# Tereus — Metamorphoses character guide

> Tereus in Metamorphoses by Ovid.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** O Tereus

**First appearance:** 0062-peasants-of-lycia-transformed-to-frogs

## Snapshot

A Thracian king who marries an Athenian princess, then betrays her with an act of violence that turns his own household into a hunting ground.

## Who they are

Tereus enters the poem as a favored ally, the husband Procne's father trusts enough to send his second daughter across the sea with. What he does to Philomela in a Thracian cabin — and then hides by mutilation and a lie — makes him the poem's clearest portrait of a man who mistakes possession for love. His fate, when Procne and Philomela finally reach him, is one of Ovid's most savage, and it lands because the poem has already shown us exactly what he deserves.

## Relationships

### [Philomela](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/metamorphoses_se/characters/philomela)

_rivalry_

Tereus rapes Philomela and cuts out her tongue, making her his victim and enemy.

### [Philomela](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/metamorphoses_se/characters/philomela)

_rivalry_

Tereus rapes Philomela and cuts out her tongue, making her his victim and enemy.

### [Philomela](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/metamorphoses_se/characters/philomela)

_rivalry_

Tereus rapes Philomela and cuts out her tongue, making her his victim and enemy.

## In the story

### [Book VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/metamorphoses_se/chapters/book-vi)

The Thracian king who rapes Philomela, cuts out her tongue, and is later tricked into eating his own son.

### [Story of Tereus, Procne, and Philomela](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/metamorphoses_se/chapters/story-of-tereus-procne-and-philomela)

King of Thrace, rapes Philomela and is served his son Itys as revenge.

### [Boreas in Love](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/metamorphoses_se/chapters/boreas-in-love)

Thracian neighbor of Erechtheus, a reason for Orithyia's rejection of Boreas.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/metamorphoses_se/characters/tereus
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/metamorphoses_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/metamorphoses_se/characters