The earliest known story in the Western canon to end with the suicide of frustrated lovers, it was the precursor to Romeo and Juliet, and extensively depicted.
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Pentheus pours scorn on the cult of the new god Bacchus, son of Semele. When interrupts revels, he is torn apart by his own mother and aunts, as foretold by Tiresias.
Linked stories of Tiresias, the trans-gender soothsayer, Narcissus who fell in love with himself, and Echo who could only repeat what others said.
The Lycians turned into frogs when they refused the goddess Latona a drink of water, and the sorceress Medea accompanied by toads.
One of Ovid’s weirdest tales, in which Juno convinces the pregnant Semele to demand her lover Jupiter reveals himself, resulting in her death, caesarian section and his surrogate pregnancy.
The grandson of the founder of Thebes happens into Diana’s sacred wood when out hunting, and sees the goddess naked. She changes him into a stag, with fatal consequences.
The primary attribute of Iris, with the soothing song of Amphitrite, bearing the Norse deities to Valhalla, the sign of God’s covenant after the Flood, and at the Last Judgement.
Europa’s brother Cadmus is told to found a new city wherever a cow leads him. After killing a man-eating dragon, he sows its teeth in the soil.
The most prominent in paintings, Pandora’s box was really a jar, and didn’t become a popular theme until the late 19th century.
Left as a cliffhanger ending to Book 2, Jupiter assumes the form of a white bull, and lures Europa to sit astride his back before whisking her away across the sea.
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