Hermes and Zeus Visit Baucis and Philemon

We sometimes are mean and selfish enough to realize we have more than others and instead of sharing or caring and trying to help, we only think that they might be dangerous and try to stay away. We don’t understand that we all have hard times in our lives, some different than others. When you help and show that you care, you will feel good and the person that you help will be happy to think they are important too and that they are being helped by someone else. This is a very interesting story and with many teaching that become perfect for the closure of this wonderful book. I really like how there are good people out of all the bad ones that might seem to exist and I really liked the way Baucis and Philemon treat Hermes and Zeus when they first see them. They were probably tired after so many people had been mean to them, and to find a welcoming and warm place must have felt like heaven. They treated them like old friends, people they knew, but when Zeus and Hermes asked they just answered the truth. “Why, you are children of god. Come in, come in” (pg. 79).This shows us how important we all are.

There is also the teaching of when you are good to others you will receive good things back, just like do to others what you want others to do to you. What if there was a time in our lives where we were that kind of people that needed help and there was none to help you because of how un-humble and selfish you always were. Everything has a consequence and depending to how we act we will end being happy of in terrible sadness. Baucis and Philemon were greatly blessed, because of being so nice to them and sharing the little and simple things they had. “Suddenly everything was changing. The poor little house, their simple cottage was becoming grander and grader, a glittering-marble colored temple. The straw and reeds of the thatched roof metamorphosed into gold, and gates with elaborate craving sprang up, as ground gave way to marble paving stones.” (pg. 82)

Last but not least we see one more about love, and how humble and caring Baucis and Philemon were. When they realized who were really there in their small house they were scared and just wanted to do more things to show how much their guests really were of importance. They, Zeus and Hermes decided to give them something else, whatever they wanted, and they weren’t selfish and asked for big unimportant things, but just asked to die at the same time, so one wouldn’t suffer for the other one that was missing. That I think is extremely lovely. It’s not like they asked to money to be given to them, or to be together and become immortal, but they asked to die at the same time. And they did, but they were also transformed into trees, which gave it a special touch to end with.

Phaetons Iambic Pentameter

For being brute, the world was all burned down;
No happiness came from this foolish clown.

Rebellious Phaeton and Eros and Psyche´s Blind Love

He we see a different kind of love. It isn’t like the love you feel for someone you like, but your family. I really like this passage because to me families a very important. They are like the center or the base that holds life together. Phaeton had a family like everyone else, but his was a little different, it was made up by Phoebus Apollo and Phaeton´s mom.

They really care for him, just like parents usually do, and in this case his mother comforted him after what had happened to him at school. “She gets all upset, crying and everything, because she still loves him.” (pg. 63) so she sent him to his father, who also loved him very much and wanted him to be happy, so he lends his cars keys and gives him some advice, because he knew that it wasn’t going to be easy and that he really needed to be careful, not to fly too high or too slow and so on, but he didn’t listen and that’s when the consequences come.

Here we see the importance of being obedient to our parents, they have lived longer and know more than we do, and even though times are different, they are still wise and know what is best for us, they always want us to be happy, because they love us so much. Things would have been different if Phaeton had listened to his dad, and there wouldn’t have been chaos and earth wouldn’t have been destroyed.



The tale of Eros and Psyche is very interesting, especially because it’s told in a totally different way. There are narrators, but the way they tell what it happening is by asking questions and answering them. I like how they say that Eros is blind folded, and in a way I it´s like saying that love is blind. There is also Psyche and how she was so perseverant and was one day, was finally able to be happy with someone she loved. “It´s just inevitable. The soul wanders in the dark, until it finds love. And so wherever our love goes, there we find our soul.” (pg. 76) I think this kind of means that without love we aren’t complete, but we can only find it when we have searched for it with our soul, but only after having found love, we find our soul. But how can we love if there is no soul and how can we have a soul if there is no love? Love coming from our soul, and souls existing thanks to love are just like a cycle, but with no beginning or end.

How Pomona and Vertumnus Got Together and Other Love Stories

I really liked this story and the way the characters in it told another story. The first one was between Vertumnus and Pomona, who at the beginning weren’t really in love, only Vertumnus was. He loved her, and possibly would die for her, but shenever paid him any attention. He started to dress up and act as if he was someone else, so maybe she would notice him. “With wings, costume, and makeup, he once tricked himself out as a soldier, romantically returned from foreign wars… he set himself up as an ordinary fisherman fishing in her path on the chance she might pass by” (pg. 50).

I think that in a way we can all relate to this story, because we sometimes want others attention and believe that if we do things or look different, then others will notice us, just like Vertumnus, but the truth is that that’s not the way things should be done. If you want to be noticed, then you should be yourself. There are probably stories of others that have been lucky and getting what they wanted, just by hiding ones true self, but how hard is it to be someone else for who you love and not be you for yourself? It is much easier to just be who you are with everyone.

At the end of the story we see that after Pomona told him to take his costumes off and saw who he really was, things got much better than what he had probably imagined. “When at last the god revealed himself just as he was, much to his surprise he had no need of words. Little Pomona was happy with what she saw, unadorned and undistinguished. Soon enough the vine was clinging the tree”. (pg. 62)

The story that is told by Vertumnus to Pomona is this story of Myrrha, who also fell in love, but this time, it all became a total tragedy. She had fallen in love with her father and the passion she had for him was so big and wild that she couldn’t control it. Not only was that wrong, but it led to other things happening, such as his father not helping her with what she felt but also cheating on his own wife with his daughter. This teaches us something else. We have to be able to control our passions and emotions so we don’t hurt ourselves or others that we care for. Even thought it might seem impossible, just like Aphrodite said, “You can shut yourselfin a room, bolt the door, but love will come through the window. Draw the curtains, lock the casement, but love will seep through the walls. Never think, never think that that you can be safe from love” (pg. 53). But I think it’s different, there is always a way.

Orpheus and Eurydice (Another Love Story)

This is another love story, only this one is much more tragic than the other ones I have read in this book. Yes, Orpheus and Eurydice were both deeply in love, only this time they were actually about to get married when something terrible happened. A snake bit Eurydice and caused her death. Many would have thought that was her end, and that there was nothing to do. But Orpheus was different and he loved her so much that even thought she was dead and it seemed as if there was nothing to do, he did. He went to hell and fought to get her back. But when he did, he lost her, for having looked back. That’s what I would call true love. Fighting for who you truly love, even if that means death, and even if after doing everything you could to be with that person, but failed and there is nothing else to do afterwards, it will be sad not being with that someone anymore, but it’s even better than having showed how much you really cared to them and how much you really tried just because of what you felt for them?

I have realized there are different transformations in every story, and for some reason they all talk or relate to hell in some way. Why is it always hell or Hades? Are people to bad to go to heaven… Why isn’t there are story for someone going to heaven? I always though that’s what people always wanted… to go to heaven, but it suddenly seems as if everyone is just going to hell… for now I think I just have to continue reading to see if things change, or if there is an accurate explanation for this crisis.

Erysichthon´s Consequences

Once again we see how every single one of our acts has a consequence, but some are good and others totally the opposite. A very good example is Erysichthon´s story. He used to be a very selfish and not-humble-at-all type of person, and that attitude lead him to thinking he could do anything he pleased and that made him have terrible consequences for his actions. We have to be careful for what we do, because even when we do something that seems to be so simple and with no importance at all, we have to remember that everything will have an outcome. Erysichthon cut down a tree and that led him to being punished for his actions and followed by Hunger until he wasn’t able to stop himself and practically committed suicide without noticing. This leads us to another teaching. We have to lay our passions and emotions aside and really concentrate for the things that really matter like family and friends.

Sometimes when we are deeply into something, we don’t notice what is happening with the ones around us. With the ones we love. Until we don’t realize what we are doing to them and at the same time to ourselves. If we don’t stop soon then it could be too late. Just like what happened to Erysichthon. He sold his mom for some coins, and that made him be left alone and with no chances of getting her back. I think we really have to pay more attention to our actions, because not only do they affect us and many others. Sometimes the consequences can be deadly.

Ceyx and Alcyone’s Love Story

The next story we find in Metamorphoses is the tale of Ceyx and Alcyone. This was a very interesting story, and I really like it because not only does it have action and romance, but there are also many things we can relate to.

Everything started when Ceyx told Alcyone that he was going on a voyage across the seas. She felt sad and was extremely worried. She wanted to go with him, for the love they shared was one of the deepest ever seen. After departing Ceyx has to go through a lot, first he travels and then there start to be storms sent by the gods and many start to die. His love for Alcyone is huge and tries not to die, but that impossible. Alcyone knows something was happening and was really scared and worried. One day she finally knows the truth and is transformed into a bird and continues to live, while Ceyx died and would never come back.

This is kind of tragic… but its reality. Death does exist and so do many other things that seem to be destroy true love. But as a book said, true love never dies.