Metamorphoses

The Creation: Before the world existed there was chaos, a formless mass where land, sea, and sky were all one undivided thing. A god separated everything out, filled the world with creatures, and placed humans at the top, the only ones who stood upright and looked at the stars. The Four Ages: The world moves through four ages. The Golden Age is peaceful, no laws needed. The Silver Age brings seasons and farming. The Bronze Age brings conflict. The Iron Age brings greed, war, and moral collapse. Lycaon: Jupiter visits earth disguised as a mortal and is served human flesh for dinner by a king named Lycaon, who wants to test whether his guest is really a god. Jupiter destroys his palace and turns him into a wolf. The Great Flood: Disgusted by humanity, Jupiter floods the world. The only survivors are Deucalion and Pyrrha, who land on Mount Parnassus. An oracle tells them to throw their mother's bones behind them. They realise stones are her bones. The stones become people and the world is repopulated. Apollo and Daphne: Apollo falls in love with the nymph Daphne and chases her. Just as he catches her, her father transforms her into a laurel tree. Apollo declares the laurel his sacred tree forever. Io: Jupiter pursues Io and transforms her into a white cow to hide her from Juno. Juno sets the hundred-eyed giant Argus to watch over her. Mercury kills Argus by lulling all hundred eyes to sleep. Io is eventually restored to human form and becomes a goddess in Egypt. Phaethon: The book ends with Phaethon, son of the sun god, setting off to prove to his friends that his father is really who he says he is.

Phaethon: Phaethon convinces his father Apollo to let him drive the sun chariot across the sky for one day. He cannot control the horses. The chariot plunges too close to earth, scorching it, and too far away, freezing it. Jupiter strikes Phaethon with a thunderbolt to save the world. He falls into the river Eridanus like a comet. The Heliades: Phaethon's sisters mourn him so inconsolably on the riverbank that they slowly transform into poplar trees, their tears becoming amber drops that fall into the river. Cycnus: Phaethon's friend Cycnus grieves so deeply that he loses his voice and is transformed into a swan, forever haunting rivers and lakes. Callisto: Jupiter falls in love with the nymph Callisto, disguises himself as the goddess Diana to approach her, and assaults her. She becomes pregnant. Diana discovers this and expels her. Juno, furious, transforms Callisto into a bear. Jupiter eventually places her in the sky as the constellation Ursa Major. Ocyrhoe: The prophet's daughter Ocyrhoe is turned into a mare by the gods for revealing too much of the future. Mercury and Battus: Mercury steals Apollo's cattle and bribes a shepherd named Battus to keep quiet. Battus breaks his promise and Mercury turns him into stone. Aglauros: Mercury falls in love with Herse and her jealous sister Aglauros demands gold to help him. Mercury turns Aglauros to stone. Europa is then abducted by Jupiter disguised as a bull, ending the book.

Cadmus: Europa's brother Cadmus is sent to find her and fails. Guided by an oracle, he founds the city of Thebes instead. He kills a sacred serpent and sows its teeth, from which armed soldiers spring up and kill each other until only five remain, who become the founders of Thebes. Actaeon: The hunter Actaeon stumbles upon the goddess Diana bathing. Diana, furious, transforms him into a stag. His own hunting dogs, not recognising him, tear him apart. Semele: Juno, jealous of Jupiter's love for the mortal Semele, tricks her into asking Jupiter to reveal himself in his full divine form. No mortal can survive this. Semele is destroyed by Jupiter's lightning. Her unborn child Bacchus is sewn into Jupiter's thigh and born later. Tiresias: The prophet Tiresias had lived as both a man and a woman at different points in his life. Jupiter and Juno ask him to settle an argument about who enjoys love more. He answers and Juno, displeased with his answer, blinds him. Jupiter compensates him with the gift of prophecy. Narcissus and Echo: The nymph Echo falls in love with the beautiful Narcissus but can only repeat the last words spoken to her. He rejects her and she wastes away until only her voice remains. Narcissus then falls in love with his own reflection in a pool and cannot leave it, eventually fading away and transforming into the narcissus flower. Pentheus and Bacchus: The young king Pentheus of Thebes refuses to honour the god Bacchus. He is warned by Tiresias. He ignores the warning, attempts to imprison Bacchus, and is eventually torn apart by his own mother and aunts, who in their Bacchic frenzy mistake him for a wild animal.

The Daughters of Minyas: Three sisters refuse to participate in the festival of Bacchus and stay home weaving instead. As punishment Bacchus drives them mad. They accidentally kill one of their own children. Bacchus turns them into bats. Pyramus and Thisbe: Two young lovers in Babylon are forbidden by their families from being together. They arrange to meet at a tomb. Thisbe arrives first, is frightened by a lioness, and runs, dropping her veil. The lioness tears it. Pyramus arrives, finds the torn veil, assumes Thisbe is dead, and kills himself. Thisbe returns, finds him dying, and kills herself. Their blood stains the mulberry tree red, which it has remained ever since. Mars and Venus: The sun god tells Vulcan that his wife Venus is having an affair with Mars. Vulcan builds an invisible net and traps them together in it, then calls all the gods to witness their humiliation. Leucothoe and Clytie: The sun god falls in love with Leucothoe. Her father buries her alive in punishment. The sun transforms her into a frankincense plant. A nymph named Clytie who loved the sun god is transformed into a heliotrope flower, forever turning her face toward the sun. Salmacis and Hermaphroditus: The nymph Salmacis falls obsessively in love with the beautiful boy Hermaphroditus and merges with him permanently when he swims in her pool. The result is a single being that is both male and female. Perseus and Andromeda: Perseus, flying home with Medusa's head, spots the princess Andromeda chained to a rock as a sacrifice to a sea monster. He kills the monster, frees her, and marries her. When her former betrothed Phineus attacks, Perseus uses Medusa's head to turn him and his men to stone.

The Battle at the Wedding: Phineus attacks Perseus at his wedding feast with an army. Perseus fights brilliantly but is eventually overwhelmed by numbers and uses Medusa's head to petrify the entire attacking force including Phineus himself. Perseus and Polydectes: Perseus returns home and finds his mother being persecuted by the king Polydectes. He uses Medusa's head to turn Polydectes and his court to stone. The Muses and the Pierides: Nine mortal women called the Pierides challenge the nine Muses to a singing contest. The Muses win. The Pierides are transformed into magpies. The Rape of Proserpina: Pluto, god of the underworld, abducts the young goddess Proserpina and takes her to the underworld. Her mother Ceres, goddess of the harvest, searches the entire earth for her in grief, causing famine. Mercury is sent to retrieve Proserpina, but because she has eaten six pomegranate seeds in the underworld she must return there for six months every year. Those six months are winter, when Ceres mourns. Arethusa: The nymph Arethusa is pursued by the river god Alpheus, transformed into a stream by Diana to escape, and eventually becomes a spring in Sicily. Triptolemus world Ceres gives the hero Triptolemus her dragon chariot and seeds of grain to spread agriculture across the world.

Arachne: The mortal weaver Arachne is so skilled that she challenges Athena to a weaving contest. She weaves a tapestry depicting the gods' crimes and seductions, technically flawless. Athena, furious, destroys it and strikes Arachne. Arachne hangs herself. Athena transforms her into a spider, condemned to weave forever. Niobe: The queen Niobe boasts that she is superior to the goddess Latona because she has fourteen beautiful children while Latona has only two. Latona's two children are Apollo and Diana. They descend and kill all fourteen of Niobe's children with arrows while she watches. Niobe weeps until she turns to stone, a boulder that still weeps today. The Lycian Farmers: Latona, fleeing with the infant Apollo and Diana, tries to drink from a pool. Local farmers mock her and muddy the water to stop her. She transforms them all into frogs. Marsyas: The satyr Marsyas finds a flute discarded by Athena and becomes so skilled at playing it that he challenges Apollo to a music contest. Apollo wins. As punishment he flays Marsyas alive. The tears of those who mourned him become the river Marsyas. Philomela: King Tereus of Thrace marries Procne and then abducts her sister Philomela, assaults her, and cuts out her tongue so she cannot tell what he did. Philomela weaves the story into a tapestry and sends it to Procne. Procne takes revenge by killing her own son Itys and serving him to Tereus at dinner. When Tereus discovers what he has eaten he chases both sisters with an axe. The gods transform all three into birds — Philomela into a nightingale, Procne into a swallow, and Tereus into a hoopoe. Boreas and Orithyia: The north wind Boreas falls in love with the Athenian princess Orithyia. When her father keeps refusing his request to marry her, Boreas simply abducts her. Their children are the winged warriors Zetes and Calais.

Medea and Jason: Jason arrives in Colchis with the Argonauts seeking the Golden Fleece. The king's daughter Medea falls desperately in love with him and uses her magic to help him complete the impossible tasks her father sets. She betrays her family, flees with Jason, and kills her own brother to slow pursuit. She is the most powerful and most dangerous figure in the book. Medea Rejuvenates Aeson: Back in Greece, Medea uses her magic to restore Jason's elderly father Aeson to youth, boiling herbs and the old man's blood in a cauldron and producing a young man in his place. Medea and Pelias: Medea tricks the daughters of Pelias, the king who wronged Jason, into killing their own father by pretending she can rejuvenate him the same way she did Aeson. She performs the ritual without the magic. Pelias dies. Medea and Jason flee to Corinth. Theseus: Jason and Medea's story is dropped and Ovid moves to Theseus, who is returning home having completed his great deeds. He kills the Marathonian bull and is recognised by his father Aegeus just before Medea, now at the Athenian court, can poison him. Minos and the Plague of Aegina: King Minos of Crete threatens war against Athens. The king of Aegina has his population destroyed by a plague sent by Juno. The god Aeacus repopulates the island by transforming ants into humans, creating the Myrmidons. Cephalus and Procris: The warrior Cephalus tells the story of his wife Procris, who died accidentally by his own hand — a javelin that never missed its mark, thrown at a rustle in the bushes he thought was an animal.

Scylla and Minos: Minos besieges the city of Megara. The king's daughter Scylla falls in love with Minos and cuts off her father's magical hair to betray the city to him. Minos is disgusted by her treachery and refuses her. She is transformed into a bird and her father into a hawk that pursues her forever. The Minotaur and the Labyrinth: Minos returns to Crete and has Daedalus build the Labyrinth to contain the Minotaur, the monstrous child of his wife Pasiphae and a bull. Theseus arrives with the tribute of Athenian youths, is helped by Minos's daughter Ariadne who gives him a thread to find his way out, kills the Minotaur, and escapes. Daedalus and Icarus: Daedalus, imprisoned in Crete, makes wings of feathers and wax for himself and his son Icarus. He warns Icarus not to fly too high. Icarus ignores the warning, flies too close to the sun, the wax melts, and he falls into the sea. Daedalus buries him and continues to Sicily. Meleager and the Calydonian Boar: A giant boar sent by Diana ravages Calydon. A group of heroes including Atalanta hunts it. Meleager kills the boar and gives the prize to Atalanta, whom he loves. His uncles object. He kills them. His mother Althaea, in grief and fury, burns the magical log that contains his life force. Meleager dies as it burns. Philemon and Baucis: Jupiter and Mercury travel disguised as mortals and are refused hospitality everywhere except by the elderly poor couple Philemon and Baucis. As reward their humble cottage is transformed into a temple and they are allowed to die at the same moment, transforming into two intertwined trees. Erysichthon: The king Erysichthon cuts down a sacred grove of Ceres. As punishment Ceres fills him with insatiable hunger. He eats everything he has, sells everything he owns to buy food, and finally sells his own daughter. She is rescued by Poseidon. Erysichthon eventually devours himself.

Hercules and Achelous: The river god Achelous and Hercules fight for the hand of Deianira. Hercules wins. The Death of Hercules: The centaur Nessus, dying from one of Hercules' poisoned arrows, tells Deianira that his blood is a love potion. Years later, fearing Hercules loves another woman, Deianira soaks his robe in Nessus's blood. The blood is actually poison. Hercules puts on the robe and it burns into his skin. Unable to bear the pain, he builds his own funeral pyre and burns himself alive. He ascends to Olympus and becomes a god. Alcmena and Iole: Hercules' mother Alcmena tells the story of his miraculous birth and the goddess Galanthis who helped her. Dryope: A young woman named Dryope is transformed into a lotus tree while feeding her infant son, having unknowingly plucked a flower from a transformed nymph. Iolaus and the Sons of Callirhoe: The prophet Themis predicts future transformations, including Iolaus being restored to youth and the sons of Callirhoe growing instantly to manhood. Byblis and Caunus: Byblis falls in love with her own twin brother Caunus and writes him a letter confessing it. He flees in horror. She follows him across the world, weeping until she becomes a spring. Iphis and Ianthe: A girl named Iphis is raised as a boy because her father had declared he would kill any daughter. She falls in love with another girl named Ianthe. On the eve of their wedding, the goddess Isis transforms Iphis into a boy and they marry.

Orpheus and Eurydice: The musician Orpheus marries Eurydice, who dies from a snakebite. Orpheus descends to the underworld and plays such heartbreaking music that Pluto agrees to release her, on the condition that Orpheus not look back at her until they reach the living world. He looks back just before they arrive. She is taken back to the underworld. Orpheus never loves another woman. Orpheus Sings: Orpheus sits alone in a field and his music draws trees, birds, and animals to listen. He then sings a series of myths, which make up most of the rest of the book. Ganymede: Jupiter falls in love with the beautiful boy Ganymede and transforms into an eagle to abduct him, making him cupbearer to the gods. Hyacinthus: Apollo loves the Spartan youth Hyacinthus. The wind god Zephyrus, jealous, redirects Apollo's discus so it strikes Hyacinthus and kills him. Apollo transforms his blood into the hyacinth flower. The Propoetides and Pygmalion: The women of Paphos deny that Venus is a goddess and are transformed into prostitutes. Pygmalion, disgusted by real women, carves a perfect woman from ivory and falls in love with his statue. Venus, touched, brings the statue to life. She becomes Galatea. Myrrha: Myrrha falls in love with her own father, tricked by her nurse into sleeping with him in the dark. When he discovers who she is he tries to kill her. She flees and is transformed into a myrrh tree. Her son Adonis is born from the tree. Venus and Adonis: Venus falls in love with the beautiful mortal Adonis and warns him against hunting dangerous animals. He ignores her warning and is killed by a wild boar. She transforms his blood into the anemone flower. Atalanta and Hippomenes: The huntress Atalanta will only marry a man who can outrun her. Hippomenes races her using three golden apples given by Venus, dropping them one by one to slow her. He wins. They later make love in a sacred grove of Cybele and are transformed into lions as punishment.

The Death of Orpheus: The women of Thrace, furious that Orpheus has rejected all women since losing Eurydice, tear him apart in a Bacchic frenzy. His severed head floats down the river still singing. He is reunited with Eurydice in the underworld at last. Midas: Bacchus grants the king Midas one wish for a favour. Midas wishes that everything he touches turn to gold. His food, his drink, and finally his beloved daughter all turn to gold. Horrified, he begs Bacchus to take the gift back. He is told to wash in the river Pactolus, which has carried gold ever since. Midas and Apollo: Midas judges a music contest between Apollo and Pan and declares Pan the winner. Apollo transforms his ears into donkey ears as punishment. Midas hides them under a cap. His barber, unable to keep the secret, whispers it into a hole in the ground. Reeds grow there and whisper it to everyone who passes. The Foundation of Troy: Neptune and Apollo build the walls of Troy for king Laomedon, who refuses to pay them. Neptune sends a sea monster. Hercules kills it, Laomedon refuses to pay him too, and Hercules destroys Troy. It is rebuilt by Priam. Peleus and Thetis: The sea goddess Thetis is destined to have a son greater than his father. Jupiter, knowing this, arranges for her to marry the mortal Peleus instead. Their son will be Achilles. Ceyx and Alcyone: The king Ceyx sails across the sea against his wife Alcyone's wishes and drowns in a storm. The gods send his drowned ghost to appear to Alcyone in a dream. She runs to the shore and finds his body floating. Both are transformed into kingfisher birds and their calm nesting days in winter are the origin of the phrase halcyon days. Aesacus: A minor Trojan prince Aesacus, grieving for a dead nymph, repeatedly throws himself into the sea to die and is repeatedly transformed into a diving bird.

Iphigenia: The Greek fleet is becalmed at Aulis. The prophet Calchas says Diana demands the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia. Just as she is about to be killed Diana substitutes a deer and carries Iphigenia away to be her priestess. The House of Rumour: Ovid describes Rumour's palace, a structure of bronze with a thousand windows and entrances, where every whisper in the world arrives and is amplified and passed on. It is one of the most inventive passages in the poem. Achilles and Cygnus: At Troy, Achilles fights the warrior Cygnus, who cannot be wounded by any weapon. Achilles eventually strangles him. Neptune transforms Cygnus into a swan. The Battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs: The aged warrior Nestor tells the story of the great battle between the Lapiths and the centaurs at a wedding feast, where the centaurs attempted to abduct the bride and were defeated. The Death of Achilles: Achilles is killed by an arrow guided by Apollo to his heel, his one vulnerable point. The Greeks mourn. A dispute arises over who deserves his magnificent armour.

The Arms of Achilles: Ajax and Ulysses both claim Achilles' armour. They make speeches before the Greek leaders arguing their case. Ulysses wins with superior rhetoric. Ajax, humiliated, goes mad, slaughters a flock of sheep thinking they are Greek leaders, and kills himself. The Fall of Troy: Troy falls. Hecuba, queen of Troy, watches her son Polydorus killed and her daughter Polyxena sacrificed on Achilles' tomb. Her grief is so total that she transforms into a howling dog. Memnon: The warrior Memnon, son of Aurora, is killed at Troy. His mother Aurora weeps for him eternally. Her tears are the morning dew. The Wanderings of Aeneas: Aeneas escapes Troy and begins his wandering. Ovid follows him briefly to several islands where various myths and transformations occur. Galatea, Acis, and Polyphemus: The Cyclops Polyphemus is in love with the sea nymph Galatea, who loves the young shepherd Acis. Polyphemus discovers them together and crushes Acis under a boulder. Galatea transforms Acis's blood into a river. Scylla: The sea monster Scylla was once a beautiful nymph. The sea god Glaucus fell in love with her and asked the sorceress Circe for a love potion. Circe fell in love with Glaucus instead and poisoned the pool where Scylla bathed, transforming her lower body into a ring of barking dogs.

Circe and the Wanderers: Aeneas passes the island of Circe, the sorceress who transformed Ulysses' men into animals. Her island is surrounded by the wolves, bears, and lions she has made from former men. The Sibyl of Cumae: The Sibyl tells Aeneas her story — Apollo offered her any wish and she asked for as many years of life as grains of sand she could hold in her hand, forgetting to ask for eternal youth. She has been shrinking for centuries and will eventually become only a voice. Aeneas in the Underworld: Aeneas descends to the underworld guided by the Sibyl, sees the future of Rome, and returns. Diomedes: An Italian king asks the Greek hero Diomedes to help fight Aeneas. Diomedes refuses and tells the story of how most of the Greeks were punished after Troy. The Transformation of Aeneas's Ships: The goddess Cybele transforms Aeneas's ships into sea nymphs to prevent them being burned. Romulus: Aeneas dies and is deified. His descendants eventually include Romulus, who founds Rome and is taken up to heaven by Mars and transformed into the god Quirinus. Pomona and Vertumnus: The nature goddess Pomona wants nothing to do with love and tends her orchards alone. The god Vertumnus disguises himself in many forms trying to court her, finally appearing as an old woman and telling her the story of a statue that fell in love. He reveals himself. She loves him.

Pythagoras: The philosopher Pythagoras delivers a long speech on the nature of change, vegetarianism, the transmigration of souls, and the constant flux of all things. It is Ovid's philosophical statement at the heart of the poem — everything transforms, nothing truly dies, the world is in permanent motion. The Foundation of Croton: Pythagoras's speech is framed by the story of Myscelus, who is guided by Hercules to found the city of Croton in southern Italy. The Deification of Julius Caesar: Julius Caesar is assassinated. Venus pleads with Jupiter to spare him. Jupiter says his fate cannot be changed but his soul can be taken to heaven. Caesar's soul becomes a comet. Augustus, his heir, will be even greater. Augustus: Ovid praises Augustus as the greatest ruler Rome has produced, carefully situating the entire poem within the political reality of his time. Ovid's Epilogue: Ovid ends the poem with a remarkable declaration of confidence. His poem, he says, will outlast Jupiter's anger, outlast Rome itself, outlast everything. Wherever Roman power reaches, he will be read. And he will live forever. It is the most assured final statement in Latin literature — and given that we are reading it two thousand years later, he was right.