Themes
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
Nestor tells his story: Caenis is a beautiful girl who is pursued by many suitors. Caenis refuses her suitors, but one day she is walking on a deserted beach when (according to Rumour) Neptune rapes her. Triumphant, Neptune promises Caenis whatever she wants. Caenis says that Neptune has wronged her and asks that he change her into a man so that men will never take advantage of her again. Neptune changes Caenis into a man, and furthermore makes Caenis invulnerable to sword-wounds.
Caenis wants—as a kind of reparation for being raped—to be in a position where she’ll never be raped again. She asks to be turned into a male, suggesting that no matter what women do, simply by virtue of being a woman they are under the constant threat of rape. Therefore, Caenis believes that the only thing that will protect her from rape is not being a woman anymore.
Themes
