Theme of "Metamorphoses" - All is in Constant - All Things Always Change

BOOK 15 OF METAMORPHOSES - THE WRAP UP

People listened to Pythagoras (a real historical person) great philosopher and teacher, when he explained to them the origins of things. He was also the first person to teach that we should not eat animals - he wanted a return of the Golden Age when people ate just the fruit of the earth; to eat animals is like eating fellow-workers. Pythagoras also taught the mysteries of Apollo; there was no reason to fear death, "Our souls/Are deathless; always, when they leave our bodies,/
They find new dwelling places," also, "All things are always changing,/But nothing dies." Since the Spirit goes to another body, it continues living - we must not kill animals or we become guilty of fratricide. "Nothing is permanent in all the world; All things are fluent;every image forms,/Wandering through change. Time is itself a river/In constant movement."

Pythagoras gives examples of changes from the world itself, mountains and rivers, to animals - such as cocoons to moths, birds hatching from eggs, and so on.

Pythagoras's main teachings - we are all changing, but death is not an end, he says "We are not bodies only,/But winged spirits, with the power to enter/Animal forms. Thus it is wicked to eat animals.

EPILOGUE - Ovid says "Now I have done my work. It will endure,/ I trust.../Beyond Time's hunger...part of me,/The better part, immortal, will be borne/Above the stars;my name will be remembered./ I shall be read, and through all centuries,/I shall be living, always."

OF INTEREST - Pythagoras is believed to have established the "higher soul concept" into Greek consciousness in the form of METEMPSYCHOSIS - the transmigration of the soul.
This was mentioned in class before spring break.

The story of Hippolytus in Book 15 was designed to illustrate the truth of the doctrine of metempsychosis - Hippolytus, the son of Theseus and Hippolyta, rejects his stepmother's advances, she lies and says he tried to seduce her, Theseus believes her, asks Neptune to punish Hippolytus - he drowns - Paeon, the son of Apollo restores him to life - Diana transforms him -his rebirth - Diana places him in her sacred grove and changes his name to Virbius.

The cult of Virbius has survived into modern times - it was written about in "The Golden Bough," Sir James Frazer's book on mythology.