In this episode we mainly discuss two complicated love stories: Jason & Medea, and Cephalus & Procris. Both these stories begin with happiness for the lovers, but end with madness, violence, and death. What does this say about the place of love in the Metamorphoses? The overwhelming power of desire is a constant in this poem, but those possessed by desire rarely (never?) come to good ends. There is a sensuousness and a romantic quality to the poetry in the Metamorphoses, but the arcs of the individual characters often involved them being punished, somehow, for their pursuit of their beloveds? Love produced envy and jealousy, even insanity, along with a host of other bad consequences. Yet it also motivates and ennobles human action (and generates poetry). How should we understand this? What does Ovid think about love?