As Phaethon literally sets the world on fire, Jupiter intervenes to bring his adventure to a close.
Hear Ovid’s Latin and follow in English here.
See the illustrated blog post here.
Philemon and Baucis’s goose has a narrow escape, as Ovid tells the story of the old couple who became legendary for their generosity and proverbial for love between wife and husband.
Hear Ovid’s Latin and listen in English here.
Photo by VladoubidoOo, licence details at photo credits.
The latest in Pantheon Poets’ Latin (and Greek) selections is of poems of travel by Catullus, Homer, Ovid and Virgil; enjoy it here.
At Pantheon Poets we have met Polyphemus the Cyclops as the renegade shepherd who honours no Gods except his father Poseidon and is prone to kill and eat visitors in violation of the ancient world’s code of hospitality to strangers. Now, in one of Ovid’s most engaging passages, we find him in love with a sea-nymph, Galatea, and torn by jealousy for the mortal that she loves, Acis.
Hear Ovid’s Latin and follow in English here.
Philemon and Baucis are the poorest of the poor, but when the immortals arrive in disguise and ask for hospitality, their response is immediate and their generosity boundless. Ovid in the Metamorphoses sometimes plays the rather rickety old gentleman and his kindly wife for laughs, but their open-handedness and the warmth of their welcome are heartwarming nevertheless. The next post will tell the end of their story.
Hear Ovid’s Latin and follow in English here.
Phaethon’s ride in the chariot of his father, the Sun, has brought catastrophe as he sets the world ablaze. Now Jupiter intervenes to fell him with a thunderbolt before the damage goes from bad to worse.
The illustration by Giovanni Bernardi shows his fall, his sisters, who are turned to poplar trees on his burial mound, and his friend Cycnus, who will be transformed in to a swan.
Hear Ovid’s Latin and follow in English here.
In our latest post, Ovid describes the mysterious palace of Rumour, where everything that happens in the world is seen, heard and passed on. Hear his Latin and follow in English here.