Ovid’s Tales of Warning: Baucis and Philemon
The Importance of Charity
Behind the Holy Bible, Ovid’s Roman Epic poem the Metamorphoses has inspired the most art in human history and has had a significant impact on Western culture.
Roman Epic as a genre of poetry was usually used for political purposes, as a means of inspiring patriotism and loyalty to the emperor and empire. Part of this was from the way that stories would instruct its listeners on how to be model Roman citizens, with characters who deviate from this expectation being punished and those meeting it being rewarded.
An example of this comes in the narrative of Baucis and Philemon in Book VIII of the Metamorphoses, which directly precedes the tale of Erysichthon (the link for which I have provided at the end of this article, if you are interested).
The Linking Device (VIII. 547–625)
At this point in the poem, the hero Theseus and his companions are eating with the river-god Acheloüs, who has just told them the tale of Periméle, a girl he had loved and whose virginity he had taken. He tells them that her father was so furious at this that he pushed her off a cliff to be drowned in the sea for her shame. In desperation, Acheloüs took her body in his hands and begged Neptune (Poseidon) to save her from death…
