“BAUCIS
&
PHILEMON“
Baucis and Philemon were an
old married couple in the region
of Tyana, which Ovid places
in Phrygia, and the only ones in
their town to welcome disguised
Gods Zeus and Hermes thus
embodying the pious exercise
of hospitality, the ritualized guest-
friendship termed xenia.
Zeus and Hermes came disguised as
ordinary peasants, and began asking the
people of the town for a place to sleep
that night. They had been rejected by
all. When at last they came to Baucis
and Philemon's simple rustic cottage.
Though the couple was poor, their
generosity far surpassed that of their
rich neighbors, among whom the gods
found “doors bolted and no word of
kindness."
After serving the two guests food
and wine, Baucis noticed that,
although she had refilled her guest's
beech wood cups many times, the
pitcher was still full. Realizing that
her guests were gods, she and her
husband "raised their hands in
supplication and implored
indulgence for their simple home
and fare.
Philemon thought of catching and killing
the goose that guarded their house and
making it into a meal, but when he went to
do so, it ran to safety in Zeus's lap. Zeus
said they need not slay the goose and that
they should leave the town. This was
because he was going to destroy the town
and all those who had turned them away and
not provided due hospitality. He told Baucis
and Philemon to climb the mountain with
him and Hermes and not to turn back until
they reached the top.
After climbing to the summit, Baucis
and Philemon looked back on their
town and saw that it had been destroyed
by a flood and that Zeus had turned
their cottage into an ornate temple.They
also asked that when time came for one
of them to die, that the other would die
as well. Upon their death, the couple
were changed into an intertwining pair
of trees, one oak and one linden,
standing in the deserted boggy terrain.
“ May we all find such a love that when both
are old and gray, there is genuine youthful
beauty still observed by the eye and within
the heart.” -BAUCIS and PHILEMON
“ENDYMION
AND
SELENE”
Endymion, a beautiful youth
who spent much of his life in
perpetual sleep. According to
one tradition, Zeus offered him
anything that he might desire,
and Endymion chose an
everlasting sleep in which he
might remain youthful forever.
According to another
version of the myth,
Endymion’s eternal sleep
was a punishment inflicted
by Zeus because he had
attempted to have a
sexual relationship with
Zeus’s wife, Hera.
In any case, Endymion was loved
by Selene, the goddess of the
moon, who visited him every night
while he lay asleep in a cave on
Mount Latmus in Caria; she bore
him 50 daughters. A common form
of the myth represents Endymion
as having been put to sleep by
Selene herself so that she might
enjoy his beauty undisturbed.
“ALPHEUS
AND
ARETHUSA”
The myth of her transformation
begins in Arcadia when she came
across a clear stream and began
bathing, not knowing it was the river
god Alpheus, who flowed down from
Arcadia through Elis to the sea. He fell
in love during their encounter, but she
fled after discovering his presence and
intentions, as she wished to remain a
chaste attendant of Artemis. After a
long chase, she prayed to her goddess
to ask for protection.
Artemis hid her in a cloud, but
Alpheus was persistent. She began
to perspire profusely from fear,
and soon transformed into a
stream. Artemis then broke the
ground allowing Arethusa another
attempt to flee. Her stream
traveled under the sea to the
island of Ortygia, but Alpheus
flowed through the sea to reach
her and mingle with her waters.
Virgil augurs for Arethusa a salt-
free passage beneath the sea on the
condition that, before departing,
she grant him songs about troubled
loves, not those in her own future,
but those of Virgil's friend and
contemporary, the poet Cornelius
Gallus, whom Virgil imagines dying
from unrequited love beneath the
famous mountains of
Arcadia, Maenalus and Lycaeus.
THE END!!!
