race. Without thanking Venus for her help, Hippomenes took Atalanta to the temple of Cybele to make love.
In wrath at the desecration of her temple, Cybele turned the lovers into lions.
30. Death of Orpheus Bk. XI. Orpheus, singer musician and poet, could play the lyre and sing so sweetly
that wild beasts were enthralled and stones would follow him. The women of Thrace resented his fidelity to
his wife Eurydice. As none was willing to stand aside in favour of the others, they all tore him apart and
threw his remains into the river. The poet’s head and his lyre were borne on the river, still singing.
31. Midas Bk. XI. Bacchus, rejoicing in the return of his foster-father, the satyr Silenus, who had been
kindly entertained by King Midas of Phrygia, offered to fulfill any wish Midas might make. Midas asked
that anything he touched might turn to gold. The god granted his request but when Midas wanted to eat, he
was unable to relieve his hunger as everything turned to gold. Midas begged to be freed from this gift, and
Bacchus relieved him of it by telling him to wash in a river. There, in the mountains, a contest took place
between Apollo, god of music, and Pan as to who was the better musician. As he stupidly chooses Pan,
Midas gets ass’s ears. A slave who trimmed his hair saw Midas’ ears and unable to keep the secret to himself, he whispered it into a hole in the ground. From there sprang up a thick growth of whispering reeds
which, stirred by the breeze, repeated the sower’s buried words and exposed the story of Midas’s ears.
32. Peleus and Thetis Bk. XI. Jupiter, although in love with Thetis, was angry as a prophecy had foretold
that she would be mother of a man who, in his deeds, would be greater than Jupiter himself. Thereupon, he
asked his grandson Peleus to assume the place of lover in his stead and seek a union with Thetis. With both
his arms round her neck, Peleus tried to force himself on the unwilling Thetis but she had the gift of taking
any shape she pleased, so she took the form of a bird, then of a sturdy tree, then of a spotted tigress to escape Peleus’ embrace. Eventually she became a goddess and woman again but Peleus bound her while she
was asleep, and, from their union, the great Achilles was conceived.
33. Alcyone and Ceyx Bk. XI. Alcyone, daughter of Aeolus, married Ceyx. They were so happy that they
compared themselves to Jupiter and Juno. The divinities were annoyed at such pride. Ceyx died in a shipwreck and Alcyone found his body washed up on the shore. In her despair, she was changed into a halcyon,
as was her husband.
34. Fama Bk. XII. Fama is the Voice of Rumour. She lives in a place at the centre of the world, surrounded by land and sea and sky - an echoing house with a thousand openings, through which even the lowest
voice could penetrate. This palace made of bronze is always open and every word that enters it is broadcast
again, much amplified. Thus, Fama keeps watch over the whole world.
35. Galatea and Acis Bk. XIII. The milk-white maiden (gala = milk) Galatea lived in the sea and was
loved by Polyphemus, the one-eyed Cyclops. She however was in love with Acis. One day Polyphemus
saw the lovers lying together beside the sea. He crushed Acis, who tried to flee, with an enormous boulder.
Galatea turned Acis into a waterfall with sparkling waters.
36. Glaucus and Scylla Bk. XIII. Glaucus, a sea-divinity, was originally a fisherman who was born mortal but ate a herb that made him immortal. Thus, his shoulders became broader and his legs became a fish
tail, while his cheeks developed a thick beard, tinted green like the patina of bronze. Glaucus courted Scylla,
famous for her beauty, but was repulsed by her, so that he was driven to appeal to the sorceress Circe. But
Circe offered Glaucus her own love which was was in turn scorned by him. Circe takes revenge by changing
Scylla into a frightful monster - a woman’s form which is fixed in place, with a belt of six baying heads of
dogs.
Title-sheet Daphne Bk. I. A nymph, daughter of the river-god Peneus, Daphne (laurel in Greek) was the
first love of Apollo. Daphne fled to the mountains to escape Apollo’s impassioned advances, and just as he
was about to catch her, she begged her father, the river-god. to be transformed so that she might escape: “Si
flumina numen habetis, qua nimium placui, mutando perde figuram!" (If your waters hold divinity, change
and destroy this beauty whereby I have pleased excessively!). Daphne was transformed into a laurel, the
tree sacred to Apollo.
Sources
Dictionary of Classical Mythology (1991)
Ovid’s Metamorphoses, ed. Anderson (1972)
The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology, R. Hard (2004)
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Malta Classics Association
http://www.classicsmalta.org
classicsmaltasoc@gmail.com
Stories summarized by Maria Zammit
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36 MYTHS FROM OVID’S METAMORPHOSES
1. The Four Ages Bk. I. The Golden Age depicts the beginning of humanity, living in a state of peace
and happiness in an everlasting spring, perfectly content with the food gathered from an untilled earth.
The Silver Age saw the advent of the four seasons and the appearance of houses and of work. The Bronze
Age was of sterner disposition, but not yet impious. The Iron Age witnessed violence, faithlessness and
love of gain. Piety was abandoned, and the earth became soaked with blood.
2. Deucalion and Pyrrha Bk. I. Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha were the only two people spared by
Jupiter, after he unleashed a great flood to destroy the entire human race which had become steeped in
vice. Deucalion wished for some companions whereupon Jupiter told both of them to throw their mother’s bones over their shoulders, meaning stones - the bones of the Earth, the great Mother. From the
stones which they threw, sprang adult and living men and women.
3. Io Bk. I. Io was greatly loved by Jupiter who changed her into a beautiful white heifer to avoid detection by Juno. Io, in despair, unable to speak and reveal who she was, told the sad story of her changed
form with letters which she traced in the dust with her hoof. But Juno appointed Argus to watch over her.
Since Argus’ head was set with a hundred eyes, he was able to keep permanent watch over her. But Jupiter got Mercury to kill Argus and Juno gave him immortality by moving his eyes to the tail of a peacock.
4. Phaethon Bk. II. Phaethon, son of the Sun, asked his father to let him drive his chariot across the sky.
The sight of the animals which constitute the signs of the Zodiac frightened him and, dropping too low, he
risked setting fire to the Earth. Jupiter, to prevent a universal conflagration, struck the boy down with a
thunderbolt. His sisters, the Heliades, wept for him on the banks of a river and were transformed into
poplars, their tears becoming drops of amber.
5. Callisto and Arcas Bk. II. Jupiter fell in love with the nymph Callisto, a favourite companion of
Diana. He assumed the guise of Diana herself and raped Callisto. While bathing with her companions,
Callisto’s pregnancy was revealed, whereupon Diana changed her into a she-bear. She became the mother
of the boy Arcas. When Arcas was grown up, he met his mother in the shape of a bear while he was out
hunting and pursued her into the temple of Jupiter. As he was about to shoot the bear, Jupiter changed
them into the constellations of Ursa Major (Great Bear) and Ursa Minor (Little Bear).
6. Actaeon Bk. III. The goddess Diana was angry at the hunter, Actaeon, for having accidentally seen
her naked, while bathing. She changed Actaeon into a stag, and his hounds, not recognizing him, pursued
him relentlessly. Actaeon’s companions, while calling out for him in vain, urged on the pack until he is
finally mangled to death.
7. Semele Bk. III. Semele was loved by Jupiter and, by him, conceived Bacchus. Incited by the jealous
Juno, she asked Jupiter to appear before her in all his majesty and was immediately burnt to death by his
thunderbolts. Jupiter took the unborn child from her womb and sewed it up inside his thigh until Bacchus
was born.
8. Tiresias Bk. III. Tiresias chanced to see two huge serpents mating in the forest, and striking them, he
was changed into a female. Seven years later, he again saw the serpents mating and intervened in the
same way, thus regaining his former sex. Jupiter and Juno consulted him as to whether man or woman
experienced the greater pleasure in love-making. He answered that the woman possessed nine parts out of
ten of the enjoyment, and the man one part only. Juno was so furious that she struck Tiresias blind but
Jupiter gave Tiresias the power of prohecy. Thus he became the blind seer.
9. Narcissus and Echo Bk. III. The nymph Echo fell in love with Narcissus, a handsome young man
who despised love. In despair, Echo withdrew to a lonely spot where she faded away until all that was left
of her was a plaintive voice. Narcissus saw his own face in a stream, which was so handsome that he immediately fell in love with it. Thenceforth, he watched his reflection and let himself die. On the spot
where he died, a flower grew which was given his name.
10. Pentheus Bk. III. Pentheus, king of Thebes, wishing to oppose the introduction of the Bacchic rites,
visits Mount Cithaeron in order that he may spy on women indulging in the excesses of these rites. As he
stands in an open plain, the crazed women led by his mother see Pentheus, and thinking him to be a huge
boar, rush onto him, pursue him and tear him to pieces. His mother Agave holds Pentheus’ head in bloody
hands, not realizing that she is holding her son’s head.
11. Pyramus and Thisbe Bk. IV. Two Babylonian lovers, in defiance of their parents, arranged a secret
rendez-vous at a place where a mulberry tree grew. A lioness seized Thisbe’s scarf with bloody mouth.
When Pyramus arrived, assuming Thisbe to have been eaten by a wild animal, he ran himself through with
his sword. Thisbe finding him dead, killed herself with the same sword. The fruits of the white mulberry
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tree turned red with all this spilt blood. The ashes of Pyramus and Thisbe were put into one urn, and thus
were the lovers united in death.
12. Vulcan, Mars and Venus Bk. IV. Although Venus was married to Vulcan, she loved Mars. The two
lovers were caught by surprise by the all-seeing Apollo and Vulcan set a trap in the form of a net made of
fine links of bronze, so thin that it would escape detection. The web closed in over the lovers while they
were in Venus’s bed and all the gods gathered round and laughed. But Venus took her revenge on Apollo
who had spied on her by causing him to be betrayed in love. Thus it happened that the lovely maiden Leucothoe was loved by Apollo, who assuming the form of her mother, approached Leucothoe while she was
spinning and she, though filled with fear, gives in to him overwhelmed by his radiance. A jealous rival, the
nymph Clytie, revealed the affair to Leucothoe’s father and he, with brutal cruelty, buried his daughter deep
in the earth. Apollo tried by his warm rays to recall the corpse to life and sprinkled the body and the ground
with fragrant nectar. Straightaway, the body melted away and filled the earth with sweet fragrance. A
shrub of frankincense, with deep-driven roots, rose slowly through the soil and its top cleft the mound. Clytie was sought no more by Apollo and in her grief, she pined away, her love turning to madness. For nine
days, she sat upon the bare ground, naked and unkempt, her hunger fed by pure dew and tears. Her limbs
grew fast to the soil and her deathly pallor changed in part to a bloodless plant. Part was red and a flower,
like a violet, came where her face had been. Though roots held her fast, she still turned towards the sun and
preserved her love unchanged.
13. Salmacis and Hermaphroditus Bk. IV. Salmacis, the nymph of a beautiful lake, fell in love with the
handsome Hermaphroditus. But he rebuffed her advances. When Hermaphroditus, attracted by the clearness
of the water, undressed and plunged into the lake, Salmacis embraced him and prayed to the gods that their
bodies should never be separated. The gods united them into one new being with a dual personality, Hermaphroditus.
14. Dis Bk. IV. The three-headed dog Cerberus guards the threshold of Dis. The three Furies, sisters born
of Night, deadly and implacable divinities, sit before Hell’s closed gates, combing black snakes from their
hair. Here, the giant Tityos, for attempted violence on Latona, offers his vital organs to be repeatedly torn
out by vultures, and renewed, lying stretched out over nine broad acres. Tantalus stands in water which constantly recedes from his efforts to drink it, and the tree that overhangs with fruit, eludes his touch. Sisyphus
continually pushes a rock up a hill, that will always roll back down again. Ixion, for attempting violence on
Juno, is fixed to a whirling wheel and the three sisters, the Belides, for daring to kill their husbands on their
wedding night, fill a bottomless cistern with water carried in sieves.
15. Cadmus and Harmonia Bk. III-IV. Cadmus, having been told by the Delphic oracle to found a city,
innocently comes into a clash with the serpent of Mars that guards the region. Cadmus heroically avenges
his men’s deaths by nailing the serpent to a tree with his spear, but this mysteriously dooms him to ultimate
metamorphosis as a serpent. Minerva advises him to sow half the serpent’s teeth in the ground. Cadmus
does so, and, at once, armed men spring out of the ground. The men turn to fight each other, so that only
five survive who will be responsible for building the city of Thebes. Cadmus and his wife, Harmonia are
eventually both turned into serpents and reach the Elysian Fields.
16. Persephone Bk. V. Hades fell in love with Persephone and abducted her while she was picking flowers around Mount Etna in Sicily. Jupiter ordered Hades to restore Persephone to her mother, Demeter, but
this was no longer possible as the young girl had eaten seven pomegranate seeds which were enough to tie
her to the Underworld forever. As a compromise, Jupiter decided that she should divide her time between
the Underworld and the world above. This marked the beginning of the cycle of winter and spring.
17. Arethusa Bk. V. Arethusa, a beautiful nymph, was loved by the river-god Alphaeus who turned himself into a hunter in order to pursue her. Artemis enveloped her in a cloud in order to save Arethusa, and in
her fear, Arethusa was changed into a spring. The earth opened up to prevent Alphaeus mingling his waters
with hers, and Arethusa went through underground channels to Syracuse on the island of Ortygia, where she
was turned into the fountain of Arethusa which still exists.
18. Arachne Bk. VI. Arachne, an outstanding weaver and embroiderer, engaged in a weaving contest with
Minerva, but the design of her tapestry showed the least honourable love affairs of Jupiter, amongst which
his seduction of Danae as a shower of gold which poured into her lap while she was imprisoned in an underground chamber. Arachne’s work was perfect but Minerva was so angry that she tore it up and struck her
rival with the shuttle. Arachne lost heart and hanged herself but Minerva would not let her die and changed
her into a spider which continues to spin and weave, until it has no more thread.
19. Niobe Bk. VI. Niobe, boastful and proud of her seven sons and seven daughters, declared that she was
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superior to Latona who had only one son and one daughter. The goddess felt offended. Latona’s children,
Apollo and Diana, slaughtered all the children of Niobe with their arrows. Niobe was changed into a rock
from which a spring flowed, and weeping forever, the tears still flow down her stony face.
20. Latona Bk. VI. Only the floating island of Delos would receive Latona who had been made pregnant by Jupiter. There, reclining on the palm and olive tree, she gave birth to the divine twins, Apollo and
Diana. Having fled to Lycia, home of the Chimaera (a beast with the tail of a snake, a lion-head and a goat
-head) to escape Juno’s wrath, she stopped by a lake to quench her thirst, but the Lycian farmers hindered
her from drinking, and stirred up the mud from the bottom. The goddess, in anger, stretched up her hands
to heaven and prayed that the rustics might live forever in that pool. Thereupon, they were turned into
frogs.
21. Tereus Bk. VI. Pandion, king of Athens, had two daughters, Procne and Philomela. Tereus, a Thracian, Pandion’s ally, marries Procne but falls in love with Philomela. He raped her and cut out her tongue
so that she could not betray him but Philomela embroidered the story of his crime on a piece of material.
Procne, to punish him, boils the corpse of his son Itys and serves it up to his father. The two sisters fled,
imploring the gods to save them from Tereus who pursues them. Procne is changed into a nightingale and
Philomela into a swallow. Tereus is changed into a hoopoe.
22. The Myrmidones Bk. VII. Aeacus, king of Aegina, has a dream in which a swarm of graingathering ants, in a long column, bearing heaving loads and keeping their own path along the bark of an
oak-tree, is transformed into columns of men. When sleep departs, Telamon, the king’s son runs to announce to his father the sudden appearance in the palace of a race of men, thrifty, hard-working and keen
in pursuit of gain. In answer to the prayer of Aeacus, Jupiter has created a race of men out of ants, the
Myrmidones.
23. The Labyrinth Bk. VIII. A monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull, the Minotaur is
shut in the Cretan Labyrinth by Minos. Theseus a young man from Athens, sent as a sacrifice to the monster, finds his way out of the labyrinth with the help of Ariadne who gives him a ball of thread which he
unwound to show him the way to return. Ariadne fled with Theseus, but he abandoned her while she
slept on the shore of Naxos. She is turned into the constellation Corona Borealis. Theseus, on his return
journey, forgets to lower the black sails of his boat and hoist the white sails of victory, thereby causing his
waiting father to kill himself.
24. Daedalus and Icarus Bk. VIII. Daedalus was a skilled Athenian architect and inventor who, at the
command of King Minos, built the labyrinth on Crete for the confinement of the minotaur. Himself confined in Crete, he made wings for his son Icarus and himself, and fixed them to their shoulders with wax.
Despite his father’s advice, Icarus flew upwards so near to the sun that the wax melted and he fell into the
sea.
25. Meleagros Bk. VIII. When Diana sent an enormous boar to ravage the fields of Calydon, Meleagros
organized hunters from all the towns, and finally killed it himself. However, his fate was tied up with the
log which was burning on the hearth when he was seven days old and which his mother had put out and
hidden in a chest. Since he had killed his mother Althaea’s brothers during the hunt, she in her anger,
threw into the fire the log on which her son’s life depended. Meleagros died instantly.
26. Erysichton Bk. VIII. Despite divine warnings, Erysichton committed sacrilege against Ceres by
cutting down her sacred oak tree. To punish him, Ceres condemned him to unappeasable hunger. He
quickly devoured all the wealth of the household, and eventually became insane and ate himself.
27. Death of Hercules Bk. IX. Hercules’ wife, Deianeira, unknowingly sends him a poisoned tunic, in
the belief that this would restore her husband’s love to her. Hercules put the tunic on and as the poison
became active, it attacked his skin and the cloth fused with his body. In torment, he built a funeral pyre on
Mount Oeta and was burned alive thereon, having asked Philoctetes to set fire to the wood. His immortal
part was deified by his father Jupiter, and set in the heavens as the star constellation of Hercules.
28. Myrrha Bk. X. Myrrha was impelled by Venus to commit incest with her father, Cinyras. She
succeeded in tricking Cinyras and became pregnant, but when he discovered the truth, Cinyras pursued her
with a sword. The gods changed Myrrha into a myrrh tree which later burst open, allowing the child Adonis to emerge.
29. Atalanta and Hippomenes Bk. X. Atalanta of Arcadia made it known that she would marry only a
man who could beat her in a race. She was so fast that she would give her opponent a start, catch him and
kill him. Hippomenes arrived with three golden apples which had been given to him by Venus. In the
race, he threw them one by one in front of Atalanta. She stooped to pick them up, allowing him to win the
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