Jupiter and Mercury in the house of Philemon and Baucis, Adam Elsheimer, c1608, Dresden.

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. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2024x1522, 446 KB) Description: Title: de: Philemon und Baucis Technique: de: Öl auf Holz Dimensions: Country of origin: de: Deutschland und Italien Current location (city): de: Dresden Current location (gallery): de: Gemäldegalerie Other notes: Source: The Yorck Project: DVD-ROM... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (2024x1522, 446 KB) Description: Title: de: Philemon und Baucis Technique: de: Öl auf Holz Dimensions: Country of origin: de: Deutschland und Italien Current location (city): de: Dresden Current location (gallery): de: Gemäldegalerie Other notes: Source: The Yorck Project: DVD-ROM... Adam Elsheimer (b. ... Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC – Tomis, now Constanţa AD 17), a Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women and mythological transformations. ... // Cover of George Sandyss 1632 edition of Ovids Metamorphosis Englished The Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid is a poem in fifteen books that describes the creation and history of the world in terms according to Greek and Roman points of view. ... The bust of Zeus found at Otricoli (Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican) Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and their own cult and ritual practices. ... Tyana was an ancient city of Anatolia, in modern south-eastern Turkey. ... Location of Phrygia - traditional region (yellow) - expanded kingdom (orange line) In antiquity, Phrygia (Greek: ) was a kingdom in the west central part of the Anatolian Highland, part of modern Turkey. ... The Statue of Zeus at Olympia Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in Ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th century engraving Zeus (in Greek: nominative: Zeús, genitive: Diós), is... Hermes bearing the infant Dionysus, by Praxiteles, found at the Heraion, Olympia, 1877 Hermes (Greek, , IPA: ), in Greek mythology, is the Olympian god of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures... This article is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ...

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 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. The Statue of Zeus at Olympia Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in Ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th century engraving Zeus (in Greek: nominative: Zeús, genitive: Diós), is... Hermes bearing the infant Dionysus, by Praxiteles, found at the Heraion, Olympia, 1877 Hermes (Greek, , IPA: ), in Greek mythology, is the Olympian god of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures...

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. Temple of Hephaestus, an Doric Greek temple in Athens with the original entrance facing east, 449 BC (western face depicted) For other uses, see Temple (disambiguation). ... Species See List of Quercus species The term oak can be used as part of the common name of any of several hundred species of trees and shrubs in the genus Quercus, and some related genera, notably Cyclobalanopsis and Lithocarpus. ... Species About 30; see text A lime-lined avenue in Alexandra Park, London Tilia leaf Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees, native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere, in Asia (where the greatest species diversity is found), Europe and eastern North America; it is absent...

Baucis and Philemon do not appear elsewhere in Greek myth, nor anywhere in cult. In traditional usage, the cult of a religion, quite apart from its sacred writings (scriptures), its theology or myths, or the personal faith of its believers, is the totality of external religious practice and observance, the neglect of which is the definition of impiety. ...

Mentioned as characters in Goethe's Faust Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (pronounced [gø tə]) (August 28, 1749 – March 22, 1832) was a German writer, politician, humanist, scientist, and philosopher. ... Faust depicted in an etching by Rembrandt van Rijn (circa 1650) Faust or Faustus (pronounced with the same au sound as in house) is the protagonist of a popular German legend in which a mediæval scholar makes a pact with the Devil. ...

See also

• Darby and Joan

Royal Doulton figurines of Darby and Joan The term Darby and Joan is defined by the Random House Dictionary as a happily married couple who lead a placid, uneventful life. ...

References

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Philemon and Baucis

• 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)