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Book 11: The Death of Orpheus
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Metamorphoses, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Metamorphosis
Humanity vs. Nature
Love and Destruction
Gods and Humans
Time, Fate, and Poetry
Summary
Analysis
Bacchus is angry that the women killed Orpheus and decides to punish them. He twists tree roots around their bodies and embeds their toes in the soil. Bark encloses their bodies, and they transform into trees.
The angry women resemble Agave and the other women who participated in Bacchic rites and punished anyone who abstained, but Bacchus hypocritically punishes the women who kill Orpheus.
Active
Themes
