Metamorphoses by Ovid (Summary Notes)

Book 1
Proem
-Preface/prayer to gods to bless work
-Basically, this work is going to be about things changing forms (hence the title)

The Creation
-Chaos existed, basically all the stuff in the world, but mixed up
-“Some god (or kinder nature)” organized Chaos, separated all the elements, and created the
world and universe we are familiar with
-Also, in depth descriptions of all the trees and stuff being made
-Humans are made so that they can look up at the heavens

The Four Ages

-Golden
-No laws or crimes or war
-Earth untouched and there is only spring
-Silver
-Jove overthrew Saturn
-Jove added the other 3 seasons
-Bronze
-People have wars, but they aren’t yet corrupt
Iron
-Evil and sin are rampant
-People demand too much of the Earth
-No respect or values
-The Virgin Astraea (last immortal on Earth) leaves

War with the Giants

-Giants try to take over heaven
-They throw together a bunch of mountains
-Jove smites them with lightning
-Mother Earth turns them into humans
-As humans, they are mean, violent, and hate the gods

Lycaon’s Feast
After the Giants, Jove complains that humans are awful and cites his experience with Lycaon
-Lycaon (Tyrant of Arcadia) wanted to test if Jove was a man or god
-He planned to kill him in his sleep and tried to feed him cut up human
-Jove knew and smote (past tense of smite) Lycaon’s house and turned him into a wolf

The Great Flood

-Gods plan to destroy human race, but who will bring stuff to their altars when they do?
-Jove promises that he would provide a new race of miraculous origin (which ends up
just being a different version of the first one)
-Jove at first wants to use lightning, but there is a prophecy that the world will end in fire
-He gets help from Neptune to flood the world with a great storm
-Lots of flooding occurs in detail and animals float away (and people die)

Deucalion and Pyrrha

-Married couple, they are the only two to survive the flood on a raft
-They land on Mt Parnassus and worship the local gods, along with Themis
-Seeing their piety, Jove ends the storm/flood (there is hope for these humans)
-They go to Themis’ altar to ask how to repopulate the world
-She tells them to cover their heads, loosen their robes, and “toss the bones of your great
mother.”
-Deucalion figures out (because a woman can’t do that) Themis meant rocks of the great Mother
Earth
-They throw rocks, which turn to people, and that’s why humans are strong and can work hard

The Second Creation

-Animals are recreated
-Moisture and heat are the source of life
-That’s all

Apollo and the Python

-In the second creation, a giant Python is created
-Apollo kills it
-Olympic Games are to commemorate his victory

Apollo and Daphne

-Cupid’s mad that Apollo won’t share credit with him for helping to kill the Python
-Apollo also says he’s unfit to be an archer
-Cupid responds by striking Apollo with a love arrow and Daphne (daughter of Peneus) with an
“I want to stay a virgin forever” arrow
-Apollo chases her all over and she runs away
-Before he catches her, she prays to her father to save her
-He turns her into a laurel tree
-Apollo still loves her, so he makes the laurel his tree and the symbol of victory

Jove and Io (1)

-Peneus calls a meeting of the rivers and nymphs and the only one absent is Inachus, Io’s father,
because he’s sad that he can’t find her (Why you ask?)
-This is because Jove thought she was pretty and raped her under the cover of a dark mist
-Juno was suspicious of this dark mist in the middle of the day and suspected Jove was up
to no good
-To not get caught, Jove turned Io into a beautiful cow
-Juno wanted said beautiful because it was beautiful
-Jove gave it to her and she put it (Io) in the care of Argus (100 eyes guy)
-Io finds her family and wrote in the dirt to let them know what happened
-They all cry
 -Jove decides he should help and sends Mercury to get rid of Argus

Pan and Syrinx

-A story within a story, Mercury tells to Argus
-Much like Apollo and Daphne, Pan (a forest god) falls in love with Syrinx who is a follower of
Diana and chases her
-She prays to the river Ladon and turns into reeds
-Pan sighs and the reeds make a nice sound
-So, he put them together and made the instrument Syrinx (or Pan pipes)
-Argus falls also and closes all his eyes (because the story is just that boring or something)
-Mercury cuts Argus’ head off

Jove and Io (2)

-Juno put Argus eyes in the feathers of the peacock, her bird
-Angry, so sent a Fury to chase Io the beautiful cow around until she reached the Nile
-At this point, Jove promised that he wouldn’t mess with this one again and swore on the
Styx
-Juno then let Io take her original form
-Io had Jove’s child, Epaphus, and both were then worshiped in Egypt

Phaëthon
-Phaëthon is friends with Epaphus and didn’t want to be second best (he’s really stuck up and
arrogant)
-Epaphus gets mad and tells Phaëthon that his mom has been lying to him about his dad (Oh no
he didn’t!)
- Phaëthon cries to his mother, Clymene, who tells him that his dad is Apollo and when he asks
she tells him where to find Apollo
-Thus, he goes to see Apollo
-To be continued in Book 2…but basically he rides Apollo’s sun chariot, sets everything on fire,
and Jove smites him