94 pages 3 hours read

Ovid

Metamorphoses

Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Adult | Published in 8

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Book 15

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Book 15 Summary: “Numa and the Foundations of Crotona”

A later king named Numa turns his interest to natural science, visiting the city of Crotona. Hercules helped Crotona develop by arranging for the Greek man Myscelus, forced out of his own home, to travel there and build a city.

Book 15 Summary: “The Doctrines of Pythagoras”

In Crotona lives a Samian philosopher named Pythagoras who promotes vegetarianism. He wants people to eat like they did in the Golden Age and associates meat with violence, saying, “Never by slaughter dispossess / souls that are kin and nourish blood with blood! (357). Pythagoras also teaches that all the universe is in constant flux, like the seasons and the earth’s natural features and the rise and fall of cities.

Book 15 Summary: “The Death of Numa”

When Numa dies, his wife, the nymph Egeria, mourns him. Theseus’ son Hippolytus finds her and tries to cheer her up by telling her the story of his tragic life.