Baucis and Philemon
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In Ovid's moralizing fable (Metamorphoses VIII), which stands on the periphery of Greek mythology, Baucis and Philemon were an old married couple in the region of Tyana, which Ovid places in Phrygia, who were the only ones in their town to welcome the disguised gods, Zeus and Hermes, thus embodying the pious exercise of hospitality.
Zeus and Hermes came disguised as ordinary peasants and began asking the people of the town for a place to sleep that night, before they came to Baucis and Philemon's rustic and simple cottage. Though they were poor, they showed more piety than their rich neighbors, where "all the doors were bolted and no word of kindness given, so wicked were the people of that land." After serving the two guests food and wine, which Ovid depicts with pleasure in the details, Baucis noticed that although she had refilled her guest's beechwood cups many times, the wine pitcher was still full. Realising that her guests were in fact gods, they "raised their hands in supplication, and implored indulgence for their simple home and fare." Philemon thought of catching and killing the goose that guarded their house and making it into a meal for the guests. But when Philemon went to catch the goose, it ran onto Zeus's lap. Zeus said that they did not need to slay the goose and that they should leave the town. Zeus said that he was going to destroy the town and all the people who had turned him away. He said Baucis and Philemon should climb the mountain with him and not turn back until they reached the top.
After climbing the mountain, Baucis and Philemon looked back on the town and saw that it had been destroyed by a flood. However, Zeus had turned Baucis and Philemon's cottage into an ornate temple. The couple were also granted a wish; they chose to stay together forever and to be guardians of the temple. They also requested that when it came time for one of them to die, the other would die as well. Upon their death, they were changed into an intertwining pair of trees, one oak and one linden, standing in the deserted boggy terrain.
Baucis and Philemon do not appear elsewhere in Greek myth, nor anywhere in cult.
[edit] See also
Perhaps this myth is the reason (or basis) for the extreme reaction of the people of Lystra when Paul and Barnabus arrive (c AD47)- see Acts 14. (Bible New Testament - Paul's 1st Missionary Journey.
The Lystrians are determined not to get caught twice by the Gods..!
Mike Thompson
[edit] References
- Ovid VIII, 611. (On-line)
- Philemon and Baucis (2003). Mythology: Myths, Legends, & Fantasies. : ISBN 1740480910
- William Smith, ed. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1873)
- Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898)
