94 pages • 3 hours read
OvidMetamorphoses
OvidFiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Adult | Published in 8A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Book 10Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Book 10 Summary: “Orpheus and Eurydice”
The musical hero Orpheus weds Eurydice, but soon a snake bites her and she dies. Orpheus travels to the underworld and soothes its inhabitants with his music and begs to retrieve Eurydice. Pluto and Proserpine grant his wish, provided that “he look not back or else the gift would fail” (226). On his way out, Orpheus looks at Eurydice. She returns to the underworld forever, and Orpheus rejects all future women.
Book 10 Summary: “Cyparissus”
Orpheus sings in a grove with one tree that used to be the boy Cyparissus. Cyparissus loved a friendly stag, but one day accidentally killed him, leading Cyparissus to kill himself. Apollo takes pity on Cyparissus and turns him into a cypress tree.
Book 10 Summary: “Ganymede”
Orpheus sings of Ganymede. Jupiter loves Ganymede, a Trojan prince. He disguises himself as a bird and kidnaps Ganymede to be his cupbearer on Olympus.
Book 10 Summary: “Hyacinth”
Apollo, Orpheus’ father, loves the Spartan boy Hyacinth. Apollo accidentally hits Hyacinth with his discus and kills him. Since Apollo cannot save Hyacinth, he turns him into the flower, engraving on its petals Apollo’s lament, “ai ai.”
Book 10 Summary: “Pygmalion”
Pygmalion, who swears off all women, carves his own woman out of ivory. After he falls in love with the statue, he prays to Venus, “vouchsafe, / O Gods, if all things you can grant, my bride / shall be […] the living likeness of my ivory girl” (233). Venus grants this prayer, to Pygmalion’s delight.
Book 10 Summary: “Myrrha”
The girl Myrrha falls in love with her own father, Cinyras, and tricks him into having sex with her. When he discovers this, she flees in shame and prays for punishment, so the gods turn her into a myrrh tree.
Book 10 Summary: “Venus and Adonis”
Cupid accidentally pierces his mother Venus with a love arrow, making her fall in love with the mortal Adonis. She loves Adonis so much that she shuns all her beloved places and even Olympus to be with him.
Book 10 Summary: “Atalanta”
Venus tells Adonis about Atalanta, a girl who was faster than all men. Atalanta will only marry the man who can beat her in a footrace. Hippomenes prays to Venus for help, and she grants him three golden apples. Hippomenes uses the apples to distract Atalanta, wins the race, and marries Atalanta.
However, Venus says, “did I not deserve / especial thanks and incense in my honour? / but he forgot; he gave no thanks and burnt / no incense” (246). Angered, Venus turns Hippomenes and Atalanta into lions. After Venus finishes her story, Adonis accidentally dies while hunting, and Venus turns him into a flower.
Book 10 Analysis
Romantic love reappears in the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, where Ovid also extolls the power of music. When Orpheus’ new wife Eurydice dies from a snakebite, he travels all the way to the underworld to try and retrieve her. As Ovid writes, Orpheus “dared descend through Taenarus’ dark gate / to Hades” (225). Traveling to the underworld in Greco-Roman mythology is a difficult feat on its own, rarer still is retrieving a loved one. While he is in the underworld, Orpheus uses his famed power of music to sooth the gods and tortured souls down there. Ovid writes, “so to the music of his strings he sang, / and all the bloodless spirits wept to hear” (226). Orpheus’ music is so powerful even, “the Furies’ cheeks, it’s said, were wet with tears; / and Hades’ queen and he whose sceptre rules / the Underworld could not deny the prayer” (226). Focusing on Orpheus’ exceptional musical talent—which is so great as to enchant both gods and the damned—Ovid gives loosely veiled credit to his own work as an author. Poetry to the Romans and Greeks was not a silent venture—it was meant to be read aloud and often sung or set to music. The poetic meter that Ovid uses in his original Latin, dactylic hexameter, was certainly sung at times. Therefore, when Ovid celebrates the power of song, he is in fact also celebrating the power of poetry.
Another type of transformation appears in Book 10 as well—transformation as a gift or form of salvation. In the story of Cyparissus, Apollo turns the boy into a cypress tree to help him. When Cyparissus accidentally kills the stag he loves, “he groaned and begged / a last boon from the gods, that he might mourn / for evermore” (229). By turning Cyparissus into a cypress tree, the tree associated by the Romans with death and mourning, Apollo grants his final wish to mourn forever.
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