A butterfly in Platanias, east of Rethymnon in Crete … the most beloved of natural metamorphoses may be the transformation of caterpillars into butterflies (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Patrick Comerford
While we were staying on the Left Bank in Paris last year, my eye was caught by Les Metamorphoses, a shuttered and closed jewellery shop on Rue du Petit Pont, around the corner from the Shakespeare bookshop, forever associated with James Joyce, and across the river from Notre Dame.
Perhaps this shuttered, closed and forgotten shop, covered in spray paint and graffiti, took its name from the French translation of the Metamorphoses, a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by Ovid that is considered his magnum opus.
The trend-setting name sign was designed to be read in its mirror-like, reversed composition. Now it is part of a grey and deserted building, like part of the landscape of a wasteland. Perhaps, after all, it was named after a French translation of Franz Kafka’s novella, The Metamorphosis, first published in German as Die Verwandlung in 1915.
Many events last year marked the 100th anniversary of the death of Franz Kafka on 3 June 1924. Few 20th century writers – apart from, perhaps, James Joyce and TS Eliot – receive as much attention as Kafka. Although he did not live to see his 41st birthday and worked for much of his life as an insurance clerk, Kafka is a giant on the stage of world literature.
The Metamorphosis, one of Kafka’s best-known works, tells of a travelling salesman, Gregor Samsa, who lives ‘in the quiet but completely urban Charlotte Street.’ He could have believed that from his window he was peering out at a featureless wasteland, in which ‘the gray heaven and the gray earth had merged and were indistinguishable.’
One hundred years after the death of Franz Kafka, the University of Oxford celebrated his life and work, with a series of events. The #OxfordKafka24 programme included an exhibition at the Bodleian’s Weston Library, ‘Kafka: Making of Icon’, a public reading of The Metamorphosis in the Sheldonian Theatre, and a new limited-edition imprint of The Metamorphosis from Oxford University Press that was given to every Oxford student and distributed to schools and libraries – I was generously given a copy in Pusey House.
Butterflies on a display at the railway station in Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops, including birth transformation or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal’s body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some insects, jellyfish, fish, amphibians, mollusks, crustaceans, cnidarians, echinoderms and tunicates undergo metamorphosis, which is often accompanied by a change of nutrition source or behaviour.
Natural substances may also metamorphose, or undergo metamorphosis. Heat and pressure over thousands of years may eventually turn tiny organisms into petroleum, and coal into diamonds. The most beloved of natural metamorphoses are probably the transformation of caterpillars into butterflies and of tadpoles into frogs.
The word metamorphosis derives from the Ancient Greek μεταμόρφωσις (metamorphosis, ‘transformation, transforming’), from μετα- (meta-, ‘after’) and μορφή (morphe, ‘form’).
In Middle English, Methamorphoseos is the title of Ovid’s poem or its contents, borrowed from the Latin Metamorphōsēs, as the title of Ovid’s poem, literally, ‘transformations’ (Late Latin metamorphosis ‘transfiguration, change into another form’). This, in turn, was borrowed from the Greek metamórphōsis (from 1st century CE), ‘transformation’, from metamorphō-, a variant stem of metamorphóō, metamorphoûn, ‘to transform’.
Many ancient myths end in a metamorphosis. As Apollo is chasing the nymph Daphne, she calls on her river-god father for help and he turns her into a laurel tree to save her. Out of anger and jealousy, the goddess Athena turns the marvellous weaver Arachne into a spider that will spin only beautiful webs.
The Transfiguration or Metamorphosis depicted in the Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopianó, in the hills above Hersonissos in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024; click on image for full-screen viewing)
In Greek theology, the Transfiguration of Christ is known as the Metamorphosis (Μεταμόρφωσις). In New Testament usage, metamorphoûsthai means to be transfigured. The Transfiguration of Christ is recounted in the Synoptic Gospels (see Matthew 17: 1-8; Mark 9: 2-13; Luke 9: 28-36) and is also referred to in II Peter 1: 16-18. Although Luke and II Peter do not use the word metamorphosis, the form of the word found in Matthew and Mark is μετεμορφώθη.
The other two uses of the Greek verb μεταμορφόω (metamorphoo) are both in the Pauline letters. In II Corinthians 3: 7-18, Saint Paul uses the word μεταμορφούμεθα as he discusses the glory of God’s revelation on Mount Sinai, which made Moses’ face shine. In Romans 12: 2, Paul challenges his readers: ‘Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed [μεταμορφοῦσθε] by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect.’
Charles Wesley takes up Saint Paul’s language of transfiguration in II Corinthians in his hymn ‘Love Divine, All Loves Excelling’:
Finish, then, thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be;
Let us see thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in thee;
Changed from glory into glory
Till in Heav’n we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise!
The Church of the Transfiguration in Piskopianó in the mountains above Hersonissos in Crete was established in 2002, completed in 2008 and dedicated in 2014 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)
The thematic prayer for Transfiguration Sunday (the Sunday before Lent, 2 March 2025) in the Revised Common Lectionary Prayers invites us to pray for a transfiguration of our own:
Holy God, mighty and immortal,
you are beyond our knowing,
yet we see your glory in the face of Jesus Christ,
whose compassion illumines the world.
Transform us into the likeness of the love of Christ,
who renewed our humanity so that we may share in his divinity,
through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Les Metamorphoses in Paris … locked up and abandoned like Gregor Samsa? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Last word: 49, Ἠλεκτρον (Elektron), electric
Next word: 51, xxx
xxx (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Previous words in this series:
1, Neologism, Νεολογισμός.
2, Welcoming the stranger, Φιλοξενία.
3, Bread, Ψωμί.
4, Wine, Οίνος and Κρασί.
5, Yogurt, Γιαούρτι.
6, Orthodoxy, Ορθοδοξία.
7, Sea, Θᾰ́λᾰσσᾰ.
8,Theology, Θεολογία.
9, Icon, Εἰκών.
10, Philosophy, Φιλοσοφία.
11, Chaos, Χάος.
12, Liturgy, Λειτουργία.
13, Greeks, Ἕλληνες or Ρωμαίοι.
14, Mañana, Αύριο.
15, Europe, Εὐρώπη.
16, Architecture, Αρχιτεκτονική.
17, The missing words.
18, Theatre, θέατρον, and Drama, Δρᾶμα.
19, Pharmacy, Φᾰρμᾰκείᾱ.
20, Rhapsody, Ραψῳδός.
21, Holocaust, Ολοκαύτωμα.
22, Hygiene, Υγιεινή.
23, Laconic, Λακωνικός.
24, Telephone, Τηλέφωνο.
25, Asthma, Ασθμα.
26, Synagogue, Συναγωγή.
27, Diaspora, Διασπορά.
28, School, Σχολείο.
29, Muse, Μούσα.
30, Monastery, Μοναστήρι.
31, Olympian, Ολύμπιος.
32, Hypocrite, Υποκριτής.
33, Genocide, Γενοκτονία.
34, Cinema, Κινημα.
35, autopsy and biopsy
36, Exodus, ἔξοδος
37, Bishop, ἐπίσκοπος
38, Socratic, Σωκρατικὸς
39, Odyssey, Ὀδύσσεια
40, Practice, πρᾶξις
41, Idiotic, Ιδιωτικός
42, Pentecost, Πεντηκοστή
43, Apostrophe, ἀποστροφή
44, catastrophe, καταστροφή
45, democracy, δημοκρατία
46, ‘Αρχή, beginning, Τέλος, end
47, ‘Αποκάλυψις, Apocalypse
48, ‘Απόκρυφα, Apocrypha
49, Ἠλεκτρον (Elektron), electric
50, Metamorphosis, Μεταμόρφωσις
A butterfly in the garden in the Rectory in Askeaton, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
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