Metamorphoses: Book 7: Cephalus and Procris Summary & Analysis

After King Aeacus tells the stories of the plague and the Myrmidons, he and Cephalus sit down to a feast. The next morning, strong winds prevent Cephalus and his companions from going back to Athens. They go to find King Aeacus again and run into Phocus, one of King Aeacus’s sons. Phocus leads the Athenians to a courtyard where they sit down to talk. Phocus notices that Cephalus is carrying a beautiful wooden spear with a gold point. He asks Cephalus where he got such a beautiful spear. Cephalus explains that the spear never misses its target, and magically returns to its thrower after it strikes its target.

Cephalus tells Phocus the story of the spear. A while ago, Cephalus married Procris, the sister of Orithyia. Procris was beautiful, and Cephalus was very happy with her. A month after their wedding, Cephalus is out hunting when Aurora, the goddess of the dawn, takes him into the sky. Cephalus doesn’t sleep with Aurora and thinks only of Procris. Aurora gets upset and tells Cephalus that he will soon regret marrying Procris. As Cephalus returns home, he thinks of Aurora’s warning and starts to wonder if Procris has been unfaithful to him. He trusts Procris’s character but distrusts her beauty. He decides to test her loyalty.

Sensing Cephalus’s plan, Aurora disguises Cephalus to look like a different man. When Cephalus enters his house, he finds no sign of Procris’s infidelity. When Procris comes up to him, he longs to kiss her and reveal his identity, but he determines to follow through with testing her loyalty. He tries to seduce her, but she maintains that she belongs to her husband who is missing. The disguised Cephalus brings Procris gifts, and at last her resistance fails. Cephalus reveals himself and calls Procris a harlot.

Procris resents Cephalus for his trick and joins Diana’s clan of chaste women. Cephalus is still in love with her and begs her for forgiveness. At last, he wins her back. Procris gifts Cephalus the fastest hunting dog in existence and the beautiful spear with the golden tip.

Cephalus tells what happened to the hunting dog that Procris gave him: one day, a ferocious fox attacks Thebes, causing the citizens to fear for their herds. The men lay traps to catch the fox, but it escapes. The men then beg Cephalus to unleash his dog on the fox. Cephalus agrees and sets his dog loose. The dog chases the fox, repeatedly getting within inches of catching it, but it escapes. Cephalus reaches for his spear. Suddenly, the dog and the fox are turned to marble, neither winning nor losing the race.

Cephalus then tells the story of the spear: Cephalus and Procris are deeply in love and very happy together. In the mornings, Cephalus goes hunting by himself with his gold-tipped spear. When he gets tired, he stops to rest. He longs for a cool breeze and speaks to the wind to bring him pleasure and relieve him. One day, an eavesdropper hears him speaking to the wind and thinks he’s speaking to a nymph he’s having an affair with. The eavesdropper tells Procris that Cephalus is having an affair. Procris is devastated by the news but decides to get proof of Cephalus’s infidelity before she accuses him.

The next morning, when Cephalus finishes his hunt, he asks the wind to delight him as usual. Suddenly, he hears a sound in the trees nearby. Thinking it is a wild animal, he launches his spear. He hears Procris cry. He finds her and clutches her dying body, trying to staunch the wound in her chest. Procris murmurs that she loves Cephalus and asks him not to marry the breeze nymph after she dies. Realizing what had brought her into the woods, Cephalus tells Procris the truth. It is too late, and she dies in his arms.