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Book 10: Cyparissus
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Metamorphoses, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Metamorphosis
Humanity vs. Nature
Love and Destruction
Gods and Humans
Time, Fate, and Poetry
Summary
Analysis
Orpheus sits in the new grove of trees and tunes his lyre. He starts to play, saying that his song will first be about Jupiter, the most powerful god in the universe. Then he will sing about boys that the gods love and about girls who have been punished for wild passions.
Orpheus’s song suggests that boys are lovable and girls are destructive. While boys can inspire the love and admiration of the gods, girls only possess wild passions that lead the gods to punish them.
Themes
