Theseus and Achelous

The immediate story before "Theseus and Achelous" is "The Brand of Meleager." It's the tale of Meleager's mother Althaea, who, after her son's victory in a boar hunting competition, goes to a temple to pray and celebrate. However, upon seeing her brother's dead body being brought in, she experiences a breakdown. When Meleager was born, prophets predicted that he would only live as long as a log burned. Althaea grabbed the log, extinguished it, and stored it in a safe place. Later, when she discovered that Meleager had killed his uncle during the competition, she was torn between rage and disappointment. She grabbed the log and prepared to burn it but waited, racked with guilt, between killing her son in revenge for her brother or saving him and caring for him. In the end, she burns the log but kills herself with a dagger to the heart.

This leads to the story of "Theseus and Achelous." It's a tale of the hero Theseus returning to Athens, and approaching a flooded river. The god of the river, Achelous, offers Theseus shelter in his home to wait out the flood. While Theseus is there, he talks to Achelous about a group of islands far out into the ocean, and Achelous tells him the story of the islands. He talks about the Naiads, who once held a sacrifice for the local gods, but Achelous was left out, so he was enraged. Consumed with anger, he flooded the area, sweeping the Naiads to the sea with the help of the rivers, and dividing the Naiads into five islands. Behind those islands, there was a special island called Perimele, who was the daughter of Hippodamus, a king. He was angry when Achelous and Perimele fell in love, so he pushed Perimele off a cliff. Achelous caught her body and prayed to Neptune to turn her into an island, and he did.

After Achelous's story, one of the other heroes there, Pirithous, said that the gods did not have that much power. However, an older man, Lelex, rebuked him and told him the story of "Baucis and Philemon." In this tale, the couple let the wandering gods in who had been turned away from the whole village. The couple served them dinner, and when the gods revealed themselves, they proclaimed that all the wicked neighbors would burn. They gave the couple one wish, and they wished to die together. The gods showed mercy while granting their wish, turning the couple into trees next to each other.

In terms of the overall arc of the poem, these three stories showcase a progression of tragedy. In "The Brand of Meleager," three people die. In "Theseus and Achelous," five Naiads and Perimele die. In "Baucis and Philemon," the entire village is destroyed, and eventually, the old couple dies. Overall, these stories explore the theme of mortality, the power of the gods, and the consequences of human actions. They also demonstrate the tradition of Greco-Roman mythology and how Ovid drew upon earlier stories to create his own versions with unique twists and turns.