After the war, the spirit of Achilles forces Agamemnon to sacrifice Polyxena, the daughter of Queen Hecuba and King Priam of Troy. As for the translation as a whole, the main thing it's got going for it is clarity. The lonely Orpheus then sings some sad tales, including the story of Jove’s theft of Ganymede (who had originally been a beautiful statue sculpted by Pygmalion, transformed into a real woman by Jove’s wife, Juno, to be her cup-bearer); the tale of the death of Apollo’s lover, Hyacinthus, who was accidentally killed by a discus thrown by Apollo (Apollo created a flower, the hyacinth, from his spilled blood); and the story of of Myrrha, who slept with her own father until he discovered her identity after which she was forced to flee, pregnant (out of pity, the gods turned her into a myrrh tree, and her baby, which tumbled from a split in the tree, grew up to be the beautiful Adonis, with whom Venus falls in love). Europa’s brothers go in search of her, but cannot discover her whereabouts. 1. The Metamorphoses was the greatest source of these narratives, such that the term "Ovidian" in this context is synonymous for mythological, in spite of some frequently represented myths not being found in the work. Later, Hecuba kills King Polymestor of Thrace, in a rage over the death of her other son, Polydorus, and when Polymestor’s followers try to punish her, she is transformed by the gods into a dog. One of the brothers, Cadmus, founds a new city (later to be known as Thebes), and miraculously creates a new people by sewing the ground with the teeth of a serpent or dragon he had killed. Medea flees to escape punishment but, when she returns to Jason, she discovers that he has a new wife, Glauce. So easy to read that one may have to think twice to realize these tales are nearly 2000 years old. [46][47] Many of the stories from the Metamorphoses have been the subject of paintings and sculptures, particularly during this period. [69] The result of several centuries of critical reading is that the poet's meaning is firmly established on the basis of the manuscript tradition or restored by conjecture where the tradition is deficient. The story of Ceyx and Alcyone (from Book IX) is adapted by Chaucer in his poem The Book of the Duchess, written to commemorate the death of Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster and wife of John of Gaunt. Ovid‘s representations of love and its power to damage lives and societies may be seen as support for Augustus’ reforms, although the constant suggestion of the futility of controlling erotic impulses may also be seen as a criticism of Augustus’ attempt to regulate love. “Metamorphoses” is often called a mock-epic, as it is written in dactylic hexameter (the form of the great epic poems of the ancient tradition, such as “The Iliad”, “The Odyssey” and “The Aeneid”), unlike Ovid‘s other works. Minos, however, is disgusted with her act and rejects her. Scholar Stephen M. Wheeler notes that "metamorphosis, mutability, love, violence, artistry, and power are just some of the unifying themes that critics have proposed over the years".[23]. [58] A series of works inspired by Ovid's book through the tragedy of Diana and Actaeon have been produced by French-based collective LFKs and his film/theatre director, writer and visual artist Jean-Michel Bruyere, including the interactive 360° audiovisual installation Si poteris narrare, licet ("if you are able to speak of it, then you may do so") in 2002, 600 shorts and "medium" film from which 22,000 sequences have been used in the 3D 360° audiovisual installation La Dispersion du Fils[59] from 2008 to 2016 as well as an outdoor performance, "Une Brutalité pastorale" (2000).