Overview of Transformations (NLE Prep)

Daphne was turned into a laurel tree; she begged her father, the river god Peneus, to
transform her to save her from Apollo, who was chasing her to rape her.

The story of Syrinx is similar to that of Daphne. As she was chased by Pan, she
begged river nymphs to save her, and was transformed into hollow water reeds.
When Pan let out his frustrated breath onto the reeds, they made a noise, and were
thus dubbed panpipes.

Pygmalion, a sculptor on the island of Cyprus, created an ivory woman (sometimes
called Galatea) so beautiful that he fell in love with her. He prayed to Venus and she
came to life; he married her and their child was named Paphos.

Baucis and Philemon were an old and pious couple. When Jupiter and Mercury
were traveling in the region, only Baucis and Philemon gave them hospitality; in
return, the gods transformed their house into a temple and granted them one wish,
which was stay together for the rest of their lives as guardians of the temple. They
died at the same time and were transformed into an oak and a linden tree.

Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus, had seven sons and seven daughters. She made the
mistake of bragging about her superiority to Latona (Leto), the mother of Apollo
and Diana who only had the two children, and was punished for this hubris by the
twin deities, who killed all her children. She wept so much that she turned into a
stone, out of which tears still seeped.

Io was another unfortunate victim of the love of the gods. To conceal their union
from Juno, Jupiter encompassed them both in a cloud; when Juno made the cloud
disperse, Jupiter quickly transformed her into a heifer. Juno sent a gadfly to torment
the heifer, which ran all the way from Asia Minor, across the Bosphorus (“cowcrossing”), to Egypt, where she became the goddess Isis.

The sisters of Phaethon (Heliades) were transformed into poplar trees thanks to their
copious weeping at his death. Phaethon had asked his father Helios to allow him to
drive his chariot; when Helios regretfully acceded, Phaethon of course crashed, and
was struck down by Jupiter’s lightning bolt in order to save the world from burning.

Jupiter stole Europa from her compatriots in the shape of a white bull, and then
flew with her on his back to the island of Crete.

Actaeon was a hunter who unfortunately happened upon the bathing and nude Diana.
For this crime, he was turned into a stag and then torn apart by his own dogs.

Narcissus was a beautiful youth, who was prophesied to live forever so long as he did
not know himself. Unfortunately, he looked into a reflecting pond, fell in love with
himself, and turned into a narcissus (flower).

Pyramus and Thisbe, the one the most beautiful of the youths in Babylon, the other
the most beautiful of the maidens, were in love but were forbidden by their parents to
see each other. They arranged a meeting spot, but Thisbe arrived first and then had to
escape a bloody-mouthed lion, which led Pyramus to believe that she had been killed.
Logically, he killed herself, and then she killed herself upon discovering that. The
mulberry berries turned red from white thanks to the blood soaking into the
ground.

Arachne boasted that she was a better weaver than Minerva (Athena), and so they
had a face-off. When Arachne’s tapestry insulted the gods, portraying the many loves
of Jupiter, she was transformed into a spider.

Procne married Tereus, and then asked her sister Philomela to visit her. Tereus was
so enamored with his sister-in-law that he took her into a woodland hut, raped her,
and then cut out her tongue. Once Procne realized this, she rescued her sister; in
revenge, the woman killed and cooked Procne and Tereus’ son Itys and then fed him
to his father. Philomela became a nightingale, Procne a swallow, and Tereus a
hoopoe.

Hyacinthus was a beautiful boy loved by both Apollo and Zephyrus, the west wind.
Hyacinthus preferred Apollo to Zephyrus; when Apollo and Hyacinthus were hanging
around tossing a discus, however, Zephyrus avenged himself by causing the discus to
hit and kill Hyacinthus. Apollo transformed the boy’s corpse into a hyacinth (a
flower).

Adonis was the young lover of Venus. Gored by a bull, he died in Venus’ arms, and
she sprinkled his blood with nectar and turned him into an anemone (a flower).

The decree of her father stated that the only man Atalanta could marry had to beat
her in a footrace. She finally lost to Hippomenes/Melanion, since he distracted her
with the three golden apples of Venus. Eventually, Atalanta and Hippomenes were
transformed into lions after they defiled the temple of Cybele.

Ceyx and Alycone were a couple who, according to some stories, called each other
Zeus and Hera. Whether because of Zeus’ anger or not, Ceyx was killed in a storm at
sea and appeared to Alycone as a ghost to tell her of his fate. She threw herself into
the sea out of grief, and the gods changed them both into kingfishers.