Metamorphoses Characters

The godSaturn is the god Jupiter’s father. Shortly after the universe is created, Saturn is banished to the underworld and Jupiter becomes the head of the gods.

Lycaön is a corrupted king who lives during the Iron Age. Jupiter pays him a visit disguised as a mortal, and Lycaön mocks the gods and kills and eats Jupiter’s companion. To punish him, Jupiter strikes his palace with lightning and turns Lycaön into a wolf.

Pyrrha is Deucalion’s devout wife.

Apollo is the son of Jupiter and Latona. He is also Diana’s brother and Aesculapius’s father. He is known as the god of archery, among other things. He is active in many stories throughout the Metamorphoses.

Cupid is Venus’s son and the god of love. Many times throughout the Metamorphoses, he uses his magic arrows to cause both humans and gods to fall in love.

Mercury is Jupiter’s son. He is known as the messenger god and flies on winged sandals. He appears throughout the Metamorphoses, such as in the stories of Aglauros and Battus.

Argus is a man with one hundred eyes whom Juno assigns to guard Io the cow. Jupiter has his son Mercury kill Argus, and Juno uses his hundred eyes to bejewel the tail feathers of her signature peacocks.

Phoebus is the sun god. He is in charge of the changes of days and season and owns a fiery chariot which he drives around the sky. His son Phaethon once tries to drive this chariot and plummets to his death, setting the Earth on fire.

Diana is the goddess of chastity. She leads groups of women who live chaste lives as huntresses. She punishes anyone in her clan who fails to live chastely, and any outsider who sees her naked.

Ocyrhoë is the daughter of the centaur who takes care of Apollo’s son. She prophesies what will happen in Apollo’s son’s future, and then Jupiter turns her into a horse.

Pallas Athena is a Greek goddess. A statue of her plays an important role during the Trojan War, Ulysses claiming credit for recapturing the statue from where it had been smuggled within Troy’s walls.

Herse isthe sister of Minerva and Aglauros. The god Mercury falls in love with her, sparking Aglauros’s jealousy.

Minerva is the goddess of weaving and wisdom. Among other actions, she sends Envy to punish Aglauros and punishes Arachne for daring to compete with her in weaving.

Europa is a princess and one of Jupiter’s love interests. Jupiter disguises himself as a gentle bull and inveigles Europa into his custody by riding into the sea with her on his back.

Actaeon is Cadmus’s son. He accidentally sees Diana naked, and she punishes him by transforming him into a stag. His hunting dogs kill him later that day.

Semele is Cadmus’s daughter and one of Jupiter’s love interests. Juno—furious that Jupiter has impregnated Semele—convinces Semele to sleep with Jupiter while he is in his divine form. Doing this kills Semele, and Jupiter snatches her baby from her womb and saves it by stitching it into his thigh.

Teiresias is a famous prophet. He has lived as both a man and a woman, and so settles a debate between Juno and Jupiter as to whether men or women enjoy sex more: he says women do.

Acoetes is a former sailor and one of Bacchus’s companions. His sailing crew had once captured Bacchus and refused to believe he was a god. Bacchus punished them by turning them into wild animals but saved Acoetes who had believed him.

Agave is Pentheus’s mother. When he refuses to worship Bacchus, she rips off his head and limbs with the help of her companions.

Mars is Jupiter and Juno’s son. He is known as the god of war.

Venus is the goddess of love. Aeneas and Julius Caesar are both her sons, and she makes them gods at the end of their lives. Cupid is also her son.

Leucothoë is one of Phoebus’s love interests. Phoebus goes to her disguised as a mortal, then reveals his identity and rapes her. Leucothoë’s father is furious that his daughter is no longer a virgin and buries her alive. Phoebus tries to revive her but is unsuccessful.

Hermaphroditus is a boy who swims in Salmacis’s pool, causing her to fall in love with him and seduce him. After Salmacis has their bodies and faces merged, Hermaphroditus asks the gods to curse Salmacis’s pool to make whoever swims in it androgynous.

Athamas is Ino’s husband. When Juno poisons him and Ino, Athamas goes mad and shatters the skull of one of his children against a wall.

Harmonia is Cadmus’s wife.

Andromeda is a girl whose fellow citizens tie her to a cliff above a sea-monster in unjust punishment for her mother’s arrogance. Perseus rescues her and marries her.

Phineus is Andromeda’s former fiancé. When Perseus marries Andromeda, Phineus challenges him at the wedding party and starts a deadly battle. Phineus is turned to stone when Perseus forces him to look at Medusa’s head.

Calliope is one of the Muses. She sings a song that wins a competition against nine sisters who boasted that they could sing better than the Muses. Calliope and the Muses repeat this song to Minerva when she goes to visit them.

Pluto is the lord of Hades, or the underworld. He is significant in the story of “The Rape of Proserpina” when he kidnaps Ceres’s daughter Proserpina and makes her Queen of Hades. Orpheus also negotiates with Pluto when he tries to retrieve Eurydice from Hades.

Arethusa is a nymph whom Ceres encounters when she is looking for Proserpina. Arethusa was once pursued by a nymph, but Diana saved her from rape by transforming her into a spring named after her.

Latona is a goddess and the mother of Apollo and Diana. At one point, she harshly punishes Niobe who refuses to worship her.

Itys is Tereus and Procne’s son.

Boreas is the god of the north wind. Wary of the story of Tereus, Procne, and Philomela, Boreas tries to woo his love interest Orithyia gently. However, when this is unsuccessful, he kidnaps Orithyia in a windstorm.

Orithyia is Boreas’s love interest. After he kidnaps her in a windstorm, she gives birth to twins with golden wings.

Aeson is Jason’s elderly father whom Medea magically restores to a younger age.

Pelias is an elderly king whom Medea deceives and pretends to restore to youth. Medea concocts a false potion and convinces Pelias’s daughters to pierce their father with swords, saying this is part of the revival process. Medea finally slits Pelias’s throat, killing him.

Aegeus is an Athenian king whom Medea marries after she kills her children and leaves Jason. Aegeus saves his son Theseus from Medea’s attempt to poison him, and Athens gathers to rejoice in Theseus’s brave exploits.

The Minotaur is the monstrous son of Pasiphae—Minos’s wife—and a bull. Minos hides the Minotaur in a labyrinth, ashamed of his wife’s affair.

Ariadne is Minos’s daughter. When Theseus is about to be fed to the Minotaur, Ariadne helps him escape. Theseus then kidnaps Ariadne and abandons her on an island. Taking pity on her, Bacchus makes Ariadne a constellation.

Icarus is Daedaulus’s son. When Icarus is flying behind his father on the wings Daedaulus had fashioned from feathers and wax, he is exhilarated with the flight and flies higher towards the sun. His wings melt, and he falls and drowns in the sea.

Perdix is Daedaulus’s student. When Perdix invents the compass all by himself, Daedaulus pushes him off a mountain in jealousy. To save him from the deadly fall, Pallas Athena turns him into a partridge—a bird too afraid of heights to fly.

Baucis is Philemon’s devout and generous wife. Jupiter and Mercury reward her for her hospitality and commemorate her as a linden tree when she dies.

Mestra is Erysichthon’s daughter. After Erysichthon is infected with hunger by Ceres, he sells Mestra as a slave. Mestra begs Neptune to give her the power of transformation which she then uses to escape servitude.

Nessus is a centaur who competes with Hercules for Deianira. Hercules wins Deianira and wounds Nessus, but Nessus gives Deianira a cursed shirt that eventually burns Hercules to death.

Alcmena is Hercules’s mother. Alcmena tells Iole—who is pregnant with Hercules’s grandson—about the painful time she had giving birth to the half-god Hercules and how her maid Galanthis had helped her when the gods wouldn’t.

Iole is the wife of Hercules’s son. She tells Alcmena the story of her sister Dryope.

Galanthis was Alcmena’s nursemaid when Alcmena was giving birth to Hercules. Galanthis tricked the goddess of childbirth (who was cursing Alcmena on Juno’s orders) into lifting her curse. The goddess of childbirth turned Galanthis into a weasel.

Dryope is Iole’s sister. One day while walking her baby, Dryope accidentally picks a lotus—a flower that is a nymph. The lotus nymph punishes Dryope by transforming her into a tree.

Miletus is Apollo’s son and the father of Byblis and Caunus.

Caunus is Byblis’s brother and the object of her love. When Byblis confesses her incestuous feelings for him, Caunus is appalled and rejects her. Despite his continuous rejections, Byblis persists in pursuing him until he flees and sets up a new home in a faraway place.

Eurydice is Orpheus’s wife. She dies just after her wedding when a snake bites her ankle. Orpheus unsuccessfully tries to rescue her from Hades but joins her later when he dies himself.

Cyparissus is a boy who loves a beautiful stag. When Cyparissus accidentally kills the stag, Cyparissus yearns to die himself, so Apollo transforms him into a cypress tree.

Hyacinthus is a Spartan boy whom Apollo likes. Apollo disguises himself so he can play frisbee with Hyacinthus, but Apollo throws the frisbee so hard that Hyacinthus dies when he tries to catch it. Feeling guilty, Apollo transforms Hyacinthus into a hyacinth.

Adonis is Myrrha and her father’s son. Venus, accidentally grazed by one of Cupid’s arrows, falls in love with Adonis and spends time with him in the woods. When she leaves, Adonis is killed by a boar. Venus transforms him into a red flower.

Hippomenes is one of the men who challenges Atalanta to a running race in hopes of winning her hand in marriage. Hippomenes receives help from Venus and wins the race. However, he forgets to thank Venus for helping him and is transformed into a lion along with Atalanta.

Pan is a pipe-playing nymph who appears throughout the Metamorphoses.

Laomedon is the first founder of Troy. When Apollo and Neptune help him finish Troy and he refuses to pay them, they flood the city and take it over.

Neptune is the god of the sea.

Telamon is Aeacus’s son. He helps Meleager defeat the Calydonian boar and assists Apollo and Neptune in taking Troy from Laomedon.

Thetis is a sea-goddess and Peleus’s wife. At first, she resists Peleus’s attempts to sleep with her, but when he ensnares her in a rope she gives in, deciding the gods are on his side. She soon gives birth to Achilles.

Daedalion is Ceyx’s brother. Daedalion’s daughter is impregnated simultaneously by Apollo and Mercury and gives birth to twins. When she boasts of her importance, she is killed by Diana. Daedalion is transformed into a hawk when he throws himself off a mountain in grief over his daughter’s death.

Priam is the father of Hector, Aesacus, and Paris. He is sacrificed to Jupiter after Troy loses the Trojan War.

Helen is an Athenian princess whom Paris kidnaps, instigating the Trojan War between Troy and Athens.

Paris is Priam’s son and Hector’s brother. He kidnaps Helen, thus incurring Athens’s attack on Troy. During the Trojan War that ensues, Paris kills Achilles with the help of Apollo.

Hector is Priam’s son and a Trojan war hero.

Achilles is an Athenian war hero, the son of Peleus and Thetis. He kills many Trojans in the Trojan war but is ultimately killed by an arrow through his heel (his one mortal spot), shot by Paris. Achilles’ glorious shield and sword are passed down to Ulysses.

Cycnus is Neptune’s son. Achilles kills Cycnus during the Trojan War, upsetting Neptune and causing him to implore Apollo to strike down Achilles.

Nestor is a wise man and a member of the Athenian army. He tells the Athenians the story of the Lapiths and Centaurs, and of Hercules’s violence towards his brother.

Ulysses is an Athenian war strategist and soldier who bears Achilles’s sword and shield after he dies. When the Trojan War ends, Ulysses takes possession of Hecuba and other widows of Troy and sets sail for Greece.

Ajax competes against Ulysses for the right to bear Achilles’s sword and shield after he dies. In Ajax’s speech, he calls Ulysses a deceiver and a coward. When the shield and sword are given to Ulysses, Ajax kills himself.

Philoctetes is a former Athenian war hero who was driven mad by pain and banished to an island. After winning the contest for Achilles’s sword and shield, Ulysses goes to retrieve Hercules’s arrows which are in Philoctetes’s possession.

Polyxena is Hector and Hecuba’s daughter. After Troy loses the Trojan War, Ulysses captures Polyxena and Hecuba and sacrifices Polyxena on board their ship.

Anius is a king whom Aeneas visits during his travels. Anius tells Aeneas how he lost all his children thanks to the Athenian army.

Galatea is a sea-nymph. The Cyclops is in love with Galatea, but she rejects him and spends time with her lover Acis. The Cyclops gets madly jealous and pursues Acis. Galatea saves Acis from being crushed by turning him into a river.

Acis is Galatea’s lover. He is attacked by the Cyclops and saved by Galatea who turns him into a river.

Circe is Phoebus’s daughter.At one point, she transforms Ulysses’s companions into pigs, and Ulysses has to sleep with her in order for her to reverse the curse.

Achaemenides is an Athenian who was abandoned by Ulysses when the Cyclops was terrorizing his crew. Aeneas found Achaemenides and took him onto his ship.

Macareus is a former companion of Ulysses. He tells Achaemenides stories from when Ulysses and his crew stayed with Circe in her cave.

Canens is Picus’s wife. When Picus doesn’t return from his ride, she collapses in grief beside a stream, where she transforms into water.

Turnus is the ruler of Ardea and leads several tribes in the charge to defeat Aeneas. After fighting stubbornly against Aeneas’s army, Turnus is killed and Aeneas takes over Ardea.

Diomedes is a king whom Turnus requests help from in his war against Aeneas. Diomedes refuses, remembering all of his trials during the Trojan War.

Cybele is the mother of the gods. She sides with Aeneas in his war against Turnus, and transforms the Trojans’ burning ships into sea-monsters.

Vertumnus is a god who seduces Pomona.

Romulus is the grandson of a king whose city is unjustly captured by one of Aeneas’s descendants. Romulus retakes the city and names it Rome. Mars then makes Romulus a god.

Hersilie is Romulus’s wife. After Romulus is made a god, Hersilie grieves, but then Iris transports Hersilie to the sky to join Romulus as a goddess.

Myscelus is the founder of Croton.

Egeria is Numa’s wife and is overcome with grief when Numa dies. Hippolytus tries to comfort her without success, so Diana turns her into a spring.

Numa succeeds Romulus as the leader of Rome.

Hippolytus is a man who was banished by his father when his stepmother (who desired him) spread the rumor that Hippolytus desired her. Hippolytus wandered in exile, until a fall from his chariot killed him. Hippolytus was saved from Hades by the gods and returned to society.

Cipus is a Roman man who one day grows horns and hears a prophecy that he will become Rome’s king. To save Rome from a tyrant, Cipus convinces the Roman citizens to banish him.

Aesculapius is Apollo’s son. Initially, he lives in a temple in Epidaurus until the Romans transport him to Rome to heal their plague. Aesculapius travels to Rome in the form of a serpent.

Caesar Augustus is Julius Caesar’s son and succeeds him as the ruler of Rome. He is the current ruler of Rome when the Metamorphoses ends, and Ovid states that he hopes Augustus will rule for a long time after.