Metamorphoses · Chapter
Story of Baucis and Philemon explained
Jupiter and Mercury, disguised as mortals, are turned away from a thousand doors before being welcomed into the humble cottage of the elderly Baucis and Philemon.
What happens
Jupiter and Mercury, disguised as mortals, are turned away from a thousand doors before being welcomed into the humble cottage of the elderly Baucis and Philemon. The couple offers their best hospitality despite their poverty. The gods reveal themselves, spare the couple from a flood that destroys their impious neighbors, and transform their cottage into a magnificent temple. Baucis and Philemon are granted their wish to die together and are transformed into intertwining trees.
Themes in this chapter
Transformation and Metamorphosis
The chapter culminates in the metamorphosis of Baucis and Philemon into trees, symbolizing their eternal union and divine reward.
Divine Power and Human Folly
Jupiter and Mercury demonstrate divine power by flooding the impious neighborhood and transforming the humble cottage into a temple, contrasting human folly with piety.
Mortality and Immortality
Baucis and Philemon's wish to die together is granted, but their transformation into trees grants them a form of immortality, blurring the line between mortal and eternal.
Characters to notice
- Jove
Disguised as a mortal traveler, Jove tests the hospitality of the Phrygians and rewards Baucis and Philemon for their piety.
- Mercury
Accompanies Jove in disguise, laying aside his rod, and participates in the divine test of hospitality.
- Baucis
The elderly wife who, with her husband Philemon, shows extraordinary hospitality to the disguised gods and is ultimately transformed into a linden tree.
- Philemon
The elderly husband who, with his wife Baucis, welcomes the gods and is transformed into an oak tree after a long and pious life.
Key passages
“Heaven's power is infinite: earth, air, and sea, The manufacture mass, the making power obey”
The power of the gods is limitless, governing all of creation.
Lelex asserts the boundless authority of the gods over the natural world.
“At last a hospitable house they found, A homely shed; the roof, not far from ground, Was thatch'd, with reeds and straw together bound.”
Finally, they discovered a welcoming home, a simple hut with a thatched roof.
Describes the humble dwelling of Baucis and Philemon, the only house that offered shelter.
“We crave to serve before your sacred shrine, And offer at your altar rites divine: And since not any action of our life Has been polluted with domestic strife, We beg one hour of death, that neither she With widow's tears may live to bury me, Nor weeping I, with wither'd arms, may bear My breathless Baucis to the sepulchre.”
We ask to serve as priests in your temple, and because we have lived without conflict, we request to die at the same moment so that neither of us has to bury the other.
Philemon expresses the couple's wish to serve the gods and die together, avoiding the sorrow of separation.
“Old Baucis is by old Philemon seen Sprouting with sudden leaves of sprightly green: Old Baucis look'd where old Philemon stood, And saw his lengthen'd arms a sprouting wood: New roots their fasten'd feet begin to bind, Their bodies stiffen in a rising rind”
Baucis sees Philemon sprouting green leaves, and Philemon sees Baucis's arms turning into branches as their feet take root and their bodies become encased in bark.
Describes the simultaneous transformation of the couple into trees.