Essential Quotes by Theme: Change
Essential Passage 1: Book II
The years rolled on; Arcas was now sixteen,
His mother lost, her fate, her name unknown.
One day, out hunting in the forest glades
Of Erymanthus, as he placed his nets,
He chanced to meet her; seeing him she stopped
Stock still, seeming to recognize his face.
He shrank away; those eyes, unmoving, fixed
For ever on his own, froze the boy’s heart
With nameless fear, and as she moved towards him
He aimed his javelin to strike her dead.
The Almighty stayed his hand and swept away
Both son and mother—with the threatened crime—
Whirled in a wind together through the void,
And set them in the sky as neighbouring stars.
Summary
Jove, inspecting his birth place of Arcadia after the destruction caused by Phaeton’s fiery ride across the heavens, sees the nymph Callisto, a warrior in Diana’s service. Jove seduces and impregnates Callisto, thus earning for her the enmity of Diana as well as the ire of Jove’s jealous wife, Juno, who turns Callisto into a bear. Sixteen years later, her son, Arcas, is out hunting in the forest and encounters a bear. The bear stops, recognizing that the boy facing her is her own son by Jove. Arcas raises his spear to kill the bear but is stopped by Jove himself. Rather than have Callisto, his favored one, be killed by their son, Jove turns both Callisto and Arcas into star constellations—Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.
Essential Passage 2: Book VIII
Philemon briefly spoke with Baucis, then
Declared their joint decision to the Gods:
“We ask to be your priests and guard your shrine;
And, since in concord we have spent our years,
Grant that the selfsame hour may take us both,
That I my consort’s tomb may never see
Nor may it fall to her to bury me.”
Their prayer was granted. Guardians of the shrine
They were while life was left, until one day,
Undone by years and age, standing before
The sacred steps and talking of old times,
Philemon saw old Baucis sprouting leaves
And green with leaves she saw Philemon too,
And as the foliage o’er their faces formed
They said, while still they might, in mutual wards
“Goodbye, dear love” together, and together
The hiding bark covered their lips. Today
The peasants in those parts point out with pride
Two trees from one twin trunk grown side by side.
Summary
Theseus returns from hunting the great boar that plagued Meleager, the prince of Chaledon. Blocked by a flooded river, Theseus and his companions are invited by the river god Achelous to visit with him until the flood subsides. They entertain each other with tales of transformation. Prithous doubts that metamorphosis is even possible, so Lelex tells the story of Baucis and Philemon, a wife and husband who long served as guardians to a shrine to the gods. Having unknowingly entertained Jove and Mercury, as the two gods were disguised, the couple are invited to ask the gods to fulfill what they most desire. Philemon requests that their love be honored by the promise that they would die together: neither one could stand to be left behind to bury the other. The gods grant the couple's request. As time passes, Philemon and his wife Baucis continue to serve faithfully at the steps of the shrine. When their time comes, Philemon sees that Baucis is sprouting leaves, as he himself is as well. They express their love to each other and then transform into two trees that spring from a single trunk.
Essential Passage 3: Book XV
Nothing retains its form;...
(This entire section contains 1086 words.)
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new shapes from old
Nature, the great inventor, ceaselessly
Contrives. In all creation, be assured,
There is no death—no death, but only change
And innovation; what we men call birth
Is but a different new beginning; death
Is but to cease to be the same. Perhaps
This may have moved to that and that to this
Yet still the sum of things remains the same.
Summary
Pythagoras, the great philosopher, has been exiled from Greece. Nevertheless, he continues to lecture, and Ovid records some of his major teachings. Pythagoras encourages humankind to return to the Golden Age, when men and women lived in harmony with nature and ate only food of the ground instead of living flesh. Eating animals, Pythagoras insists, amounts to eating the flesh of fellow workers on earth. Pythagoras also reveals that nothing stays the same. The spirit might remain constant, but the form is changed, as the Creator invents ever new modes of being. There is no death, only change.
Analysis of Essential Passages
Ovid’s title, Metamorphoses, indicates the central and unifying theme of his work: change. Change that is initiated by the gods upon humans is for different purposes. The cause is most often found in a conflict between the gods, most notably between Jove and Juno. Because of the ongoing battle between the King and Queen of Heaven, humans often get caught in the cross fire. Although Jove cannot seem to control his libido, he does allow himself the ability to control the form of those who must bear the consequences of his actions. Many of the tales included in Metamorphoses are of females (divine, mortal, or a combination of the two) who are victims of Jove’s attentions. To protect them from Juno’s wrath, Jove often chooses to change their form from human to natural—a tree or a celestial constellation, for example. He has both heaven and earth at his disposal to bring about these metamorphoses.
In some of the more poignant tales, metamorphosis is bestowed as a sign of mercy. In the myth of Callisto, where she and her son are transformed into the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, it is by divine mercy that Arcas is prevented from killing his own mother. Although Jove does not seem to be troubled by his own behavior, he is reluctant to see the mortals under his protection unwittingly commit a "sin."
Metamorphosis is also given to the faithful. Baucis and Philemon represent the most devoted of humans to deities that, in present-day estimation, do not necessarily deserve such respect. Their devotion is repaid by their transformation into a tree having one trunk but two joined branches. While Jove consistently dismisses his own marriage commitments, he honors those whose love is true. Transformation is a gift, a blessing, bestowed on those who are faithful.
