Metamorphoses

In Book 5, Ovid again takes advantage of narrative framing to color his rendition of one story—that of Proserpine. This myth serves as a story-within-a-story, for Minerva hears the tale from the Muse Urania who reports a song that her sister Calliope, Muse of epic poetry, sings. Ovid’s rendition of the story of Proserpine, which is a widespread and religiously important myth in Greco-Roman antiquity, follows very closely to another version of this myth from the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, the oldest version we have remaining today. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter is a form of epic poetry, that is, it’s written in dactylic hexameter and uses common tropes such as framing a story as a song sung to the muses. Ovid makes his rendition of the story epic by having Calliope sing it. He also frames Calliope’s song with a typical hymnal opening to the goddess Ceres. This story overall then is a fitting one for Calliope to sing in a musical contest in which she, a muse and goddess, defeats a boastful mortal girl.

Ovid does make some changes and innovations in his version, focusing on details that make it fit within the overall themes of the Metamorphoses. In particular, he draws out moments of transformation, such as in the story of Arethusa and that of Triptolemus and Lyncus. Both stories take place after the primary plot of Proserpine’s tale. However, they are relayed within the song that Calliope sings and therefore part of Ovid’s overall version of the “hymn.” After Proserpine returns to Ceres for part of the year, Ceres takes the time to learn how Arethusa became a sacred spring. Arethusa turns into a spring while hiding from the stream Alpheus. After this, Ceres travels to Triptolemus and, when the king Lyncus attacks Triptolemus, Ceres turns Lyncus into a lynx. Both these transformations are typical within the overall Metamorphoses—they involve themes of love, power, aetiology, and divine punishment—thereby giving Calliope’s otherwise Homeric song an Ovidian flavor.