Baucis and Philemon

Hello readers! The next mythological tale I will be posting about today is the tale of Baucis and Philemon

Who?

Baucis and Philemon were an elderly couple. They did not have much, but loved each other greatly. One day two travelers showed up at their home, however, these guests were actually mortal forms of Jupiter and Mercury. As Baucis and Philemon were a very kind and pious couple, they invited the travelers inside, unlike the people around the rest of the village where they had been turned away. When Baucis and Philemon began to prepare as best a meal they could for the strangers, even though they didn’t have much. Hospitality was very important to the Romans, so, in return for their kindness, Jupiter gave them what they requested which was to die together. When they died, they turned into two trees growing from the same trunk, being together forever.

Why are they famous?

This tale comes from Ovid’s Metamorphosis in Book VII. Placed in the town of Phygia, the old couple are to become a linden tree and an oak, enclosed by a low wall. By welcoming Zeus and Hermes (Roman counterparts to Jupiter and Mercury) into their home, they represented the ideals that the Romans were concerned with: the pious exercise of hospitality, and xenia (friendship, kindness). The couple realised that they had welcomed in gods when the wine they served kept refilling itself. Once they realised, they raised their hands in supplication, bowed to the gods and thought to slay their only goat for the gods. The gods decided that the fate of the town was to be destroyed in a flood, but the couple to be spared. So they walked with Hermes up the mountain and obeyed the rule not to turn around to see their town flooded. Their two requests were granted: to be guardians of the temple, and in death, that when one of them was to die, the other would die as well. They become trees, eternally together, one oak, and one linden.    

The story of Baucis and Philemon has been imitated by Swift, in a burlesque style, the actors in the change being two wandering saints, and the house being changed into a church, of which Philemon is made the parson. The following may serve as a specimen:

           "They scarce had spoke, when, fair and soft,

             The root began to mount aloft;

             Aloft rose every beam and rafter;

             The heavy wall climbed slowly after.

             The chimney widened and grew higher,

             Became a steeple with a spire.

             The kettle to the top was hoist,

             And there stood fastened to a joist,

             But with the upside down, to show,

             Its inclination for below;

             In vain, for a superior force,

             Applied at bottom, stops its course;

             Doomed ever in suspense to dwell,

             'Tis now no kettle, but a bell.

             A wooden jack, which had almost

             Lost by disuse the art to roast,

             A sudden alteration feels.

             Increased by new intestine wheels;

             And, what exalts the wonder more,

             The number made the motion slower;

             The flier, though 't had leaden feet,

             Turned round so quick you scarce could see 't;

             But slackened by some secret power,

             Now hardly moves an inch an hour.

             The jack and chimney, near allied,

             Had never left each other's side:

             The chimney to a steeple grown,

             The jack would not be left alone;

             But up against the steeple reared,

             Became a clock, and still adhered;

             And still its love to household cares

             By a shrill voice at noon declares,

             Warning the cook-maid not to burn

             That roast meat which it cannot turn.

             The groaning chair began to crawl,

             Like a huge snail, along the wall;

             There stuck aloft in public view,

             And with small change, a pulpit grew.

             A bedstead of the antique mode,

             Compact of timber many a load,

             Such as our ancestors did use,

             Was metamorphosed into pews,

             Which still their ancient nature keep

             By lodging folks disposed to sleep."

They have also been in other literary texts such as, Nathaniel Hawthorne repeated story of Baucis and Philemon in "The Miraculous Pitcher", John Dryden's translation of of Ovid's poem and their characters are included in Goethe's Faust, Part II, 

Thanks for reading!