94 pages • 3 hours read
Metamorphoses
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Book 6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Book 6 Summary: “Arachne”
A mortal girl named Arachne boasts that she can beat Minerva in a weaving contest. Minerva in disguise warns her that she is being insolent insolence, but she takes no heed. Arachne even insults disguised Minerva, saying, “you’re too old, your brain has gone” (122). In the contest, Minerva finds no fault with Arachne’s weaving. She becomes angry and turns Arachne into a spider.
Book 6 Summary: “Niobe”
Arachne’s prideful friend Niobe boasts that she has more children than Latona, mother of Diana and Apollo. Latona angrily sends her children to kill Niobe’s. Niobe becomes so rigid with sadness that she turns into a stone. Ovid writes, “fastened there / upon a mountain peak she pines away, / and tears drip from that marble to this day” (130). Even as a rock, Niobe still cries.
Book 6 Summary: “The Lycian Peasants”
When Latona, who bore children to Jupiter, flees Juno’s wrath, she seeks assistance in Lycia. The peasants there reject her, however, so she turns them into frogs.
Book 6 Summary: “Marsyas”
The satyr Marsyas loses a pipe playing contest to Apollo. In a gruesome punishment, Apollo strips off Marsyas’ skin, making all the onlookers cry. Their tears form the river Marsyas.
Book 6 Summary: “Pelops”
The only Theban who mourns for Niobe is Pelops. Once, their father Tantalus had carved up Pelops and fed him to the gods. The gods put him back together, except they must replace his missing shoulder with one of ivory.
Book 6 Summary: “Tereus, Procne, and Philomela”
King Tereus of Thrace marries Procne, a princess of Athens. Procne begs for her sister Philomela to visit, so Tereus goes to fetch her. On their journey back, Tereus, who desires Philomela, kidnaps her. He rapes her, cuts out her tongue, and hides her away. She manages to communicate with Procne through weaving. Ovid writes, “on a clumsy native loom / she wove a clever fabric, working words / in red on a white ground to tell the tale” (139). After the two sisters reunite, they take revenge. They feed Tereus and Procne’s son Itys to Tereus. The king chases them, and they all turn into birds.
Book 6 Summary: “Boreas and Orithyia”
The wind god Boreas loves the Athenian princess Orithyia. She does not love him, however, so he kidnaps her and makes her his wife. She bears the future Argonauts Calais and Zeto.
Book 6 Analysis
Several the myths in Book 6 involve gods punishing mortals for either their pride or for insulting a god. Arachne, for example, directly insults Minerva both by saying “let her contend with me,” insinuating that she is a better weaver than the goddess (121), and by calling the disguised Minerva old and senile. When Minerva punishes her, she says, “live but hang, you wicked girl, and know / you’ll rue the future too: that penalty / your kin shall pay to all posterity!” (125). Turning Arachne into a spider not only punishes her, but also all her descendants.
Similarly, Latona punishes Niobe for considering herself better than the goddess. Niobe tells her fellow Thebans, “Latona, why should her/ shrine be revered, when my divinity / lacks incense still?” (126). Niobe even brags that she has more children than Latona—a touchy subject for the goddess who famously had trouble bearing her twins. As punishment, Latona has Diana and Apollo kill Niobe’s children, which leads to her death and transformation into a rock, thereby destroying not just Niobe herself, but her whole family. Latona had also punished the peasants of Lycia for denying her water by turning them into frogs, another punishment visited on descendants.
In the story of Tereus, Procne, and Philomela, one of Ovid’s gorier myths, a disempowered woman takes back some agency. After Tereus kidnaps and assaults Philomela, she yells at him in rage, saying, “You cruel brute!” and pointing out the many crimes he has committed (138). In response, Tereus disempowers Philomela even further by cutting out her tongue.
However, Philomela uses her ability to weave to communicate. Ovid writes, “she wove a clever fabric, working words / in red on a white ground” (139). The colors she chooses also have symbolic significance. By weaving the words in red, Philomela repurposes the color of the blood she has shed from Tereus’ assault into the method by which she ensures his and his lineage’s downfall. Philomela and Procne make sure Tereus suffers terribly for his crimes by resorting to terrible crimes themselves. They kill Tereus’ son (who is also Procne’s) and feed him to the king.
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