Book 13 features monologues from heroes like Ulysses and Ajax, from queens and nymphs like Galatea, and monsters, like Polyphemus. All in all, this book is a potent reminder that human speech has been the primary vehicle driving the action in the Metamorphoses. Polyphemus is an especially interesting case because instead of appearing as a monstrous, shadowy presence on the edge of the world, eating Greeks and bashing ships, he has his own real character, expressed through his (somewhat, possibly) charming song attempting to win the heart of Galatea. While still obviously lacking the rhetorical polish of Ulysses, there can be no doubt his speech has its own unassuming, sincere charm. All of this makes us ask about the place and power of speech in the world of Ovid. How much power does speech have to transform the world? How much power does slippery rhetoric, and even straightforward lying, have to influence our perspective? If we assume speech has significant power, which it seems that Ovid does, do the poets wield that power for good or evil? What do those terms even mean in this universe of constant, churning transformation?