Metamorphoses

Jupiter (also called Jove) is the king of the Olympian gods. To the Greeks he was known as Zeus. He is the god of the sky and rain, he wields a thunderbolt, and he is married to his sister the goddess Juno. Jupiter often serves as the main authoritative figure in the Metamorphoses, although even he is subject to fate. For example, when the other gods grumble that they cannot give youth and new life to whomever they wish, Jupiter asks, “does anyone suppose he has the power / to conquer fate?” (212). Even Jupiter could not save those he loved, like Aeacus and Rhadamanthus and Minos. Even if he does not have this power, however, Jupiter still has, and often uses, the power to negatively affect human life. In the early period of the poem, Jupiter becomes unhappy with the crimes of humankind and decides to punish them. He says, “in the whole world sin reigns, / conspiracy of crime! Soon them all— / my sentence stands—due punishment shall fall” (8). After this, he sends a great flood to cover the earth. In his personal life, Jupiter is known for frequently straying from his marriage through consensual affairs and for committing nonconsensual acts of sexual assault. This causes great strife with his wife Juno.

Juno, the wife of Jupiter and queen of the gods, was known to the Greeks as Hera. As the goddess of marriage, she takes offence whenever Jupiter strays. She takes her anger out on the women Jupiter either pursues or assaults rather than on Jupiter himself, who is more powerful than her. When Theban Semele becomes pregnant by Jupiter, Juno disguises herself as an old woman. She says to Semele, “So often / Men, claiming to be gods, have gained the beds / of simple girls. But even to be Jove / is not enough; he ought to prove his love, / if he is Jove” (59). Saying this, Juno tricks Semele into insisting that Jupiter show him his true form, to prove his divinity, although Juno knows well that this will kill Semele.

Juno punishes mortals for reasons beyond her husband’s infidelity as well, such as in the story of Theban Ino. Ovid writes of Ino, “her pride was high, pride in her children, pride / in Athamas, her husband and the god, her foster-child; and this in Juno’s sight / was more than she could bear” (87). Although Ino herself is only tangentially related to any of Jupiter’s infidelity (as the sister of Semele), Juno still punishes her for being proud.

On rare occasions, however, Juno pities mortal women. When King Ceyx dies far from home, his wife Alcyone, who does not know his fate, prays to Juno for news. Ovid writes, “the great goddess could endure no more / entreaties for the dead” (267), so she takes pity on Alcyone and sends her news of Ceyx’s death.

Minerva (also known by her epithet Pallas) is the goddess of warfare as well as wisdom and crafts. She is the son of Jupiter and was known to the Greeks as Athena. Like the other gods in the Metamorphoses, Minerva punishes mortals who show her insolence. When the girl Arachne boasts that she could face Minerva in a weaving contest, Minerva disguises herself as an old woman to warn Arachne to take back her words. When Arachne does not, they have a weaving contest. To Minerva’s displeasure, in Arachne’s work “she could find, / Envy could find, no fault. Incensed at such / success the warrior goddess, golden-haired, / tore up the tapestry” (125). Minerva is both angry at the girl’s general insolence and envious of her talent. She takes her anger out on Arachne, turning her into a spider.

Minerva also punishes mortals for actions that are not their fault. When Neptune rapes Medusa, then a pretty girl, in Minerva’s temple, Minerva takes her anger out on Medusa. Ovid writes, “Jove’s daughter turned away / and covered with her shield her virgin’s eyes, / and then for fitting punishment transformed / the Gorgon’s lovely hair to loathsome snakes” (98). Even though Medusa did not choose to be assaulted, Minerva still punishes her by turning her into a monster. On the other hand, Minerva freely helps Medusa’s eventual slayer, the hero Perseus. At Perseus’ wedding feast, when Phineus tries to kill him with a spear, “Minerva, warrior goddess, then appeared / to guard her brother Perseus with her shield / and give him heart” (100). Here she protects Perseus, also a child of Jupiter, even unbidden.

Medea is a witch and the former princess of Colchis. She begins her story by falling in love with the hero Jason who has come to Colchis in search of the golden fleece. Medea soon “conceived a mastering passion” (144), a love for Jason that leads her to betray her family to help him acquire his prize. Despite her passion, she will not aid him for free. She asks herself, “shall I betray my father’s throne, / and by my aid preserve some nameless stranger, / who, saved by me, without me sails away / to win another wife across the sea” (145). In exchange for her help, she smartly arranges to wed Jason and make a new life with him elsewhere.

Medea’s magic is powerful—she often prays to the goddess of magic Hecate to aid her in creating her potions, and she even has the power to give new youth and vitality to mortals like Jason’s father Aeson. However, after leaving Colchis and later Jason’s home of Thessaly, she begins to show a nefarious streak in her character. In some ways, she is eviler in Ovid’s version than in other accounts. For example, she tricks the king Pelias’ daughters into violently killing their own father. The daughters, who believe they are draining their father of blood so that he can be revived by Medea’s magic, “each in her loving loyalty / vied in disloyalty, and each, in fear / of guilt, was guilty” (154). They stab Pelias under Medea’s urging, and after he dies, Medea flees, unpunished for her crime.