Philemon

Philemon was an old man of Phrygia who, together with his wife Baucis, was the only person to welcome Zeus and Hermes when they came to earth disguised as mortals. For this the gods spared the couple when the rest of the neighbourhood was drowned, made them keepers of their temple, and granted Philemon’s wish that he and Baucis should die at the same moment. The story is told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Metamorphoses 8.611–724), where Ovid uses the Roman names Jupiter and Mercury.

The Story of Philemon

The Visit of the Gods

In Ovid the story is told by Lelex, who says that Pittheus sent him to that country, where he saw the place himself and heard the story from the old people there. In the hills of Phrygia stands an oak next to a linden tree, enclosed by a low wall. Not far off lies a pool, once inhabitable land, now home to diving birds and coots. Zeus, in mortal form, came there with Hermes, who had laid aside his wings, and they went to a thousand houses looking for a place to rest. A thousand houses barred their doors against them (Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.618–629).

Only one house received them, a small cottage thatched with straw and marsh reed, where the pious Baucis and Philemon, of the same age, had married in youth and grown old. They did not hide their poverty, and bore it lightly; there was no master and servant, since the two of them were the whole household (Metamorphoses 8.630–636).

The Meal

Philemon gave the visitors a seat, over which Baucis threw a rough cloth. She raked up the warm ashes, revived the fire, and put on a small pot; her husband brought cabbage from the garden, and she took a small piece from an old side of pork hanging from the blackened beam and boiled it. While the food cooked they passed the time in conversation. They made up a couch of river sedge on a willow frame and covered it with a cloth they used only on feast days (Metamorphoses 8.637–659).

Baucis, with her skirts tucked up and trembling, set the table, steadying one uneven leg with a potsherd and wiping the top with mint. The meal was simple: olives, preserved cornel cherries, endive, radish, curd cheese and eggs cooked in warm ashes, all served in earthenware, followed by a mixing bowl and beechwood cups lined inside with yellow wax, and then nuts, figs, dates, plums, apples, grapes and honeycomb. Over all lay the hosts’ good will (Metamorphoses 8.660–678).

The Gods Revealed

As they ate, the old couple saw that the mixing bowl, though emptied many times, filled itself again with wine. Amazed and frightened, they raised their hands in prayer and asked forgiveness for the poor meal. They had one goose, the guardian of their small farm, which they now prepared to kill for their divine guests. The goose, quick on its wings, tired out the slow old pair and at last fled to the gods themselves for refuge. The gods forbade the killing and said who they were, adding that the impious neighbourhood would pay the penalty it deserved, while the couple would be spared (Metamorphoses 8.679–691).

The Reward of Philemon

The gods told Philemon and Baucis to leave their house and climb the mountain with them. Leaning on their staffs, they climbed the long slope, and when they were a bowshot from the top they turned and saw the whole country sunk in marsh, with only their own house still standing. While they wept for their neighbours, the old cottage became a temple: forked props turned into columns, the thatch became golden, the doors were carved, and the ground was covered with marble (Metamorphoses 8.692–702). The land was drowned in marsh water, the pool that Lelex still saw there; Ovid does not name the town (Metamorphoses 8.624–625, 8.696–697).

Zeus then asked the just old man and his equally just wife what they wished for. After a few words with Baucis, Philemon spoke for both of them: they asked to be priests and guardians of the gods’ shrine, and, since they had spent their years in harmony, to be taken by the same hour, so that he would never see his wife’s grave or be buried by her (Metamorphoses 8.703–710).

The Two Trees

The wish was granted. The two kept the temple as long as they lived. When they were worn out with age and were standing before the sacred steps telling the story of the place, Baucis saw leaves growing on Philemon, and Philemon saw leaves growing on Baucis. As the treetops closed over their faces they said goodbye to each other as long as they could, and the bark covered their mouths together. Lelex says a local from Thynia still points out the two trunks growing from one body, and that he himself saw garlands hanging on the branches (Metamorphoses 8.711–724). Ovid does not say which of the two became the oak and which the linden; he names an oak and a linden standing together at the start of the tale (Metamorphoses 8.620–621).

Philemon Sources

The story of Philemon and Baucis is told in Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.611–724. Lelex tells it in answer to a sceptic who doubted that the gods can change the shapes of things (8.611–619).

See Also: Baucis, Zeus, Hermes, Pittheus