Ovid Book 14: Hide your Kids, Hide your Wives, They're Raping Everybody

Ovid closes this book with another story of rape. After thirteen books filled with countless rapes, this theme may seem well-worn. From a structural point of view, however, the placement of this rape is crucial, because it parallels the story of Apollo and Daphne. Ovid’s Metamorphoses begins with an account of the world and ends in Book 15 with another tale of the world. Before both of these tales, Ovid puts a rape scene at the very beginning. He creates a double frame . The larger frame concerns the principles of the world; the smaller frame's importance revolves around the sexual violence of the gods.

This sculpture by the baroque master, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, depicts the rape of Proserpina by Pluto.