Baucis

Baucis was an old woman of Phrygia who, with her husband Philemon, took in the gods Jupiter and Mercury when every other house refused them. The story is told by the Roman poet Ovid in his Metamorphoses (8.611–724). The couple were saved from the flood that destroyed their neighbours, became priests of a new temple, and at the end of their lives were turned into two trees.

The Story of Baucis and Philemon

The Gods Seek Shelter

In Ovid’s account the story is told by an old man named Lelex, who says that he has seen the place himself: in the Phrygian hills a linden and an oak stand side by side inside a low wall, and not far away is a pool once dry land, now home to diving birds and coots (Metamorphoses 8.620–625). Jupiter came to this country in the form of a mortal, accompanied by his son Mercury, the bearer of the herald’s staff, who had laid aside his wings. They asked for shelter at a thousand houses, and a thousand houses were bolted against them (Metamorphoses 8.626–629). Only one took them in, a small cottage thatched with straw and marsh reeds, where Baucis and Philemon had grown old together. They were poor and bore it lightly; the house had no servants and no masters, since the two of them gave and obeyed all orders (Metamorphoses 8.630–636).

The Meal

Philemon offered the gods a seat, over which Baucis spread a rough cloth (Metamorphoses 8.637–640). She raked the ashes and revived the fire, and the couple prepared a simple meal from what they had. Ovid ends the description of the table by noting that the best thing about it was the goodwill of the hosts (Metamorphoses 8.677–678). While they ate, they saw that the mixing bowl, though drained again and again, filled by itself and the wine rose up from within. Astonished and afraid, they raised their hands in prayer and begged pardon for so humble a meal (Metamorphoses 8.679–683).

They owned a single goose, which guarded the little farm, and they now prepared to kill it for their divine guests. The goose, quicker than the old people, fled to the gods themselves, and the gods forbade them to kill it (Metamorphoses 8.684–688).

The Flood and the Temple

The gods revealed who they were and said that the wicked neighbourhood would pay the penalty, while Baucis and Philemon would be spared. They told the couple to follow them up the mountain, and the two old people climbed the long slope leaning on their sticks (Metamorphoses 8.688–694). When they were an arrow’s flight from the top, they looked back and saw the whole country sunk under a marsh. Only their own cottage remained, and while they wondered and wept for their neighbours, it turned into a temple with columns in place of the forked posts and a golden roof (Metamorphoses 8.695–703).

The Wish and the Trees

Jupiter asked what they wished for. After a brief word with Baucis, Philemon asked that they might be priests and guardians of the temple, and, since they had spent their years in harmony, that the same hour might take them both, so that neither would see the other’s tomb or be buried by the other (Metamorphoses 8.703–710). The wish was granted. They guarded the temple as long as they lived. When they were weak with age, they were standing before the sacred steps and talking of what had happened, when Baucis saw Philemon putting out leaves and Philemon saw Baucis doing the same. As the tops of the trees grew over their faces they said goodbye to each other, and a tree covered both of them at the same moment (Metamorphoses 8.711–720).

Ovid says that people from the neighbouring Thynian country still point out the two trunks growing from a single body, and that Lelex saw garlands hanging on their branches himself, and hung fresh ones with the words “Let those who care for the gods be cared for, and let those who worship them be worshipped” (Metamorphoses 8.719–724).

Hospitality in the Story

The myth is a story about hospitality to strangers, which the Greeks believed Zeus protected; in the Odyssey Eumaeus says that every stranger and beggar comes from Zeus (Odyssey 14.56–58). Baucis and Philemon do what their neighbours do not, and the gods reward the couple and destroy the others.

Baucis Sources

The only full ancient account is in Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.611–724, where the gods are named by their Roman names, Jupiter and Mercury; they correspond to Zeus and Hermes. The Greek belief that strangers and beggars come under the protection of Zeus is expressed in Homer’s Odyssey (14.56–58).

See Also: Philemon, Zeus, Hermes, Eumaeus