"The Story of Tereus, Procne, and Philomela"

This is one of the most gruesome tales in the Metamorphoses. Tereus, king of Thrace, sent an army to help Pandion, king of Athens, win a war. Because Tereus was the son of Mars (Ares, Greek god of war and only son of Zeus and Hera) and was very wealthy, Pandion "made him a son as well as ally" by having his daughter Procne marry him. Ovid gives foreshadowing: None of the gods attended or blessed the marriage and the Furies "brandished torches/ Snatched from a funeral." Above the bridal chamber "Brooded the evil hoot-owl."

After five years, Procne misses and wants to see her sister, Philomela, so Tereus journeys to Athens to bring her back. As soon as Tereus sees Philomela he "took fire, as ripe grain burns, or dry leaves burn....He was a passionate man, and all the Tracians/ Are all too quick at loving; a double fire/ Burnt in him, his own passion and his nations." (I assume Ovid is offering this an excuse.) After they land, Tereus "dragged her with him/ To the deep woods, to some ramshackle building/ Dark in that darkness" and rapes her repeatedly.

Philomela feels guilty: "I am/ My sister's rival" and says she will tell everyone what Tereus has done. He pulls out his sword and she welcomes the thought of death. However, instead of killing her he cuts out her tongue. "The mangled root/ Quivered, the severed tongue along the ground/ Lay quivering, making a little murmur/ Jerking and twitching, the way a serpent does/ Run over by a wheel, and with its dying movement/ Came to its mistress' feet." Tereus leaves her there and goes home to Procne and weeps saying that Philomela is dead.

Unlike the other stories that include loss of speech, Philomela finds a solution. After a year she weaves a tapestry telling her story and has the tapestry taken to Procne who sees it and understands. She brings Philomela back to the palace and takes her in her arms. "But Philomela could not/ So much as lift her eyes to face her sister,/ Her sister, whom she knew she had wronged." Procne tells her that it isn't the time to cry. She wants revenge: "To burn the palace, and into the flaming ruin/ Hurl Tereus, the author of our evils./ I would cut out his tongue, his eyes, cut off/ The parts which brought you shame, inflict a thousand/ Wounds on his guilty soul." (The original castrating female--the woman scorned.)

At that moment her young son, Itys, comes in and Procne thinks, "How like his father he is."  She stabs him to death and the sisters cut up his body and "this was the feast they served to Tereus." When he asks to have his son brought in, Procne tells him that his son is already there. Philomela "with hair all bloody,/ Springs at him, and hurls the bloody head of Itys/ Full in his father's face." (A painting by Rubens, Tereus Confronted by the Head of His Son Itylus, depicts this scene dramatically. http://www.paintingall.com/peter-paul-rubens-tereus-confronted-with-the-head-of-his-son-itylus.html.) Tereus wishes he could "open up his belly,/ Eject the terrible feast: all he can do/ Is weep, call himslf the pitiful resting-place/ Of his dear son."  He draws his sword and the two sisters run away. The metamorphosis then takes place with all three turning into birds.

Ovid does not actually say which birds the sisters become. He has one flying into the woods--where nightingales dwell. Since "Philomel" is from the Greek words meaning love of song, in literature Philomela is the nightingale. The other sister/bird flies under the cover of a roof--where the swallow builds its nest. Thus, Procne changes into a swallow. ( Some stories switch these identities.) For Tereus "a stiff crest rises/ Upon his head, and a huge beak juts forward,/ Not too unlike a sword. He is the hoopoe,/ The bird who looks like war."

Has justice been served?