Song of the Pierides explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Divine Power and Human Folly

  The Pierides' song highlights the gods' vulnerability and their desperate transformations to escape Typhon, illustrating the folly of challenging divine order.

• Transformation and Metamorphosis

  The chapter recounts multiple transformations of gods into animals (ram, goat, crow, cat, cow, ibis, fish) to evade the giant Typhon.

Characters to notice

• Jove

  Transformed into a ram to escape Typhon, as sung by the Pierides.

• Bacchus

  Transformed into a goat during the giants' war.

• Apollo

  Transformed into a crow to flee Typhon.

• Juno

  Transformed into a cow, white as snow, according to the Pierides' song.

• Mercury

  Transformed into an ibis, a change deemed obscene.

Key passages

• “Then rises one of the presumptuous throng, Steps rudely forth, and first begins the song; = With vain address describes the giants’ wars, And to the gods their fabled acts prefers.”

  One of the arrogant Pierides steps forward and begins to sing about the giants' war, attributing false deeds to the gods.

  The Pierides' challenge to the Muses begins with a song about the giants' rebellion.

• “Jove (so she sung) was changed into a ram, From whence the horns of Lybian Ammon came: Bacchus a goat; Apollo was a crow; Phoebe a cat; the wife of Jove a cow, Whose hue was whiter than the falling snow; Mercury to a nasty ibis turn'd, The change obscene, afraid of Typhon mourn'd; While Venus from a fish protection craves, And once more plunges in her native waves.”

  According to the Pierides, Jove became a ram, Bacchus a goat, Apollo a crow, Phoebe a cat, Juno a white cow, Mercury an ibis, and Venus a fish to escape Typhon.

  The Pierides list the various animal transformations the gods underwent to hide from Typhon.