Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis

Legends which told of the transformation of men and women, heroes and nymphs, into animals, stars, plants, fountains and rocks, were widespread and of deep significance for people in the classical world. This collection of forty-one Greek myths and legends by Antoninus Liberalis, here translated into English for the first time, is a unique source of such tales. The manner of the narrative, laconic as well as picturesque, adds relish to their oddity. The variant of the story of Cephalus and Procris where the heroine practices sex therapy on King Minos, the transformation of the arrogant musician Cerambus into a champing beetle, the change of Hylas into an echo that rang through real communities and landscapes for over a millenium, the numerous consequences of rape, incest, mockery, or heedlessness: all these offer food for psychological speculation as well for as narrative pleasure. Many of the tales would have startled Freud or puzzled Jung. The commentary, which is fuller than that usually supplied with most translations, furnishes parallels and explanatory materials to help those who wish to follow a tale through its numerous contexts and ramifications.