Remember that the entire story is about transformation, folks.
Book I starts with Ovid asking for help to tell the story of metamorphosis of life from the creation to present day. He begins with the creation of the world. The world used to be a total mess until some god (not mentioned) came along and fixed it up. The god created fire, air, dirt, rock, and other elements obviously needed for the planet to thrive. He made mountains, fields, rivers, stars, and all that jazz. Next came the animals. Ovid then tells us a version of human creation with Prometheus. Prometheus made humans out of mud and rain water. He made man in the shape of the gods (sounds like the Bible, huh?). There was the Golden Age of the human race. They didn't have to work for food and just lounged around without having anything like war. Well, all was hunky dory until Saturn got kicked out of the heavens by Jupiter who made himself the king of the gods. This brought in the Silver Age. With the Silver Age, there became the four seasons. Humans had to start living in houses and plowing fields for food. The Bronze Age came and it wasn't too eventful, not as great as the Silver Age, but not the worst to come. The worst to come was the Iron Age. Murder occurs as well as humans chopping down trees for ships and other things. Astraea, the goddess of justice, leaves earth. Next, the Giants battle Jupiter for Mt. Olympus. Jupiter knocks out the giants and makes another human race (Ovid can't keep his stories straight). Jupiter doesn't like this so he talks with the other gods and decides to wipe them all out because a man named Lycaon. Lycaon is the king of the Arcadians and he treated him disgracefully. End of the long story, Jupiter turns him into a wolf. The other gods and goddesses are a little leery about killing everyone off because they won't receive sacrifices or admiration from anyone. Jupiter doesn't really care and ends up flooding the earth (more allusions, huh?). Everyone dies except two people: Deucalion and his wife, Pyrrha. They live and try to repopulate the world, but aren't sure how. They go pray to various gods and goddesses. They end up being told to throw rocks and they'll turn into people; it works. Other animals are formed, which leads us to Python. Apollo doesn't like this creature so he strikes him with arrows. He kills him and is excited by his victory. Cupid is over stringing his bows and Apollo tells him that he's in charge of bows and arrows. Cupid gets mad and strikes him with a love arrow as well as the nymph Daphne. Daphne has sworn off men, wanting to be a virgin forever. Apollo chases her around and Daphne asks her father, who is a god, for help. He helps by turning her into an olive tree. Apollo chooses to honor Daphne by wearing olive branches. All of the gods meet to console Daphne's dad because he's lost a daughter. All of the river gods are there except Inachus, who is worrying about his daughter, Io. She hasn't heard from her in awhile. Ovid tells us what happens: Jupiter saw Io heading home and wanted to have sex with her in the woods. He then veils her in the mist and rapes her. Juno, Jupiter's wife, thinks something is up with her husband and heads to check it out. Jupiter then turned Io into a cow. Jupiter then makes some small talk about what a nice cow he's found. Juno asks a 100-eyed giant, Argus to watch him. Argus lets Io graze on by until she finds her father, Inachus, a river god. Io figured out how to write in dirt with her hoof. Inachus is now depressed and can't kill himself because he's immortal. Argus drives Io away to another pasture while Inachus is mourning. Jupiter then sends Mercury down to kill Argus. In a long, roundabout way, Mercury cuts off Argus's head. Juno gets mad and takes revenge, sending Furies down to help her. Io is begging the whole time to be turned back into a human. Jupiter relents and says he won't mess with Io any more (but other women are still an option, apparently). Io then down the line has a son named Epaphus. Epaphus is the same age as Phaethon, who is the son of the Sun god. They start arguing about who is better and Phaethon runs home to his mom, Clymene. Clymene wants to prove her son's honor. She tells Phaethon that he can go visit his daddy and make sure he is the son of the Sun. END OF BOOK I, HALLELUJAH!
Book II starts with Phaethon getting to the palace of the Sun god. It's better than any mansion you will see in Beverly Hills. Ovid says that what was really impressive was the décor and artwork on the doors done by the god Vulcan. Phaethon finds daddy Sun, but still doesn't believe he is his dad. Sun says to prove I'm your dad, I'll give you anything you want. Phaethon says sweet, I want to drive your chariot of the sun for a day. Uh oh. Sun says that Phaethon should rethink this request because Sun is the only one who can actually drive the thing safely, but he lets him go. He did promise. Sun gives some parting advice to Phaethon: don't whip the horses, drive in the middle of the sky, and keep the altitude at a medium level. Easy, right? The horses realize that Sun isn't driving and they can tell Phaeton is a lot weaker than his father. Various animals of the zodiac get burnt as Phaethon drives by. When he gets to Scorpio, he's scared that Scorpio will attack and lets go of the reins. NICE GOING PHAETHON. The horses run out of control and set everything on fire. The Earth calls up to Jupiter for help because eventually the heavens will burn up as well. Jupiter tells all the gods to pay attention because he has no other options. Jupiter throws a thunderbolt and it hits Phaethon, killing him. He falls to earth near water nymphs who bury him. Phaethon's mother, Clymene, and many other grieve for him. Jupiter then wanders the earth, assessing damage. Along the way, he spots a fine lady Callisto who is a handmaiden of Diana. Jupiter follows her into the forest disguised as Diana. He then rapes her. Callisto becomes pregnant and ostracized from Diana's groups because she only hangs out with virgins. She has a son named Arcas. Juno is none too happy that Callisto had sex (Juno doesn't care if she was raped) with Jupiter, so Juno turns Callisto into a bear. 16 years later, Arcas is hunting in the woods and spots a bear--Callisto. He almost kills her but then Jupiter gets them both and turns them into the Big and Little Bear constellations, or the Big and Little Dipper. Juno is super ticked now. She goes and complains to the sea-god's wife, Tethys. They decide they should never let the Great Bear touch water. Juno heads back up to the heavens. Ovid tells readers that around this time that ravens transformed from white birds to black birds. The god Apollo has a girlfriend, Coronis, who lives nearby. Apollo has a pet raven who finds out Coronis is cheating on Apollo. The raven goes to tell Apollo the news but a crow stops him and tells him to save Apollo the heartache and not tell him. The crow tells a story why. She tells a story about Minerva who was almost raped by Vulcan, but he still got her pregnant and she had a sun named Erichthonius. She was embarrassed and sent her son off to three daughters of the king of Athens. She made them swear not to look inside, but the third one did. Who wouldn't? The crow watched this and told Minerva who got mad. The raven listens to the punishment of the crow and still decides to tell Apollo. Apollo is so mad he shoots Coronis in the chest. Just before she dies, she tells Apollo she is pregnant. Apollo is sad and takes the unborn child to Chiron the centaur. Chiron is happy to raise the unborn child who isn't dead. The baby's name is Aesculapius. Chiron's daughter, a prophetess, says that Aesculapius will be able to raise people from the dead. Jupiter gets jealous and kills him with a thunderbolt. Aesculapius will then be raised from the dead and becomes a god. As for Chiron, he's going to take a poison that makes him miserable but he can't die because he's immortal. He will eventually be allowed to die. Chiron cries to Apollo but Apollo is crying about Coronis. Mercury then comes and steals cattle and the only person who sees him do this is Battus. After a test of loyalty, Mercury turns Battus into stone because he can't trust him. Mercury then flies off but sees Herse who is a pretty lady. He decides to have his way with her. You know that same daughter who peek at Minerva's baby? Yeah, sister to Herse. She tells Mercury that she won't tattle if she gets riches. Minerva is mad that she can follow rules now. Envy comes down and injects venom in her. Mercury eventually turns her to stone because she's jealous that her sister is sleeping with Mercury. Mercury then flies up to the heavens and is given another mission by Jupiter. He is to go to an island with cattle and drive them into the sea. These bulls belong to a beautiful lady's dad. The lady is Europa. Jupiter turns himself into a bull and heads that way. Europa hops on his back and is headed away with Jupiter.
Book III, Jupiter arrives at Crete with Europa. Europa's dad, King Agenor, sends his son, Cadmus, to go get Europa back. Cadmus wanders the entire world but can't find her. He asks Apollo what to do. Apollo says follow a cow that's on her own. He is to follow her until she settles and then he should found Boeotia. He follows the cow to the spot. He then wants to offer a sacrifice to Jupiter. His men go looking for a sacrifice but all are killed in a cave by a monster snake. Cadmus goes and kills the snake. Cadmus goes on to live a nice life, except when his grandson, Actaeon, is turned into a stag. Long story short, Diana turns Actaeon into a stag after he's been hunting with some friends. Actaeon is eventually killed by his own dogs and friends who don't recognize him in deer form. Juno is happy because this relative of Europa, who Jupiter carried off, is suffering. But, Jupiter has been messing around with another girl, a Theban named Semele. Juno disguises herself and talks to Semele. Juno says that when Jupiter sleeps with Juno he appears as his divine self and Semele should get the same treatment. Jupiter promises he'll do anything for Semele and she asks for him to make love to her in his divine form. He does and she burns to death. Dang, Juno. Well, Semele's unborn child latches to Jupiter's thigh and when it's born, it is Bacchus, god of wine. Super weird. Jupiter then goes back up to Olympus and is getting a little tipsy. He tries to argue with Juno that women enjoy sex more than men. Juno disagrees. They decide to ask Tiresias because he has been both man and woman. He sides with Jupiter. Juno is mad and makes him bling (YES, HE IS IN ANOTHER BOOK WE JUST READ). Jupiter does give him the gift of prophecy to make things a little better. Now, Liriope a nymph is raped by a sea-god, she asks about her son. Tiresias says some confusing things. 16 years later, Narcissus, Liriope's son, is loved by everyone and is so handsome. He meets Echo, who can only repeat what is said to her and never initiates a conversation. Read the text to find out why. He makes Echo fall in love with him but he doesn't like her, leaving her to waste away to nothing but her voice. One day, after making everyone adore him, Narcissus is looking in a pool, he sees his own reflection. He is in love. He eventually dies looking at himself. Tiresias was right and developed a pretty good reputation of being accurate. One man who doesn't believe in his powers is Pentheus, a prince of Thebes. Tiresias says that Pentheus will be killed for disrespecting Bacchus. Pentheus eventually does this by imprisoning Bacchus for throwing a big party and taking the women.
WHEW. What a long post. Since I'm on vacation, I'm not making two posts a day. I'll summarize all week then have a long, culminating post on Sunday. I'm still trying to mess with what works best, so we will see how the rest of the week goes.
Books IV-VII are for tomorrow!
Cassy
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