after Callisto gives birth to a boy, Arcas. Juno turns Callisto into a bear. At fifteen, Arcas comes across his mother in the woods and nearly kills her. Jove intervenes just in time by changing both Arcas and Callisto into constellations: ursa major and ursa minor. Furious, Juno goes to the ocean gods Tethys and Oceanus and asks them to forbid the two constellations to enter their waters, to which they agree.

Ovid turns from the origin of those constellation to the story of how the raven became black. The raven reports to Apollo that his lover, Coronis, cheated on him. Phoebus Apollo kills Coronis with an arrow, and as she dies she tells him that she is pregnant with his son. Apollo regrets his action too late and, furious at the raven, turns him from white to black. He takes his son, Aesculapius, from Coronis' womb and takes him to a prophet, Chiron's daughter Ocyrhoe, who predicts that Aesculapius will have healing powers but anger the gods. Then she predicted her father's own death, but as she finished, she realized that the Fates would let her speak no more, and as she predicted that she would be turned into a horse, she was transformed. Chiron called out to Apollo, but the god is disguised as a cowherd. Mercury steals Phoebus' cows with only Battus as a witness. Mercury bribes Battus to keep quiet, and when Battus proves untrustworthy, Mercury turns him into a stone.

Returning to heaven, Mercury passes over a festival of Pallas and spots Herse, the most beautiful of the virgin girls participating in the festival. He approaches Herse's sister, Aglauros, in an attempt to enter Herse's room. Aglauros asks for a weight of gold in return, a request that Minerva overhears. Minerva recalls that Aglauros betrayed her and entreats Envy to poison Aglauros's heart. Out of envy Aglauros tries to stop Mercury from accessing her sister, and Aglauros is turned to stone. Back in heaven, Mercury meets his father, Jove, who asks him to fly to Sidon and drive a herd of cattle there to the sea shore. Mercury obeys his father. Jove then joins the herd as a gorgeous bull. Europa, the beautiful princess of that land, marvels at the bull, twining its horns with flowers and eventually climbing on its back for a ride. Jove takes his opportunity and carries her into the ocean.

Analysis

At the beginning of the Metamorphoses, Ovid accomplishes several things. First, he defines the world of the poem. He is going to tell the reader, how "bodies are changed into different bodies." Ovid then demonstrate that he means "bodies" in the loosest sense: in this poem, he is going to address all kinds of transformation, from the transformation of Chaos into the Universe to literal physical transformations, to the founding and destruction of cities, the evolution of man, and even pedestrain emotional transformations. In other words, this poem examines transformation as an omnipresent force in the universe, affecting high and low, mythic and ordinary forces alike.

The first transformation -- Chaos into the Universe -- illuminates a few general characteristics about these events. Transformations are never truly spontaneous. Chaos does not transform itself into earth, a powerful being transforms it. There is always something which does the transforming and something which is transformed (though in rare cases people can transform themselves). Consequently, this book is also about relationships, most often the relationship between that which has the power to transform and that which is transformed. This relationship most often exists between the gods and mortals.

The first section of Metamorphoses suggests that people are often transformed in punishment for some misbehavior. Most broadly, Jove destroys humankind because the race as a whole misbehaves. But Ovid subtly suggests that just because the gods are capable of punishing mortal misdeeds, that doesn't mean that they themselves are virtuous. Indeed, though the stray man, such as Lycaon, may perform some gruesome act, the preponderence of unjust and violent actions are committed by gods. The first books are full of the rapes, deceptions, murders, and fickle revenges of the gods. The message seems to be clear: the gods aren't just, they're merely powerful. Because they, immortal and unchanging themselves, have the power to effect change in mortals, they can and will use that power, however fickly. Those who try to stand against the gods' exceptional status will be destroyed and transformed, individually or as a whole race (as the flood episode shows us). Those who worship the gods without questioning them, like Deucalion and his wife, will be allowed to live. Ovid's view of the virtuousness of authority is, in this light, quite cynical.

The major arena where these power dynamics play is love -- or, more pointedly, lust. These two concepts are inseparable for the Romans, who do not treat love as a matter of courtship and chivalry so much as a matter of irresistable passion. This passion is often unrequited. Indeed, in these first stories, again and again we read of a beautiful woman who wishes to live as a virgin, free from all men, but is pursued and/or raped by a god. Beginning with Apollo's unrequited love for Daphne, through Pan's for Syrinx, through Zeus' catalogue of rapes -- Io, Europa, etc. -- we see women raped, changed into trees and animals, and otherwise used without consent. In all of these examples, love is a transformative force for both parties. Apollo's love for Daphne results in her transformation into a laurel tree, and in a more restrained transformation within Apollo, who adapts her branches as a symbol. Zeus frequently changes himself into an animal or another form in order to facillitate his rapes, which in turn result in transformations in the women, such as Io's metamorphosis into a cow. Thus, Ovid suggests, the power of love alters both parties, but without a doubt the gods are at an advantage. Those who wish to live outside of the power structure, especially the virgins of Diana, find themselves repeatedly unable to do so.

Ovid is especially sensitive to the manner in which transformations build on one another causally, with tragedy begetting tragedy. In Phaethon's episode, for instance, the death of Phaethon sets into motion the transformation of his sisters into trees and the transformation of Cycnus into a swan. It also transforms the earth and the sky as both are threatened by Pheobus' out-of-control chariot, and incites subtler transformations as well in Phaethon's father and mother, both of whom mourn their son tenderly. Every transformation follows a similar pattern: an initial metamorphosis, often a tragic one, will set off a series of contingent metamorphoses. Fathers and mothers, mourning lost sons and daughters, become birds or trees in their grief. Thus Ovid demonstrates the manner in which change affects human beings. We are all touched by each other, and one person's tragedy ripples through his or her community. Hundreds of years before the Reverand John Donne wrote it, Ovid understood well that "no man is an island."

Summary

Picking up with Europa's abduction, Jove reveals his identity to the girl and heads for Crete. Meanwhile, Europa's father, Agenor, tells his son, Cadmus, to seek his sister and never return until he finds her. Cadmus goes to Apollo for help, and the god tells him to found a new city called Boeotia. Cadmus locates the site for his city and sends attendants to fetch water for a libation to Jove, but they are killed after disturbing a serpent sacred to Mars. Cadmus finds his dead friends and slays the serpent. Pallas Athena appears and tells Cadmus to plant the serpent's teeth: he does so, giving rise to a race of warriors. All but five kill one another in battle, but those five, along with Cadmus, found the city of Thebes.

Many years later, Cadmus' grandson Actaeon is hunting with some friends, when he accidentally comes upon Diana bathing. Unable to access her bow and arrow, Diana takes vengeance His friends' dogs catch sight of him and his friends give chase, untimately killing Actaeon. The gods discuss Actaon's fate, and Juno is glad that Europa's relative was killed. But now her envy has turned on another, Semele, who bears Jove's child. Juno goes to Semele disguised as Semele's own nurse, Beroe, and convinces Semele that Jove should reveal the full extent of his powers to her. Semele gets Jove to promise her anything, and then asks to see him in all his power. Unable to undo his promise or her request, Jove kills her with the sight of him. He removes their son from her womb and sews him up in his own thigh, where he is carried to term. The child is born Bacchus, and is raised by the nymphs of Mount Nysa.

Later, as Jove and Juno recline at Mount Olympus, Jove suggests that women enjoy the pleasures of love more then men. They decide that only Tiresias, who has been a man and a woman, can answer (Tiresias disturbed two snakes mating and he was turned into a woman for seven years). Tiresias agrees with Jove, and Juno blinds Tiresias in revenge. Jove gives him the gift of prophesy in recompense, and Tiresias goes on to be the most famous of all prophets. His first prophesy concerns Liriope's son Narcissus: Tiresias says that Narcissus will never grow old if he discovers himself. One day when the beautiful Narcissus is sixteen, the nymph Echo, who can only repeat what others say, falls in love with him. He spurns her and she wastes away to nothing but a voice. After this, one of Narcissus' disappointed suitors prays that Narcissus be loved and spurned himself. Nemesis hears this prayer and causes Narcissus to see his own reflection, which he falls desperately in love with. Unable to eat or rest, just staring at the water, Narcissus wastes away. After he dies, a flower stands in place of his body.

Narcissus's tale confirms Tiresias's powers, whose fame spreads. Pentheus, however, scorns his god-given powers. Tiresias tells him to honor the gods or he will die, but Pentheus doesn't listen, instead taunting those who participate in the festival of Bacchus. He maligns Bacchus and asks the revelers to prove Bacchus' divinity. They return with a priest, Acoetes, who tells of how he came to be one of Bacchus' priests. After his parents' death, he became a sailor, and one day on his his fellow-sailors brought home a beautiful youth, half-drunk, with the intent to do him wrong. Acoetes saw that the youth was a god, Bacchus, and prevented the wrongdoing. Later, Bacchus convinced the sailors to take him to Naxos; the sailors agreed, only to change course once at sea. Bacchus realizes this, stops the ship, and turns all the sailors except for Acoetes into dolphins. Thence, Acoetes became a follower of Bacchus. Pentheus learns nothing from this tale, and he orders his followers to torture and kill Acoetes. Before they can do so, however, his chains fall off of their own accord and he escapes. Furious, Pentheus approaches the place where the Bacchic rites are taking place. His own mother and sister are so caught up in the ritual that they mistake him for a boar and decide to make him their sacrifice. They rip his arms then his head from his body as he cries out to them.

Others refuse to worship Bacchus as well, specifically the daughters of Minyas. During Bacchus' festival they stay inside, weaving and honoring Minerva and telling stories to pass the time. Arsippe begins with the tale of Pyramus and Thisbe, two youths in love who live next door to each other in the town of Babylon. Friends since childhood, they are prevented from marrying by their parents, so they stand by a small crack in the wall between their houses and whisper endearments to each other. One night they plan to flee the city together, agreeing to meet at the grave of Ninus. Thisbe reaches the grave first, but suddenly seeing a ferocious lion, she runs away, dropping her veil. Before departing, the lion comes across the veil and smears it with the blood of his latest kill. When Pyramus arrives, he sees the bloody veil and, believing Thisbe dead, stabs himself. Thisbe returns to find Pyramus' body. Before she stabs herself too, she prays that their parents will bury them in a single grave, and that the mulberry tree which marks their death will carry red fruit in remembrance. Her prayer is answered.

Next, Leuconoe tells a story. When Apollo discovers that Venus and Mars are having an affair together, he tells Venus's husband, Vulcan, who fashions a net of threads so fine that they are invisible. He places it over his bed and catches Venus and Mars together during their next tryst. Vulcan brings the other gods to see the humiliated lovers. Venus gets revenge by causing Apollo to fall desperately in love with the beautiful Leucothoe. Apollo disguises himself as Leucothoe's mother to gain entrance to her room, then reveals himself. Leucothoe gives in to his advances, inspiring jealousy in Clytie, who is passionately in love with Apollo. She tells Leucothoe's father about the affair, and he buries her deep in the earth. Unable to save her from death, Apollo annoints her body with nectar and her body changes into a fragrant tree. Apollo rejects Clytie, showing no compassion for the love that drove her actions, and she wastes away in grief, eventually becoming the vine and flower called heliotrope.

Next, Alcithoe tells the tale of Hermaphroditus, a child born of Hermes and Aphrodite who has the features of both mother and father. When he is a youth of fifteen, he comes across a nymph in his wanderings, Salmacis, who falls in love with him. He reists her and she pretends to depart, hiding and watching as he strips and dives into a pool. She then jumps Hermaphroditus, and when she is unable to overwhelm him, she asks the gods to make them into one creature. They respond, merging them into a half-man, half-woman hybrid. Hermaphroditus asks his parents to curse the pool so that it takes half the strength of any man who comes there, and they grant his wish.

The daughters of Minyas continue to spurn the festival and worship of Bacchus; however, suddenly their weaving changes into Bacchic ivies and they hear cymbals and music. The women try to hide in the shadows of their home, but they too change into bats.

Bacchus' divinity is a controversial matter among gods as well as men, and Juno becomes especially angry at Ino's pride in her nephew's powers. She calls forth the Furies from the underworld and asks them to drive Ino's husband, Cadmus, insane. The furies torment Athamos and Ino until they have been infected with a great and terrible madness. Athamos kills his infant son, and Ino, catching up her son's body, throws herself into the sea. Venus, looking on, pities the woman and her son. She asks Neptune to make them into sea-gods, and he agrees. The child becomes Palaemon, Ino, Leucothoe. Some of Ino's women followed her to the cliffs and lament Juno's cruelty. Angered, Juno turns them into statues just as they prepare to throw themselves after their mistress. Cadmus wonders aloud if he is being punished for killing a snake, which he thinks must have been sacred, and asks the gods to transform him into a snake if it is true. He begins to change, and Ino asks to be a snake as well. As serpents, they live quietly in the woods, remembering what they once were.

Acrisius, thr ruler of Argos, is another who refuses to acknowledge the deity. He also denies the divinity of Perseus. As revenge, Perseus carries the head of the slain Medusa over Argos, dripping her blood as he goes; everywhere her blood lands, a deadly serpent springs up. Acrisius is overwhelmed by the snakes and repents his view. Perseus next goes to the country of Atlas, where he asks to enter Atlas's kingdom, but Atlas, remembering a prophecy about a man who would steal the riches from his tree of gold, refuses him. In response, Perseus uses Medusa's head to turn Atlas into stone. Perseus then puts on his winged sandels and speeds towards the land of the Ethopians, where Andromeda has been chained to a rock as a sacrifice to a sea monster. Perseus rescues Andromeda, but not before getting her parents to promise her as his wife. They offer Perseus the kingdom as his dowry, but he rejects any dowry but her hand. They marry after sacrificing to Mercury, Minerva and Jupiter.

During the wedding feast, a guest asks Perseus to tell the story of how he captured Medusa's head. Perseus tells them of how he went to the Graeae, three daughters who share one eye between them. He stole their eye and used it to find the Gorgons' lair. He then slew Medusa by never looking at her directly, instead watching her reflection in his shield. After he cut of her head, the winged horse Pegasus and the warrior Chrysaor sprang up from her blood. Perseus then tells them of other adventures before explaining why Medusa has snakes for hair. She was once a beautiful maiden, but she was violated by Neptune in the temple of Minerva, and as punishment, Minerva transformed the girl's hair to snakes of the same kind as those Minerva wears on her breastplate.

Analysis

The same two types of stories predominate this section: stories of lovers pursuing beloveds and of gods punishing those who offend them. The latter type of tale dominates these books, especially the sections centering around the worship of Bacchus: an interesting addition to the Roman pantheon. Bacchus is a god especially appropriate for Metamorphoses -- his very nature is rife with change. As the god of wine, Bacchus represents the transformative power of intoxication, both positive and negative. He is a god who represents both communal festival and drunken chaos, which is perhaps best illustrated in the fates of the Minyas daughters: they are hermetic, conservative women, dilligently weaving away, who resist the festivity of bacchanal, preferring to recount the doings of the more properly established gods. Thus opposition to Bacchus is associated with anti-social behavior, hiding in the shadows. Tellingly, their tales also concern the weakness of the gods, emphasizing Venus and Mars' humiliation or the tale of Hermaphroditus. Their stories, then, seek to resist a worshipful attitute toward the gods, just as they do. They cannot hide forever, though, as their weaving itself becomes Bacchic vines and they are changed to bats. In all cases, those who resist the festive powers of Bacchus succumb to his darker side. The curmudgeonly Pentheus, too, meets his death at the hands of his own family, blinded by Bacchic worship.

Bacchus threatens gods as well as men, upending traditional power structures. Most tellingly, perhaps -- especially in the context of women's sorry fates throughout Metamorphoses) -- Bacchic worship frees women to behave in a public, unrestrained manner. It is then women in Pentheus' family who destroy him. While this is undoubtedly a cruel irony, it's also a lonely instance of a god giving a woman power, rather than taking power away. Though there are several more examples of god-rapes-virgin-and-virgin-suffers-for-it in these books, most notably the tale of Semele, the Bacchic activities slyly undermine such powerlessness.

Ultimately, though, the prevailing distinction of Metamorphoses continues to be that between mortals and gods. Neither race is more just than the other, it's just that the gods have the power and the mortals can be killed. Again and again Ovid emphasizes the fragility of the human condition. This fragility is expressed in physical terms through violence and dismemberment -- Cadmus's warrior people destroy each other at the moment of their birth; Actaeon is turned into a stag and ripped apart by his dogs; Pentheus is ripped apart by his mother and sisters. It's also expressed in more subtle ways through the transformative power or grief, as in the frequent examples of mortals becoming trees or plants. Mortals are delicate creatures, unlikely to undergo the humiliations and revenges of the gods without permanent change. Gods, on the other hand, can play as they will with transformation, never fearing permanent consequences. Jove can turn himself into a bull or someone's mother or whatever he wants, always assured that he can become Jove again. When a mortal becomes a flower, a bat or a snake, however, you can rest assured that their never going to return to the identity they had before.

Apart from these examinations of social roles, mortality, lust and love, Metamorphoses also functions as an important collection of mythology, especially tales of Greek and Roman heroes. It is a cultural memory-box of sorts as well as a diagnosis of the human condition. The first of these stories is the tale of Perseus's destruction of Medusa, and his rescue of Andromeda. In many ways, this story does not seem to fit into the themes of the poems. Yet, at its heart, this story is about Perseus's ability to harness the power of transformation. Killing Medusa is not an accomplishment in itself. Perseus only kills Medusa to get her head. With her head, he gains the power to transform others into stone. Thus Perseus becomes a hero -- and later a god -- by acquiring the power of transformation and using it to his advantage. Indeed, the power to use transformative powers willfully and selfishly distinguishes gods from mere heros, and Perseus joins the former's ranks when he proves so adept at this god-like trick.

Summary

We rejoin Perseus' wedding-feast, which devolves into a riot when Andromeda's uncle Phineus, whom she was promised to marry, threatens to throw a spear at Perseus for stealing his intended. Cepheus argues that Andromeda's death sentence effectively ended their engagement, and that Perseus' rescue (and Phineus' lack of a rescue attempt) makes Andromeda rightly his bride. Phineus hurls the spear at Perseus anyway, but misses, and Perseus flings the spear back, missing Phineus but killing one of Phineus' companions. A fight begins, and Athena arrives to protect Perseus, who kills Athis, a beautiful young javelin thrower, and his lover. Finally, Perseus ends the battle by turning all his enemies to stone with Medusa's head.

Minerva then travels to Thebes, where she asks the muses whether their fountain truly came to be after Pegasus stomped his hoof there. They affirm the tale and show Minerva the fountain, taking pride in their sanctuary. They tell Minerva about Pyreneus, king of Parnassus, who tried to abduct them and hold them in his palace, only to fall from his death from a tower as they escaped through the air. Minerva comments on nine birds with human-like voices, whom the muses say were nine sisters who challenged them to a singing contest with the nymphs as arbiters. The sisters were transformed to magpies when they lost.

One of the muses, Calliope, then sings Minerva the song that won her the nymphs judgment, starting with the story of the rape of Proserpine. One day, the giant buried under the isle of Sicily began to move so much that Dis, the King of the Dead, feared it would destroy his kingdom. He left the kingdom of the dead to survey the situation, at which point Venus told Mercury to strike him with love's arrow, as he was the only creature immune to love's passion. Venus designed for Pluto to fall in love with Cere's daughter Proserpine, a virgin, because Venus disdains virginity. Dis, struck by Cupid's arrow, seized her and dragged her to the Underworld, despite her struggle and the attempt of a nearby nymph, Cyane, to stop him. Despairing that her pond has been defiled, Cyane almost melted away. Meanwhile, Ceres searched everywhere for her daughter.

After long searches, Ceres met Cyane, who showed her Prosperpine's ribbon. Furious and despairing, Ceres took her anger out on the farmers of this land, ruining their harvest. Another nymph informed Ceres that Proserpine had become the queen of the underworld. Furious, Ceres asked Jove to intervene and restore her daughter. Jove considered that Ceres' lack of consent annuls the marriage and agreed to release her if she has not eaten of the food of the dead, for the Fates insist that any who have cannot leave the Underworld. Prosperine had eaten seven seeds of a pomegranate, an act witnessed by Ascalaphus, and so at first was forbidden from leaving, but Jove decreed that Proserpine spend half the year with her mother and the other half with her husband. Hence during Spring and Summer, when Proserpine is aboveground, Ceres is happy and crops flourish; during Autumn and Winter, however, Proserpine lives in the Underworld and Ceres refuses to let crops grow.

Calliope then sings of Arethusa, the nymph who told of Proserpine's capture. She relates that one day, while bathing, Alpheus spotted Arethusa and pursued her. Diana came to Arethusa's assistance, creating an impenetrable cloud around Arethusa, but Alpheus continued to pursue her until at last Diana transported Arethusa through secret caverns, during which transport she sees Proserpine in the Underworld, until she settled at Ortygia, the sacred fountain. Calliope continues to sing, turning to the story of how Ceres gave Triptolemus precious seeds and told him to use them to repair the lands she had destroyed after Dis raped her daughter. Triptolemus took the seeds to Lyncus, the king, and Lyncus jealously tried to steal the seeds and kill Triptolemus. Ceres turned the king into a lynx for his attempted slaying. The Muses tell Minerva that after Calliope was finished with her song, the nymphs judged the Muses to be victorious, and after the sisters refused to accept defeat graciously, they were changed into magpies.

The Muses' story reminds Minerva of another challenge to the gods. A mortal, Arachne, who was very good at weaving, declared that she was better even than Pallas Athena. Disguised as an old woman, Athena gets Arachne to say that she would engage Athena in a contest. She then shakes off her disguise and the contest begins. Athena represents her argument with Neptune over the right to name the city which became Athens and also weaves four scenes of hubristic mortals. Meanwhile, Arachne weaves images of Jove raping and seducing women, including Europa with Jove the bull, Asterie with Jove the Eagle, and Leda with Jove the swan. Arachne continues with images of Neptune, Apollo, and Bacchus all raping mortals. Unable to defeat Arachne and enraged at her choice of theme, Athena tears her weaving and strikes her. Arachne loops a piece of rope around her own neck to kill herself, but Athena changes her into a spider instead.

Niobe, a childhood friend of Arachne, does not learn from her fate. The wife of Amphion and Queen of Thebes, Niobe is proud of many things but proudest of all of her children. One day Manto, Tiresias's daughter, asks the women of Thebes to make sacrifices to Latona and her children, Diana and Apollo. All the women obey except proud Niobe. She walks through the streets, describing her divine lineage, and declaring that she is more fit for worship than Latona, who wandered the earth because no one would give her a piece of land on which to bear her sacred children. Niobe especially emphasizes how many more children she had than Latona, fourteen to her mere two. Latona seeks justice for this hubris, and the gods agree. Apollo kills Niobe's seven sons with arrows and Niobe is informed both of their deaths and that of her husband, Amphion, who killed himself in sorrow. Niobe taunts Latona further, saying that she is happier in her sorrow than Latona ever was in her joy. More arrows kill six of her daughters, leaving only Niobe's youngest, who is also killed in time. Niobe's body turns to stone in her grief and she is carried to the country of her birth, where tears still flow from her marble eyes.

We segue to another tale about Latona: at a site in Lycia an old alter commemorates the spot where Latona gave birth to Diana and Apollo. After giving birth at that place, Latona came to a lake, where she tried to quence a burning thirst. The men of the place wouldn't let her, and in revenge they were transformed into frogs. Another storyteller relates a flute-playing challenge to Apollo by the satyr, Marsyas, who was flayed after he lost. So many wept Marsyas fate that the river Marsya was formed from their tears.

The company mourns the loss of Amphion, their king, and his children. They blame Niobe, whose brother alone mourns for her. Kings from throughout the world come to pay their respects. Only Athens' king is absent, as he is caught up in a war with barbarians. Tereus of Thrace leads the defense of Athens, and Pandion, King of Athens, gives him his daughter, Procne, in marriage. Their wedding is a ghastly affair -- Juno, Hymen and the Graces are absent, but the Furies and the Eumenides are in attendance. Nonetheless, the pair marries and has children. Five years later, Procne asks her husband to bid her sister, Philomela, come visit them. Tereus goes to fetch her, only to be overwhelmed with lust for Philomela upon seeing her. He convinces Philomela to come aboard with him under the pretense of visitng Procne, but takes her instead to a fortress in the woods, where he imprisons and rapes her. After, she asks why he doesn't kill her because she will surely reveal his crime otherwise. Tereus cuts out her tongue to keep her from talking. He then arrives home and tells Procne that her sister is dead. She believes him.

A year later, Philomela conceives a plan to reveal her fate. She weaves the tale into a cloth and has it delivered to Procne, who is overwhelmed with rage, though she manages to hide it and plan revenge. That night is the festival of Bacchus and Procne dresses herself up as a reveler, making her way to the fortress in the woods and rescuing her sister. Procne is set on revenge, and she determines, despite her love for her son, to kill him and feed him to his father. While Tereus eats he calls out for his son, and Procne reveals her act. Tereus calls on the furies and attempts to kill the women, but before he can, Procne becomes a nightingale and Philomela a swallow. Tereus too becomes a bird. Pandion, father of Procne and Philomela, dies upon hearing the news and the kingdom passes to Erectheus, who has four sons and four daughters, two of them extremely beautiful. One of these, Cephalus, makes a happy marriage. The other, Orithyia, cannot have her beloved Boreas because of his connection to Tereus. Then, one day, Boreas realizes that as the God of the north wind he must seize his love without consent. He takes Orithyia and marries her, and they have twin boys, who grow wings like their father. When these two boys are older, they sail as Argonauts in the quest for the golden fleece.

Analysis

The stories of this section of the poem continue to illustrate the key dynamic between gods and mortals -- mortals continue to challenge the gods and the gods continue to smite the mortals. As in previous sections, the gods rule by fear and strength. Indeed, we see in the story of Dis, Proserpine and Ceres that even among immortals a hierarchy of power determines events. Dis, one of the most powerful of gods, is not prevented from kidnapping Proserpine. Only afterwards, when Ceres withholds her services, does Jove intervene. Thus the gods, no less petty than mortals, take from one another, rape one another, and rob one another, only finding compromise under the threat of chaos. It's also important to note that, yet again, the most powerful god of all is Love, who is able to manipulate even Death.

Also in this section two major competitions are depicted: the nine sisters challenge the Muses to a singing competition and Arachne challenges Athena to a weaving competition. Why, one is tempted to ask, would a mortal be so foolish as to challenge a god? Even if the mortal won she or he could be certain of being punished. In depicting these irrational displays of hubris, Ovid captures human stubbornness and perserverence. The skilled, the wise and the loving among humanity don't accept the inferior status that gods demand of them, even though such resistence inevitably ends badly for the mortal. Thus Ovid's mortal challengers win the reader's sympathy to some extent -- even against the hopeless odds of their own mortality, they strive to best the gods. And in this light, the gods' lack of justice renders them quite tyrannical. Arachne, for instance, is in fact likely a better weaver than Athena. Her audacious talent, coupled with her subject, which decries the immorality of the gods' conduct with mortals, makes her in the end a martyr to the capricious immortals. She is perhaps even the hero of the tale, even though we hear it from Athena's point-of-view.

That said, Ovid certainly invites his readers to recognize that the challenging mortals are offensive to the gods because of their boasting, not because of their talent. The nine sisters go directly to the Muses and demand a competition. Arachne and Niobe challenge the goddesses by brazenly declaring their superiority to anyone who will listen. Niobe's claims are so damaging, because like Arachne's, there is truth to them. Niobe can clearly show that her claims to divinity are essentially as good as Latona's. If Latona ignores her boasts, not only will her divinity be put into question, but the very concept of divinity -- of a superior race of beings who deserve their higher status -- would be shaken. Thus the horrific punishment visited upon Niobe boldly emphasizes the true difference between god and human: mortality. Humans can be killed, gods cannot; that is the only basis on which gods "deserve" to be worshipped.

A related theme introduced in this section concerns mortal acts of revenge. When Procne discovers her husband's betrayal, she feeds him his own son. This might seem unsuitable, as it hurts Procne as much as Tereus. However, Ovid presents emotional transformations as frequently as physical transformations, and the destruction of Procne's sister damages Procne beyond repair. It upends her family, replacing hate for Tereus where she once felt love, and so she expresses the replacement of love with hate by killing her son. Transformed by grief and revenge, Procne is an utterly new creature capable of unspeakable cruelty. Thus Tereus is transformed by love and Procne by hate; both have thus abandoned both family and humanity, and they both change into birds.

Summary

The Argonauts arrive at King Aeetes' kingdom and Jason demands the return of the Golden Fleece; meanwhile, the king's daughter Medea falls in love with Jason. After an inward struggle, Medea decides to betray her father and help Jason to conquer the tasks that he stipulates for the return of the fleece. Jason promises to marry Medea in return for her help and she gives him some magic herbs. Jason passes his first task: to yoke together two fire-breathing bulls and plow a field with them. Then he sews the ground with dragons teeth, which give rise to warriors. With Medea's help, Jason defeats them by throwing a stone in the middle of the group, which sets them attacking one another. Finally, Jason uses Medea's drugs and incantations to put the dragon guarding the fleece to sleep. He and the argonauts flee with Medea and the fleece.

Jason returns home to find his father extremely ill. Medea promises to restore his father's life. She journeys for nine days and nights, gathering herbs for a dark ritual which heals Aeson and brings him youth. During Aeson's sickness, the daughters of Pelias had usurped Aeson's throne, and Medea tricks them into killing Pelias under the pretence of restoring his life as well. She flees on her chariot pulled by winged dragons and returns to Corinth much later, only to discover that Jason has taken a new bride, Glauce. Medea kills her and Jason's own children and also murders Glauce before fleeing once again to Athens, where Aegeus gives her sanctuary and marries her.

Theseus arrives in Athens and Medea attempts to kill him. Aegeus recognizes Theseus as his own son, however, and prevents the murder just in time. Medea escapes in a mist. Soon war threatens: Minos of Crete declares war on Athens because his son, Androgeos, died on Aegeus' lands. In preperation for battle, Cephalus of Athens calls upon the people of Oenipia -- newly renamed Aegina -- for help. Aeacus of Aegina promises to aid Athens, meanwhile relating the story of their city. He says that Juno struck them with a plague, which killed many, until he prayed to Jove, who had lain with the city's namesake, Aegina. Jove repopulated Aegina with a colony of ants who had nested in an oak tree, whom he turned into industrious men known as Myrmidons. These Myrmidons join Athens in battling Crete.

As Cephalus and the Myrmidons await a favorable wind to return to Athens, Cephalus tells the story of how he was married to Procris, daughter of Erechteus. After they had been married for two months, the goddess Aurora tried to seduce him. Cephalus refused, angering Aurora, who suggested as revenge that Procris was unfaithful to him. She allowed him to alter his appearance and test Procris' fidelity, which he does, eventually offering her a massive fortune for one night in bed. Procris hesitated and Cephalus revealed himself, sending Procris fleeing into the mountains. Eventually Cephalus and Procris made up and by way of apology Procris offered Cephalus the fastest hound in the world and a magic spear that always hits its mark and returns when it is thrown.

Cephalus turns to the story of the hound, saying that the hound, called Laelaps, was called upon to catch a very fast beast that was plaguing Thebes. Laelaps caught up to the creature, but was not able to catch it, and the two creatures turned to marble statues, frozen in their pursuit. Cephalus also tells a tragic story about his spear, saying that he went hunting every morning with the spear and called to the breeze, "Aura," at the end of every day. Someone overheard him and told Procris that "Aura" was his lover, and so Procris hid herself during one of his hunts to see if it was true. Cephalus heard her rustling in the bushes and killed her with the spear, thinking she was an animal. She died in his arms as he explained the misunderstanding.

As Cephalus and his men return to Athens, Minos lays waste to nearby cities, testing his might. As he battles Alcathous, the land of King Nisus, Nisus' daughter, Scylla, falls in love with Minos. After debating, Scylla decides to betray her city in return for Minos' love; she brings her father's purple lock of hair as an offering. Minos recoils from Scylla, damning her unnatural betrayal of Alcathous, and Scylla, enraged, torments Minos for his wife's strange adultery -- she had fallen in love with a bull and conceived a creature by it. Finally Scylla throws herself into the sea, trying to catch up with Minos' boat. Nisus, who had been turned into a sea eagle, pecks at her until she changes into a bird as well.

Minos returns home and his wife gives birth to the half-human, half-bull creature. Minos orders Daedalus to create a labyrinth to house the beast, dubbed the minotaur. Minos establishes that each nine years an Athenian youth is to be sacrificed in tribute to the monster. The third tribute arrives and Theseus is designated as the sacrifice. He survives the minotaur, however, with the help of Minos' daughter, Ariadne, who gives Theseus a spool of thread to help him find his way through the labyrinth. Theseus and Ariadne set sail for Dia, where Theseus abandons Ariadne; she finds comfort from Bacchus, who transforms her crown into a constellation.

Meanwhile, Daedalus plans an escape from Crete. He fashions wings out of feathers and beeswax -- one pair for himself and one for his son, Icarus. He warns Icarus not to fly too high, or the sun will melt the wax, or too low, or moisture will weigh down the feathers, but as they are in flight Icarus flies too high, thrilled by the ablitity to fly, and his wings fall apart. He plummets to his death. As Daedalus buries his son, a partridge reproaches Daedalus -- the partridge recalls one of Daedalus' former rivals, Telus, who was also a brilliant inventor until Daedalus defenestrated him out of envy. Minerva changed Telus to the partridge as he fell. Daedalus finds refuge in King Cocalus' land.

Theseus' fame spreads and many request his help, including King Oeneus of Calydon, who forgot Diana in a sacrifice. In revenge, a fierce boar ravages Calydon. A group of heroes, including Theseus, Jason, Atalanta, and Oeneus's son Melaeger, hunt the boar. Meleager falls desperately in love with Atalanta, and after the two of them cooperate to slay the boar, Meleager offers it to Atalanta as a tribute. Meleager's jealous uncles try to prevent him and Meleager kills them in a rage. Meleager's mother, Althaca, avenges their deaths by burning a log that the fates had linked to Meleager's mortality. All of Calydon mourns Meleager's death and Alcatha kills herself in grief. Meleager's sisters are so distraught that Diana takes pity on them and turns them into guinea hens.

On his way back to Athens, Theseus takes shelter from a storm in the house of Achelous, a river god. Achelous tells Theseus the story of the five islands near his house, saying that the islands had been nymphs who forgot him during a sacrifice to the local gods. Achelous points out another island, explaining it was once a young girl whom he loved. After he took her virginity, her father threw her from a cliff and Triton changed her into an island at Achelous' request. One of the men present, Pirithous, objects that such things are impossible. In response, a man named Lelex tells a story, saying that Jupiter and Mercury once disguised themselves as mortals and went from house to house seeking shelter. Only an old and pious couple, Baucis and Philemon, received them. The couple offered them all that they had, and in return the gods led them up a hill. From this vantage they witnessed the gods destroy the area except for their house, which was changed into a glorious temple. Furthermore, the gods granted Baucis and Philemon their only wish: that they could die at the same hour so they would never have to be apart. At the hour of their death, Baucis and Philemon were transformed into trees.

Theseus asks to hear more stories of the gods and Achelous tells of Erysichthon and Mestra. Erysichthon was an impious man who once desecrated a tree sacred to Ceres. As revenge, Ceres arranged with Famine that Erysichthon would be eternally hungry, no matter how much he ate. He eats himself out of house and home, finally even trying to sell Mestra to buy more food. Mestra appeals to Neptune, who had taken her virginity, to save her, and Neptune grants her the ability to change her shape. She transforms into a fisherman and convinces the man who had bought her that he has been fooled. Erysichthon learns of her ability and exploits it to trick men. At last, however, Erysichthon has no way of buying more food and eats himself. At the end of this story, Achelous mentions that he has a limited ability to shift forms as well.

Analysis

Medea is one of the most complex characters in ancient mythology, not least because she continually eludes punishment. In some ways, she seems like another example of a mortal woman who is corrupted by love and excessive pride. Her love for Jason leads her to betray her father and murder Aeson's rivals. Like other stories that begin with a betrayal of family, we know that Medea's will not turn out well, and indeed she lashes out murderously at her own children, like Procne before her, when she finds Jason has married another woman. However, Medea's story does not end there; she continues on to Athens, only to flee from there as well. This is where her tale is different: Medea shows the love and pride-induced failings of so many others, but she evades transformation. With her magic, she has harnessed the power of metamorphoses, and so she uses it to escape consequences. Medea thus represents the mortal who best resists the logic of crime-and-punishment that determines so much of Metamorphoses; she inspires pity due to Jason's ungrateful treatment and fear because of her cruel murder of others. She is at once another example of a "woman gone bad" -- like Procne or Scylla -- and a woman with the acumen and audacity to reist their fates.

Speaking of Scylla, she and Medea have much in common, yet Scylla could almost be described as the anti-Medea. Where Medea is cunning, Scylla is obtuse. Medea secures a promise of marriage from Jason before aiding him; Scylla assumes that Minos will love her for her betrayal. Furthermore, whereas Medea simply gets Jason the fleece, Scylla practically kills her own father by cutting off the lock of hair that protects him. She is a traitor without strategy, and Minos reviles her both for her betrayal of her country and for her lack of dignity. Unlike Medea, she meets a typical end, transformed into a bird.

This section once again emphasizes the danger of love. Even when love seems destined to bring only happiness, destruction often ensues. Cephalus' tragic history with Procris, for instance, suggests that jealousy and mistrust naturally dog even the most genuine lovers. Both Cephalus and Procris allow others to poison their trust of each other, leading to tragic jealousy. They love one another so much, it seems, that they cannot trust one another -- it's a paradox at the heart of desire. Their fear that their love is threatened is the true threat to their love.

Again, Ovid relishes stories within stories. In these sections, the stories are told by men rather than women, and the stories are intended merely to pass the time rather than to compete or rebel. Cephalus tells his stories both to explain the origin of his spear, and to illustrate a lesson for the princes. He tells them the sad story of his wife, and he clearly hopes they will consider the consequences of his actions and avoid making the same mistakes. The act of telling stories about one's own actions continues when Achelous tells Theseus how he lost his horn. Ovid thus illustrates the moral possibilities of, well, stories with morals. These two intend others to gain wisdom from their own past errors, even as they are just passing the time. Similarly, Ovid intends his telling of the foibles of gods and men to correct our errant human behaviors, even as it entertains us.

Finally, in these two books Ovid introduces several minor deities and one human being who take the concept of metamorphosis to a new level: they have the ability to change their own shape. Achelous can change into several different animals, as can Mestra, daughter of Erysichthon. Ovid emphasizes that the power to transform oneself is nowhere near as great as the power to transform others. Achelous power does not even allow him to best Hercules, who is not yet a god. Mestra's powers are used solely by her father, who essentially enslaves her in order to try and ease his overwhelming hunger. The gods and goddesses ultimate power comes from their ability to transform mortals into whatever they desire -- or, when they do transform themselves, to do so as a means to manipulate others. Ovid thus, again, emphasizes mortals' vulnerability to the whims of the gods.

Summary

Achelous agrees to tell the story of how he lost one of his horns, an injury that limited his ability to change shapes, saying that he once fell in love with a woman, Deianira, and approached her father as a suitor. Hercules also sought Deianira's hand. Each suitor plead his case, and after Achelous spoke, Hercules became angry and attacked him. Unable to overcome Hercules, Achelous tried transforming into a snake and then into a bull. Hercules ripped one of the horns from Achelous' head during the struggle. Remembering his disgrace, Achelous hides his head as Theseus and the others depart.

Ovid tells us that Nessus the Centaur loses more than just a horn for Deianira. When Hercules and his bride, newly wedded, are on their way to his home, they come to a flooded river. Hercules doesn't know how to carry Deianira across. Nessus arrives and offers to ferry her over on his back, but then tries to steal Deianira as Hercules swims across the river. Seeing this attempt, Hercules kills Nessus with a poisoned arrow. As he dies, Nessus gives his shirt to Deianira as a gift, soaked though it is in his poisoned blood. Years later, Deianira hears that Hercules loves another woman, Iole, and sends Nessus' shirt to Hercules, believing that it contains the power to revive fading love. Hercules puts the poison-soaked shirt on, causing him such pain that he ripped his own flesh off his bones in an attempt to remove the shirt. Hercules catches up with Lichas, the servant who delivered the shirt for Deianira, and hurls him from the mountaintop, then finally escapes the pain by burning the moral portion of his body away on a funeral pyre. Jove carries him up into the sky.

Meanwhile we turn to Alcmena, Hercules' mother, and Iole. Iole has married Hercules' son, Hyllus, and is pregnant, so Alcmena is reminded of her own pregnancy with Hercules. Because Jove had impregnated her, Juno was terribly jealous and ordered Lucina, the goddess of childbirth, to make her die in giving birth. She labored for seven days and nights while Lucina prolonged her pain. Finally, Lucina was distracted by a maid, Galanthis, who noticed the goddess and lied in prayer, claiming that the child had been born. This distracts Lucina long enough to allow the birth. In her anger, Lucina turns Galanthis into a weasel. Iole then tells the story of her half-sister, Dryope, who was turned into a tree after she inadvertently picked flowers from a tree that was actually a nymph.

As Iole finishes this story, Hercules' nephew Iolaus, who had been dead, appears before her and Alcmena, explaining that he has been restored by Hebe. We learn that other dead people are prophesied to be restored as well during the ongoing civil war in Thebes. The gods, hearing this prophesy, complain that their loved ones cannot be revived, but Jove explains that such resurrections are fated and cannot be influenced, even by him. As a demonstration, he shows them all of those whom Jove loves, who will nonetheless fade and die.

We turn to the story of Byblis and Caunus, the twins of Cyanee. Byblis realizes as she grows up that she is passionately in love with her brother, Caunus, while knowing how wrong this passion is. She indulges in dreams the feelings she hides during her waking hours, meanwhile deploring the fact that gods may marry their own family while mortals may not. Finally she confesses her feelings to her brother in a letter. Caunus casts the letter away as soon as he follows its drift, enraged. Byblis, shaken by Caunus' display of hate, decides that she must carry through even so, and pursues her brother. He escapes to the land of Caria; in an attempt to follow, Byblis collapses in the woods, where she is discovered by the Lelegeian nymphs. They try and fail to help her and she becomes an ever-weeping fountain.

Elsewhere in Crete, Ligdus tells his pregnant wife that if she gives birth to a girl, it must be killed. Though saddened, Telethusa is prepared to carry out his wish until Isis visits her in her dreams. The goddesss tells her to raise the child regardless of its gender. When Telethusa gives birth to a girl, she disguises it as a boy. Ligdus androgenously names the child Iphis. Thirteen years later Iphis is bethrothed to the beautiful Ianthe; they love one another, a state that causes Iphis great grief as Ianthe thinks she is a man. Telethusa delays the marriage as long as possible and finally prays to Isis, who transforms Inathe from woman to man.

We turn to another wedding, that of Orpheus and Eurydice, which Hymen does not bless. Soon after the wedding, Eurydice is killed by a snakebite. Orpheus' despair is such that he visits the underworld to appeal to Pluto. He charms Dis and Proserpine with his lute and Pluto releases Eurydice under the condition that she follow Orpheus out of the Underworld on foot and that he never turn around to see if she's actually there. Just as Orpheus is almost out of the Underworld, he can't bear the suspense and turns to catch a glimpse of Eurydice; she's instantly carried back to the Underworld. Orpheus never loves another woman, turning instead to young boys.

One of Orpheus' beloved boys was changed to a cypress tree. The boy's name was Cyparissus. He loved a beautiful tame stag that he accidentally killed with a spear. In his grief he was turned to a cypress. Orpheus visits the tree and sings of how Jove fell in love with Ganymede and, disguised as an eagle, stole him away from Juno. Orpheus sings too of Hyacinthus, the boy lover of Phoebus, who was accidentally killed by a discus thrown by the god. At Phoebus Apollo's wish, in the place where Hyacinthus spilled his blood, a new flower sprung up - the Hyacinthia. Next he sings of the city of Amathus, inhabited by the Propoetides, divinity-deniers who were turned into flints, and also home to the Cerastae, horned murderers whom Venus turned into bulls. Orpheus turns to Pygmalian, who carved a perfect woman out of ivory and fell in love with his creation. On Venus's feast day he prayed to her and as a sign of her favor she transformed the statue into a real woman. Their son, Paphos was born nine months later.

Now Orpheus begins to tell the story of Cinyras, Paphos's son. One of the furies breathes on Myrrha, Cinyras's daughter, and infects her with an unnatural love for her father. Though she knows it to be wrong, she desires Cinyras so much that she attempts suicide rather than live with her pain. Just before she can hang herself, her nurse stops her and convinces Myrrha to confess her incestuous desire. The nurse decides to help Myrrha by convincing Cinyras to allow a young girl into his bed. He sleeps with Myrrha, ignorant of her identity, and she conceives a child. Discovering his lover's identity, Cinyras tries to murder Myrrha but she flees. Myrrha wanders until the gods take pity and transform her into a myrrh tree.

Myrrha's child, Adonis, remains inside of her, and Lucina magically splits the tree when he is ready to be born. Raised by nymphs, Adonis is extremely beautiful. One day, Cupid accidentally scratches his mother with an arrow, and she falls desperately in love with Adonis. Venus attends Adonis constantly, fearing for his safety because he loves to hunt wild beasts. Venus tells Adonis why she fears them, beginning with the story of Atalanta, a swift-footed girl who, dreading marriage, insisted that anyone who wanted to marry her beat her in a footrace first, accepting death if they lose. Many race and lose, until Hippomenes, grandson of Neptune, falls desperately in love with her. He seeks Venus' aid in winning the race, and Venus agrees to assist him using golden apples. Atalanta cannot but choose to chase after these apples. So during the race Hippomenes throws them, one after another, far away from the track. Though Atalanta is astonishingly fast, this buys Hippomenes enough time to win the race. However, Hippomenes forgets to sacrifices to Venus in thanks and in return Venus imbues him with an overwhelming desire to make love in a sacred temple. Juno turns them into lions because of the desecration. Thus Venus fears that wild beasts may be after revenge on her.

Venus departs and Adonis, heedless of her warning, hunts a boar. The boar turns on him and gores his groin. As he's dying, Venus weeps over his body and promises that each year his death will be commemorated. She transforms him into a flower whose beauty can be enjoyed only briefly: the anemone.

Analysis

These books of the poem deal widely and broadly with doomed affairs -- emphasizing especially unusual attractions such as incest. The two books are roughly organized around two disappointed lovers -- Achelous and Orpheus -- though both books stray from their original storylines. The affairs are tragic and notable: Apollo accidentally kills Hyacinthus; Deianira accidentally poisons Hercules; Caunus falls in love with her own brother; Myrrh falls in love with her father; Orpheus loses Eurydice and turns to loving young boys; Venus loves Adonis; Hippomenes loves Atalanta. All these affairs are doomed, doomed, doomed -- with a few notable exceptions, such as Pygmalion. The often meandering and loose organization of this section, indeed, mirrors the wild play of desire that the stories capture within.

Book Nine begins as a kind of reassurance for Achelous that, though he lost Deianira and a horn, and thus had his dignity bruised, many others have suffered worse for love. Hercules certainly does not end well, and surely he is not so unlucky as Byblis and Caunus. The only happy story Achelous tells concerns the gender transformation of Iphis; even this story was careening toward misery until that miraculous change, suggesting wryly that only impossible divine interventions are capable of making love work. Meanwhile, Orpheus sings out of mourning for his lost wife: this his songs tell primarily of loss. Venus loses Adonis, Myrrha is doomed to rejection when her father discovers who she is. He to tells one happy story, that of Pygmalion and Galatea. Once again, this story suggests that only impossible divine favors can bring happiness in love.

Not only are the stories in these books overwhelmingly tragic, they also largely deal with unconventional attractions. We have two stories of incest -- Myrrha and her father and Byblis and Caunus -- and stories of same-sex attraction -- Orpheus' love for boys and Iphis and Ianthe's love. Alongside frequent accounts of sex with animals -- whether because a god has taken on an animal's appearance or, as in the case of Minos' wife, because a human has simply fallen in love with an animal -- these examples emphasize the indeterminacy of desire. Ancient Romans obviously did not follow our modern conceptions of love and marriage. They did not have labels like "homosexual," for example. One may be sexually attracted to whomever; that doesn't define one's existence. More importantly, Ovid gives us such a wide range of attractions to highlight the bacchanalian whirl of desire -- no one is safe from Cupid's power, not even Dis, nor Venus herself. As Carson McCullers wrote in another tale of tragic Eros, "The Ballad of the Sad Café": "A most mediocre person can be the object of a love which is wild, extravagant, and beautiful as the poison lilies of the swamp." For Metamorphoses, you could replace "a most mediocre person" with "anything at all." And it's this chaotic inception of desire that leads, inevitably, to tragedy.

These two books also provide fodder for considering the purpose of the transformations in Metamorphoses. We might be inclined to ask why people are changed into the things they become? Often the change has an explanation, such as Adonis' metamorphosis into a briefly-blooming flower, but other times the connection is murkier. Why do some become birds, others flowers? And moreover why are transformations described as an improvement of a person's condition at one point and as punishment at another? Is there justice in the chaos of transformation, or is another kind of order at work?

The lack of consistency in transformation as punishment or reward suggests that the ancient Roman sense of guilt and innocence as well as punishment and reward varies greatly from our own. First, let us examine transformation as a reward. When Adonis is transformed into a flower, it is not for his benefit. He is dead, and little thought is paid to his comfort or pleasure. There is no sense that those in the afterlife need to be comforted; rather, it is those left behind who are the true victims. Venus turns Adonis into a flower so that she can take some pleasure in her memory of him. Iphis's transformation from woman to man can certainly be viewed as a reward, for it brings Iphis great happiness. But, it is not clear that Iphis has done anything to deserve a reward. He is transformed out of divine grace, and his happiness merely gilds the glory of the goddess who transformed him. Similarly, Pygmalion's stone woman is transformed, because her perfection honors Venus. Pygmalion's worship of the female form, and his devotion to an ideal of love, also honor the goddess. She rewards his piety by granting his wish, but she does so because she wishes to, not because Pygmalion "deserves" it. No one deserves the favor of the gods. It is granted just as arbitrarily as their punishments.

Myrrha's transformation is an interesting case, because her unnatural desires would certainly attract the anger of the gods, but her despair would also attract their pity. In transforming Myrrha into a tree, the gods and goddesses seem to suggest that there is no other way out for her, she has gone to far down her path to simply flee to another land. Hippomenes' and Atalanta's punishment is more clear cut. They forget to honor Venus for her help in bringing them together, and she has them transformed into lions. Whether or not this is a punishment for them is not entirely relevant. Like turning someone into a flower after his death, Venus transforms the couple primarily so that others will not think they can forget about her. Their transformation is a sign of her power. Ultimately, transformation is always an act of power, whether it is the power to ease grief or the power to threaten.

Summary

While Orpheus sings, a group of women arrive who claim that he has scorned them. They tear him to pieces in a Bacchic frenzy. The birds and beasts, who loved to hear him sing, mourn Orpheus. Meanwhile, Orpheus himself is quite happy, because he joins his Eurydice in the afterlife. Bacchus punishes his Maenads for killing Orpheus, who sung about his attributes, and transforms them into oak trees. Bacchus then returns to his home, only to find that his foster-father Silenus has been captured by the Phrygians and brought to King Midas, who, a follower of Bacchus himself, returns Silenus. As a reward, Bacchus offers to grant King Midas one wish, and Midas wishes that whatever he touches will turn to gold. At first overjoyed, King Midas realizes the foolish nature of his wish when he can no longer eat or drink. Bacchus undoes the wish, telling him to wash himself in a certain river, and Midas lives out his days an ascetic follower of Pan. Even then he finds trouble: one day Pan challenges Phoebus Apollo to a music contest - his pipes against Apollo's lyre. Tmolus, the mountain god, is the judge, and he declares Apollo the winner; only Midas dares to raise his voice and object. In response Apollo transforms Midas' ears into those of an ass. Embarrassed, Midas covers his ears with a turban, but the man who cuts his hair discovers the transformation. This man tries to keep the secret, but finally must whisper it into a hole in the ground. The truth soon spreads around the world.

Apollo witnesses the construction of a new city, Troy, in the land of King Laomedon. Apollo and Neptune construct great walls for the city in return for payment, but after the walls are built the king claims that he never promised tribute. Neptune floods the city and demands the sacrifice of the princess Hesione, whom Hercules rescues. Laomedon then refuses Hercules payment too. Hercules then seizes the city and marries Hesione to his companion Telamon. We learn of a prophesy that Thetis, a sea-goddess, will bear a son greater than his father, which stops Jove from sleeping with her despite his desire to do so. Instead, Jove orders Telamon's brother, Peleus, to marry Thetis. Thetis refuses Peleus and flees him, taking the shapes of many creatures. At Proteus' advice, Peleus waits until Thetis is asleep and binds her with cords, refusing to release her until she resumes her natural shape. Thus Thetis is conquered. Soon after, she bears Peleus a son, Achilles.

Peleus must leave his family after he kills his brother Phocus and is banished. He goes to Trachin, a land ruled by Ceyx, and seeks sanctuary under false pretenses. Ceyx welcomes him, though he is melancholy about his brother Daedalion's sufferings. Daedalion had a beautiful daughter, Chione, whom Apollo and Mercury both fell in love with and impregnated, one after the other. She bore twins -- a son by each god --Autolycus by Mercury and Philammon by Phoebus. Chione, full of pride, dared to compare herself favorably to the goddess Diana, and in response Diana shot an arrow through Chione's tongue, both silencing and killing her. Daedalion went mad with grief and tried to throw himself from a tower. The gods saved his life by turning him into a hawk.

As Ceyx finishes his story, Onetor, one of Peleus's men, brings the news that a wolf is attacking Pelus' cattle and men. Peleus realizes that the wolf has been sent by Psamathe, Phocus's bereaved mother, and prays to Thetis to obtain Psamathe's forgiveness. Peleus moves again to Magnesia, where King Acastus pardons him. Now, Ceyx decides to consult the oracles of Apollo at Claros. His wife Alcyone portends doom for this journey, but Ceyx insists on going. While at sea, a tempest destroys the ship; Ceyx clings to a piece of driftwood and prays that his body will be carried back to his wife. Meanwhile, Alcyone waits for her husband, praying at the temples of many gods and goddesses, but especially Juno. When Juno can no longer stand to see her pray in vain, she sends Alcyone a dream of her husband to explain his death. Morpheus appears to Alcyone with the face and body of Ceyx and reveals the drowning. Alcyone awakens and immediately grieves with desperation. That morning she finds Ceyx' body on her shores. As she travels toward it she changes into a bird, and when she kisses the dead body Ceyx becomes a bird as well. Thus they continue their love as halcyons.

We learn of another bird transformation: Hector's brother Aesacus changed into a thin bird with long slender legs. He fell in love with Hesperie, the River Cebren's daughter, who was killed by a serpent's bite while he pursued her. Mad with grief, he threw himself from a cliff, and Tethys chose to save him by transforming him into a bird. He acquired his enlongated shape because he continued to attempt suicide, diving off the cliffs; this repetition stretched his form. Aesacus' father Priam and his brothers mourn him, unaware that he lives on as a bird. Paris fails to mourn him because he is busy stealing Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, and fleeing with her to Troy. Meanwhile, the Greeks form an army to win Helen back. They run into wayward winds at Boeotia and must sacrifice a virgin to appease Diana. After much persuasion, Agamemnon agrees to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia, whom Diana may or may not have substituted with a calf. The winds subside and the Greeks continue toward Troy.

Rumour, who lives at the center of the world, spreads news to Troy that the Greeks are approaching; thus begins the famous Trojan War. Achilles, Greece's champion, tries to kill Cycnus with a spear but cannot because Cycnus is Neptune's son. His weapons prove useless, yet Achilles persists, finally strangling Cycnus until Neptune transforms his son into a bird rather than see him die. After this, the armies agree to a long truce, during which the generals of the Greek army tell stories of other battles and other warriors.

Nestor declares that Caenis was just as durable as Cycnus, and changed sexes to boot. Caenis was once the loveliest virgin in Thessaly, but resisted marriage; finally Neptune raped her and afterwards granted her a wish. She wished to be changed into a man so that she could never be raped again. Neptune obeyed, also making Caenis invulnerable to weapons. Nestor continues, relating that he and Caenis attended the wedding of Pirithous and Hippodame. They stupidly invited centaurs, one of whom, named Eurytus, tried to carry off the bride, and the rest of whom attacked the other women. Theseus killed Eurytus with a mixing bowl to the face, and thus a great fight began between centaurs and men with the wedding mise-en-scene as makeshift weapons. Latreus the centaur taunted Caenis, alluding to his past femininity, but couldn't kill him. Caenis killed Latreus, prompting Monychus and the other centaurs to bury Caenis beneath a mountain of boulders and tree-trunks. Some say Caenis' body was crushed down to Tartarus; others say that he was transformed into a small brown bird and flew away. As Nestor finishes his story, Tlepolemus reminds the old man that his father, Hercules, killed many of the centaurs. Nestor declares that he will never praise Hercules because that hero destroyed his house and murdered his brothers.

Meanwhile, Neptune plots Achilles' death as revenge for Cycnus' defeat. Ten years later, Neptune convinces Apollo that Achilles should die; Apollo arranges that one of Paris' arrows, which the spoiled prince is arcing half-heartedly at the Greek line, strikes Achilles in his only vulnerable spot, his heel. Achilles lies dead, and Ajax and Ulysses both strive to inherit his sacred armor.

Analysis

The story of King Midas is one of the most famous tales from Ovid's Metamorphoses. While worthy of inclusion merely for its comic consequences, this story also emphasizes that human beings cannot handle miraculous powers. Midas is the latest in a series of characters throughout the poem who foolishly attempt to behave in god-like ways. Phaethon wished to drive the chariot, the sibyl at Cumae wished for a immortality, and now King Midas wishes that everything he touches will become gold. People want nothing more than to become gods, yet god-like attributes inevitably emphasize their mortal status. Phaethon lacks the strength to hold a god's place, Cumae ages despite living forever, and Midas cannot nourish himself, which mortals must do. Only those who accept their inferior place and leave the miracles to the immortals find happiness in Metamorphoses.

The story of Ceyx and Alcyone is one of the saddest in the poem. Once again, this story emphasizes the fragility of human life. Despite Alcyone's strange premonition, she cannot prevent the death of her husband. All Juno can do to help Alcyone is tell her the truth -- her husband is dead. While this story emphasizes the brief nature of human life compared to the eternity of the gods, it is also one of the few stories that emphasizes the possibility of human love with is strong and enduring, even perfect. The merit of their love is honored by their transformation into birds.

Ovid also embarks on one of the strangest sections of the poem when he turns to the scenes of war. In describing war and violence with such detail -- so different than the other sections of the poem, which treat complex, plot-heavy stories with brevity and elegance -- Ovid deliberately enters into the tradition of epic poetry beginning with Homer and continuing with Virgil. Metamorphoses is his epic, and so he approaches the classic epic story, The Trojan War, in the classic epic style, blood and guts a-plenty. Still, Ovid's individual style shines through, especially with the tragic story of Caenis. In this tale, all of Ovid's greatest poetic instincts are displayed. The tale begins with the injustice of the gods, who rape a virgin yet again, and with a moving wish that speaks across thousands of years, that she be changed to a man to avoid this injustice ever happening again. Caenis, despite her transformation, cannot escape her past as a woman, and is tormented and eventually buried by the centaurs, the ultimate representatives of patriarchal rape. Thus Ovid captures a paradox: though Caenis changed sexes to avoid rape, her change itself offends the unjust world and leads to an even more miserable fate, buried alive. In his inimitable way, Ovid combines meditations on change, gender, power and immortality with a sensitivity to injustice.

Book XI also serves as a transition to the final section of the poem, which is more concerned with a historical explanation of the founding of Rome, and, ultimately, the glorification of the Emperor Augustus. In some ways, Ovid is already beginning to make Augustus the central focus of the poem. Augustus oversaw the greatest period of peace and prosperity in Roman history, and by emphasizing the horrors of war, Ovid also emphasizes the wonders of peace.

Furthermore, these books demonstrate the importance of storytelling in the Roman world. During their truce, the Greek generals tell stories of other battles and great warriors. These stories both excite the men to greater triumphs and caution them against overconfidence. Nestor's story has interesting parallels to the Trojan War. The fight is instigated by a centaur's attempt to run off with the bride, and the Trojan War was instigated by Paris running off with Helen, Menelaus's bride. At this fight Caeneis is killed, despite that face that he was also under Neptune's protection and was never supposed to be able to fall to a sword. Overall, Nestor's message seems to be that in war, death is everywhere. Even when you seem most protected, it is constantly trying to find you.

Summary

The Greeks gather to decide whether Ulysses or Ajax is more worthy of receiving Achilles' armor. Ajax represents his case first, emphasizing his role in battling Hector and his status as Achilles' cousin. Ajax suggests that the arms be set in the middle of the enemy's ranks and whoever can recover them be allowed to keep them. Ulysses brushes aside Ajax's claim, arguing that since he persuaded Achilles to join the fight he ought to receive some of the glory of Achilles' achievements. Ulysses recounts his triumphs as the brains of the Greeks, and belittles Ajax as a mere grunt, comparing himself to the ship captain and Ajax to the unthinking manpower. Finally, he suggests that if they do not give the armor to him, they ought to sacrifice it to Minerva, because they stole her statue from Troy. The Greeks grant Ulysses the armor, and Ajax is so angry that he kills himself with his own sword.

Ovid turns to the fall of Troy: Priam is killed, the Trojan women are siezed, Troy is burnt to the ground, and Cassandra is dragged away by Agamemnon. The Greeks sail away to their homelands. The Trojans, meanwhile, suffer further tragedy. Priam had sent his son, Polydorus, to be reared at the nearby court of Polymestor. But Polymestor robs and kills Polydorus and threw the body off a cliff. Priam's daughter Polyxena also meets a cruel end, as the ghost of Achilles demands her sacrifice to appease his spirit. She dies nobly and asks only that her body be returned to her mother without a ransom.

When Hecuba receives Polyxena's body she beats her breasts and tears her hair. To pile misfortune on misfortune, Hecuba goes to the shore for water to cleanse her daughters wounds and comes across Polydorus's body. Too numb to mourn at first, Hecuba is consumed with thoughts of vengeance. She seeks out Polymestor and tricks him into following her to a cave where he believes there is a hidden cache of gold. There, Hecuba's women attack him, ripping him to pieces. His followers attempt to exact their revenge, but as they do so Hecuba is transformed into a dog. Meanwhile, Aurora mourns her own son, Memnon, whom Achilles killed. She appeals to Jove, who agrees to commemorate Memnon's death with a display of four battling birds over his funeral pyre. These birds return every year and reenact the violence of the Trojan War.

One of Priam's sons, Aeneas, escapes the burning city with his household gods and his father. He takes to the seas, arriving at the city of Delos, where Anius receives him and tells the story of his five children. His son became king of an island while his daughters, followers of Bacchus, were blessed with the ability to conjure corn, or wine, or olives from everything they touched. When Agamemnon learned of these gifts, he tried to seize the girls to feed the Greeks. They fled to their brother's kingdom; however, facing the threat of Agamemnon's army, their brother betrayed them. Finally, Bacchus rescued the girls by changing them into white doves.

The next day Aeneas visits an oracle, who tells him to seek his ancestral lands. Thus Aeneas and his followers wander, searching for the site of their new home. They go to Crete, then Italy, then sail to Buthrotus to consult the Trojan seer Helenus. There they learn that Sicily is their destination, but to get there they must pass through Scylla and Charybdis. Charybdis is a whirlpool, Scylla a monster with the face of a beautiful girl. We hear Scylla's story: before she was a monster she would brag to the nymphs of her many suitors. One of these nymphs, Galatea, tells Scylla of her love affair with Acis. She loved Acis, but meanwhile Polyphemus the Cyclops (whom Ulysses later blinded) loved her; coming across the two of them one day, Polyphemus crushed Acis with a boulder. Galatea transformed him into a river god.

After hearing this story, Scylla meets Glaucus, a fisherman recently transformed into a sea god, who falls in love with her and pursues her. She runs to the top of a mountain where he cannot reach her. Attempting to calm her fears, Glaucus tells Scylla the story of his transformation. He was a mere fisherman before he discovered a magical, pristine beach. He tasted the grass of the beach and was filled with a desire to be in the water. The sea gods found him and purged him of his mortality, making him one of their number. Scylla continues to resist his wooing and Glaucus seeks out Circe, thinking to win Scylla with magic. Circe, though, falls in love with Glaucus and, jealous of Scylla, poisons a little pool that Scylla loves. When Scylla next enters it, she becomes a monster, covered by a skirt of barking, vicious dogs. Scylla later destroys some of Ulysses' companions, though she is changed to a rock before Aeneas sails by her.

Now Aeneas and his men sail to Carthage, where Queen Dido falls in love with Aeneas. Unable to bear his departure, she kills herself. Aeneas flees Carthage and goes to the land of his half-brother Acestes, where he pays honors to his dead father, and then departs once more. Aeneas goes to see the Sibyl at Cumae and with her help enters the Underworld; there he speaks to his father and learns what he must do to fulfill his destiny. As he and the Sibyl travel back to the earth, she tells him that she was once offered eternal life by Apollo himself. He loved her when she was young, and offered to grant her a wish; she asked to live as many years as there were specks of dust in a pile, meanwhile forgetting to ask for eternal youth. Apollo offered youth as well in return for her love, but she refused, and now lives out her days as her body disintegrates. Aeneas and the Sybil return to the shores of Cumae, where Macareus of Neritos, a past companion of Ulysses, has settled. Macareus recognizes that one of Aeneas' men, Achaemenides, is Greek, and asks him why he joined the Trojans. Achaemenides explains that Aeneas rescued him from Polyphemus, after Ulysses had abandoned some of his crew. Only Achaemenides survived.

Next, Macareus tells of how Aeolus the wind god gave Ulysses a bag containing all but one of the winds. Thus Ulysses traveled by this favorable wind until his greedy men, thinking the bag contained gold, opened it and released the winds. They were all blown back to Aeolus's harbor, where Aeolus shunned them, and then to the land of the man-eating Laestrygonians. Only one ship escaped and arrived on Circe's island, where the sorcerous turned Ulysses' men into pigs. Ulysses charmed Circe with a gift from Mercury and restored his men to human form. They stayed with Circe for a year.

We turn to the story of Circe and Picus, the son of Saturn, whom Circe turned into an ivory statue. Picus was truly beautiful and many were in love with him, though he loved Canens the nymph. They married and were very happy. Circe, spotted Picus while he was boar-hunting and pursued him. When Picus remained true to Canens, Circe turned him into a wood-pecker. Canens searched everywhere for Picus, but in vain; finally she cried until her body melted into a puddle. Macareus finishes by saying that he settled rather than continue with Ulysses, for Circe predicted many more disasters would befall him.

Before departing, Aeneas puts his dead nurse's ashes in a marble urn. Then, the Trojans reach the kingdom of Latinus, where Aeneas steals Lavinia from Turnus. A battle ensues and Aeneas sends for help from Evander; Turnus seeks help from Diomede, who refuses. He explains that following the Trojan War, his men insulted Venus, who turned the majority of them into birds. Turnus' messanger, Venulus, returns with the bad news, passing the first olive tree. We hear the story behind it: a shepherd came across dancing nymphs and scorned them; he was turned into the olive tree as punishment, which gives fruit as bitter as his words.

Aeneas' battle with Turnus continues. Turnus' men, the Ritulis, set fire to Aeneas's ship, but Cybele, mother of the gods, realizes that the ship is made from her sacred wood and douses the ship with a thunderstorm. The ship sinks in the deluge and, under the water, its pieces transform to Naiads, who retain the memories of their sea-journeys and help wrecked ships, except for those of the Greeks. Turnus is finally killed and the city of Ardea falls. Venus goes to Jove and asks him to grant Aeneas a portion of divinity. Jove agrees and Aeneas becomes a god. His son Julus is the first in a long line of kings.

Generations later, a nymph named Pomona cared for the orchards and fields of Latium. She cloistered herself in the orchards, though Vertumnus the satyr fell in love with her and tried to gain access to her through disguises. Disguised as an old woman, he tells Pomona that she ought to marry the honest and faithful Vertumnus. The "old woman" continues with a story: there was once a young man named Iphis who fell in love with the beautiful and noble Anaxarete. He did everything he could to win her, but she scorned him. Finally, one day hung himself on her doorstep. Witnessing his funeral procession, Anaxarete turned to stone. The story finished, Vertumnus throws off his disguise and stands before Pomona in all his glory. Thus he convinces Pomona to marry him.

Amulius unjustly seizes the kingdom, which is now called Ausonia, but Numitor and his grandson Romulus recapture the city and found Rome. The Sabines try to conquer Rome but are defeated. With Juno's help, the Sabines make a last effort at conquering Rome, but Venus aids Rome with a flood and they win. The Romans create a treaty with the Sabine leader Tatius, under the terms of which Tatius partially rules. After Tatius's death, Romulus becomes the sole king of Rome. Mars asks Jove to grant divinity to Romulus and Jove agrees, signaling his assent with a thunderbolt. Mars dissolves Romulus' mortal body and he becomes a god. Romulus's wife, Hersilia, mourns until Juno sends Iris to tell her that if she wishes to see her husband again, she must go to a certain grove. Here, Hersilia is defied as well and reunited with her husband.

Analysis

Ovid gives a detailed and lively description of Ajax and Ulysses fight over Achilles' armor. While Ovid does a fair job of paying homage to both these heroes, his description of the two men (and their arguments) suggests that Ovid reveals his own belief about who is more worthy of the armor. Ajax and Ulysses don't fight for the armor: they make speeches supporting their claims and the matter is decided with a vote. Ovid suggests that this method is exemplary, and will result in the armor going to the hero who deserves it more. Yet this test is intrinsically biased in Ulysses' favor. If the two heroes were to fight Ajax would have the advantage. Similarly, it is simply unfair to pit Ajax against Ulysses in a battle of words. The fight is over before it has begun, a fact made obvious by a comparison of the two men's speeches. Ajax can only insist that if they pick Ulysses because he can speak better, they are acting unfairly. Ulysses, in contrast, is at his most eloquent, proudly describing his contributions to the fight and snidely belittling Ajax as all muscle and no strategy. It seems likely that Ajax kills himself not because he lost the armor, but because he has been set up for humiliation. He cannot abide this dishonor without action, and he certainly can't continue to fight for the Greeks after they have treated him so shabbily.

Though Ovid tells of Greece's victory, his focus shifts almost entirely to the perils and hardships of the remaining Trojans as they set out to found Italy. When Ulysses journey is described, hardships are minimized and Ulysses is portrayed as a bad leader who cannot control or protect his men. In contrast, Aeneas goes so far as to save a Greek abandoned to Polyphemus's violence. He persistently pursues his destiny even when it seems that he will never reach a final resting place, and he honors the gods and his forefathers at every opportunity.

Ovid contrasts others besides Ulysses and Aeneas. Polyxena's sacrifice is strangely parallel to Iphigenia's. Of course, one cannot be surprised that Agamemnon would sacrifice another person's daughter when he was willing to sacrifice his own. Nor can one be surprised by Achilles bloodthirsty desire to take yet another Trojan life. Ovid had earlier pointed out that Iphigenia may well have received a last-minute reprieve from the goddess Diana. Polyxena receives no such reprieve. Agamemnon condemned his daughter to death, and she had very little idea of what was going on. Polyxena is a model of bravery and humility, as she asks only that her body be released to her mother without ransom. Polyxena's death at the end of the war seems almost logical. How can she survive when almost her entire family has been wiped out? Hecuba survives, but in the end is transformed.

This section contrasts huge events - the Trojan War, the founding of Italy - with seemingly trivial love affairs. Do Scylla and Pomona's stories cast any light on the Trojan War? These stories seem to be placed largely to continue Ovid's repeated shift in focus between the macro and the micro-levels. He is very purposefully splitting the difference between epic and lyric poetry, writing of the creation of the laurel tree as well as the founding of Italy. Similarly, these love stories emphasize that importance in storytelling is a matter of relative scale. Certainly the founding of Italy is a story with broad historical ramifications for many people; yet to people in love, the most important story involves no more than two or three. Ovid justifies the monumental importance of love by placing it alongside traditionally "epic" events.

This shift in perspective amounts to a metamorphosis of its own; Ovid's story shifts shapes, takes on different people's points-of-view, assumes what is unspeakably important to them to be worth publishing at large. Meanwhile, his Metamorphoses metamorphosize into a hymn of praise for the Roman Empire at large, as we see in the final book.

Summary

The Romans decide to elect the wise Numa as Romulus' royal successor. We hear of his history of curiosity. Numa once visited the city of Crotona, sacred to Hercules, and asked why there was a Greek city on Italian soil. He learned that Hercules had visited the house of Croton in Lacinium and ordered Myscelus to found the city. Though to leave one's homeland was a crime, Myscelus obeyed, suffering trials in the meantime. In Crotona lived Pythagoras, an extremely profound thinker who was in exile from Samos. He addressed topics such as the gods, the origin of the earth, the motions of the stars.

We hear Pythagoras' discourse and he argues in favor of vegetarianism, suggesting that there is plenty of food without eating meat, and he points out that only the vicious animals are flesh-eaters. He suggests that in past ages, when people did not kill animals, they were happier, and bemoans the slaughter of cattle, who work alongside humans. Pythagoras chastises those who believe that the gods enjoy the slaughter of such peaceful and loyal animals. He turns to the theory of Metempsychosis -- his belief that when someone dies the soul is freed to inhabit another body. He insists that thus no one need fear death.

Pythagoras also declares that nothing in life stays the same: everything is like time, constantly moving from day to night, never ceasing to progress. He points out that human beings pass through stages just like the seasons. Childhood is like springtime, summer like youth, autumn is maturity and winter is old age. The physical body changes too, growing from a seed in the womb to a mature adult, then decaying as the body ages. Continuing on this idea, Pythagoras takes as an example the four elements: earth, water, air and fire. He points out that each can become the others. Air can become water, water can become wind or air. The earth can become fire, and fire can become water. All things on earth and in heaven change and transform, but nothing is ever truly "born" or truly "dies." Pythagoras points to the changing nature of the natural environment as further proof that change is everywhere.

Pythagoras then presents the idea that buried corpses give rise to other creatures. He gives examples, suggesting that the bodies of sacrificial cattle give birth to honey-bees and that mud gives rise to frogs. Pythagoras cites as a better example the marvelous phoenix, a bird that lives for five hundred years, then combusts. From its ashes another phoenix is born. The philosopher then translates his belief in omnipresent change into human terms, pointing out that history changes and shifts as well. Some powers decline and some rise. Troy may have fallen, but in the ashes of Troy, Rome was born. He predicts that Rome will rise to become a power greater than any the earth has seen. Pythagoras returns to his plea for vegetarianism, saying that since nature constantly changes and the soul shifts between objects, and because nothing separates the animal world from the human world, when we kill an animal we might as well be slaughtering a human. Thus, to eat an animal is no better than cannibalism.

Having learned from Pythagoras and others, Numa returns to Latium and becomes king with his wife Egeria by his side. Under his rule, the Romans become versed in the arts of peace. After his death, his wife retires to the woods and mourns her husband. Hippolytus, Theseus' son, tries to help her bear her sorrows by telling her this story: his stepmother, Phaedra, tried to seduce him, but he refused to dishonor his father's bed. Phaedra accused him of her crime, and his father banished him. While traveling, he and his companions were attacked by a monstrous bull, which seemed to arise from the water itself. His horse fled and the chariot began to split apart. Hyppolytus was torn into pieces. He entered the underworld, but was eventually restored by the power of Aesculapius, Apollo's son. Even then, Venus had to disguise his appearance so that others would not envy his good fortune in being restored. He thus lives in the woods, protected by his mistress, the goddess Diana. Egeria is not comforted by this story. Her tears continue, and finally Diana transforms her into a fountain.

One of the praetors of Rome, Cipus, grows horns on his forehead. He sacrifices to the gods and tries to interpret the meaning of this portent. A seer tells him that he could be king of Rome if he were to walk through the gates and declare himself. Cipus refuses and he makes a plan to ensure that he will never rule. He covers his horns with a laurel crown and enters the city. He makes a speech to the senators, telling them that a man is in the city who, if he fulfills his destiny and becomes their ruler, will enslave them. He tells them they will recognize this man by the horns on his head, then he reveals himself. The people are awed and refuse to either punish him or instill him as leader. They give him land outside the walls of the city and they engrave horns on their bronze gates to remind them of this miraculous sacrifice.

One day a plague comes to the city of Rome, and the leaders of the city set out for Delphi to ask the help of Apollo. The oracle tells them that they must seek Apollo's son, Aesculapius, and so the senate travels to Aesculapius' home, Epidaurus, where they ask the Greeks for the god's help. While the Greek council debates, Aesculapius comes to the priest in his dreams and tells him that he will join them in the form of a serpent. The next day, the senators go to his temple and ask for his divine guidance. He appears in snake form and thus they carry him to Rome, where he resumes his form and cures them of the plague. Aesculapius then settles in Rome.

Ovid turns to another god, Caesar, whose greatest accomplishment was fathering Augustus, whom fate designed to be the son of a god. We learn of the way that Caesar is deified. When Venus catches sight of the conspiracy to end Caesar's life, Venus tries to stop it but Jove prevents her, assuring Venus that Caesar can become a god after he is killed. He goes on to tell her that Caesar's adopted son, Augustus, will bring even greater glory to her people than Caesar. Augustus will bring peace to the region, and his son, Tiberius, will take up where he leaves off. Best of all, Augustus will live out his life in full, it will not be cut off short like his fathers. Jove directs Venus to transform Caesar's spirit into a star.

Looking down from the heavens, Caesar calls his son greater than himself; but his son refuses to acknowledge it, and he insists that no one call the son better than the father. Despite his filial piety, Augustus' fame cannot help but overpower it. Ovid once more addresses the gods, asking that Augustus death be slow to arrive.

Ovid closes his work, declaring that as long as Rome has power, his words will live on in people's memories.

Analysis

In this final section of the poem, Ovid breaks from the repeated pattern of earlier books and introduces a long didactic section spoken by Pythagoras. At first this device might seem strange, but after only brief consideration, it is clear that Pythagoras's lessons shed light on many of Ovid's most important themes. Pythagoras puts forth many theories of transformation, suggesting that transformation is everywhere once we begin to look for it. He gives a scientific (at the time of the Romans) explanation for the transformation of people into trees, flowers, or animals. Metempsychosis is the theory that when someone dies his or her soul is released only to be transferred into something else. One of his justifications for vegetarianism is that some animals contain human souls, so when we kill animals for food, we may well be killing a human.

Pythagoras provides a description of change and transformation which encompasses all of the metamorphoses described in the poem. Pythagoras goes on to extend this claim to history, pointing out that if everything constantly changes, then some powers must decline while others rise. Interestingly, it seems that Ovid invents, or at least distorts, much of Pythagoras's philosophy. Modern philosophers write that we know little about most of Pythagoras's teachings and beliefs, specifically mentioning that metympsychosis may have originated with him, but also may not have. Most amusingly, one of the few anecdotes that has been verified is that when Pythagoras discovered the Pythagorean theorem, he sacrificed five hundred cattle to the gods. Thus, Ovid seems to ascribed the theory of vegetarianism to Pythagoras simply because it suited his purpose. It is certainly true that using Pythagoras's voice, Ovid smoothly transitions into the section of the poem which is primarily pro-Augustus propaganda.

Before he specifically addresses Augustus or his lineage, Ovid begins to introduces some of his virtues. The story of the praetors Cipus implis that there is great virtue in having the power to become a tyrant and giving up that power. Augustus assumed the throne after the assassination of his adoptive father, Julius Caesar. Caesar was assassinated, because he became a tyrant. In praising Cipus's virtue, Ovid also praises Augustus for withstanding the temptation that Caesar gave into. At the same time, Ovid is careful to praise Caesar for having brought Augustus to power.

One might wonder why Ovid chose to include such an extensive section of praise for Augustus and his ancestors in the poem, but the answer lies in the fact that Ovid's success was primarily a result of Augustus's support for literature and the arts.