Picus

Role: king of Ausonia · First appears: Fable 107

Life events

Picus refuses Circe’s proposal, declaring his fidelity to Canens.(Fable107)
- With: Circe Canens
- “He roughly repels her and her entreaties: and he says, ‘Whoever thou art, I am not for thee; another female holds me enthralled, and for a long space of time, I pray, may she so hold me. I will not pollute the conjugal ties with the love of a stranger, while the Fates shall preserve for me Canens, the daughter of Janus.’”
Circe transforms Picus into a woodpecker after he rejects her.(Fable107 · 📍 Latian woods)
- With: Circe
- “He fled; wondering that he sped more swiftly than usual, he beheld wings on his body; and indignant that he was added suddenly as a strange bird to the Latian woods, he struck the wild oaks with his hard beak, and, in his anger, inflicted wounds[35] on the long branches.”

parent: Saturn “Picus, the son of Saturn, was a king in the regions of Ausonia”
married with Canens “I will not pollute the conjugal ties with the love of a stranger, while the Fates shall preserve for me Canens, the daughter of Janus.”
admirer: Circe “O, most beauteous {youth}! by thy eyes, which have captivated mine, and by this graceful person, which makes me, though a Goddess, to be thy suppliant, favour my passion, and receive the Sun, that beholds all things, as thy father-in-law, and do not in thy cruelty despise Circe, the daughter of Titan.”
with Circe (Circe transforms Picus into a woodpecker.) “Then twice did she turn herself to the West, and twice to the East; thrice did she touch the youth with her wand; three charms did she repeat. He fled; wondering that he sped more swiftly than usual, he beheld wings on his body;”

Extracted from the original text of The Metamorphoses of Ovid. Made with Rho MD.