The Metamorphoses Books I-III
Fable descriptions are taken from the translator’s Synopses.
Book I
The Argument
Fable I: God reduces Chaos into order.
Fable II: God gives form and regularity to the universe.
Fable III: The Golden Age.
Fable IV: The Silver Age. The Brazen Age. The Iron Age.
Fable V: The Giants.
Fable VI: Jupiter determines to destroy the world.
Fable VII: Lycaon changes into a wolf.
Fable VIII: Jupiter resolves to extirpate mankind by a universal deluge.
Fable IX: Neptune appeases the angry waves. Deucalion and Pyrrha are the only persons saved from the deluge.
Fable X: Deucalion and Pyrrha re-people the earth.
Fable XI: Apollo institutes the Pythian games.
Fable XII: Apollo and Daphne.
Fable XIII: Jupiter and Io.
Fable XIV: Jupiter changes Io into a cow; the watchful Argus.
Fable XV: Pan and Syrinx.
Fable XVI: Juno places Argus’s eyes in the peacock’s tail.
Fable XVII: Io stops in Egypt, under the name of Isis.
Book II
Fable I: Phaëton guides Apollo’s chariot.
Fable II: Phaëton falls into the river Eridanus.
Fable III: The sisters of Phaëton.
Fable IV: Cycnus is transformed into a swan.
Fable V: Jupiter and Calisto.
Fables VI and VII: Calisto is transformed into a Bear. Calisto and Arcas become the Great and the Little Bear. The raven is changed from white to black.
Fable VIII: Ericthonius enclosed in a basket.
Fable IX: Nyctimene transformed into an owl.
Fable X: Ocyrrhoë, the daughter of Chiron, transformed into a mare.
Fable XI: Mercury steals the oxen of Apollo.
Fable XII: Mercury and Herse.
Fable XIII: Aglauros and Envy.
Fable XIV: Jupiter and Europa.
Book III
Fable I: Cadmus founds Bœotia.
Fable II: Cadmus and the dragon’s teeth. Cadmus founds Thebes.
Fable III: Actæon transformed into a stag.
Fable IV: Jupiter and Semele.
Fable V: Birth of Bacchus. Tiresias decides a dispute between Jupiter and Juno.
Fable VI: Echo and Narcissus.
Fable VII: Narcissus changed into a flower.
Fable VIII: Pentheus is torn to pieces by the Bacchantes.