Philemon and Baucis, the oak and the linden of faithfulness

Not all legendary couples are young and tragic. Philemon and Baucis are an elderly married couple who have spent their whole life together in a hut in Phrygia, in Asia Minor. Their story, told by Ovid in the eighth book of the Metamorphoses, is a tribute to married love that lasts through the years, to dignified poverty and to hospitality towards the stranger.

A tale for the sceptics

Ovid sets the myth in a precise frame. During a banquet in the house of the river god Achelous, the young Pirithous mocks the idea that the gods can transform human beings. To convince him, the elderly Lelex tells a story whose places he claims to have seen with his own eyes: two neighbouring trees on the hills of Phrygia, beside a marsh.

Once, he says, Jupiter and his son Mercury came down to earth in human form, as travellers seeking rest. They knocked at a thousand houses and found a thousand doors closed. Only one poor hut, roofed with straw and reeds, welcomed them. There lived Philemon and Baucis, married when young and grown old together without being ashamed of their poverty.

The supper of the poor

Ovid describes the preparations with affection. Baucis revives the fire with dry leaves, Philemon cuts a piece of smoked bacon hanging from the beam, and the two offer olives, radishes, cheese, eggs cooked in the ashes, fruit and honey. The table wobbles, and the old woman levels it with a potsherd. The wine is modest, served in wooden cups.

Soon, however, the two notice a marvel: the mixing bowl, every time they empty it, refills by itself. Frightened, they realise that they are facing gods and want to sacrifice the only goose that guards the house. The bird escapes and takes refuge with the guests themselves, who forbid its killing and at last reveal who they are.

The marsh and the temple

Jupiter announces that the impious land will be punished and invites the two old people to follow him up the mountain. When they turn round, they see the valley drowned in a marsh: only their hut remains, and it is turning into a temple with marble columns and a golden roof. The god asks them what they desire.

Philemon, after consulting his wife, asks that they may be priests and guardians of that temple and that, having lived together, they may die in the same hour, so that neither has to see the other's tomb. The wish is granted. One day, now very old, they notice that they are putting out leaves: Philemon becomes an oak, Baucis a linden, and they have just enough time to say goodbye.

Divine guests

The motif of gods visiting humans in disguise to test their hospitality is very ancient. In Genesis Abraham welcomes three mysterious visitors by the oaks of Mamre, and in the Acts of the Apostles the people of Lystra, in Lycaonia, mistake Paul and Barnabas for Zeus and Hermes. In 1773 Joseph Haydn composed a marionette opera on Philemon and Baucis.

Darker is Goethe's version in the fifth act of the second part of Faust, published in 1832, where the two old people die because of the protagonist's great land-reclamation schemes. The contrast itself brings out the meaning of the ancient myth: a love without riches or adventures, which finds its reward in the simple chance never to be parted.