PHILEMON AND BAUCIS

An old married couple in Phrygia, famed in antiquity for their true love. When Zeus and Harmes were wandering through the country in human form, and found no shelter with the richer inhabitants, the aged pair received them hospitably. The gods therefore while destroying all the rest of the neighbourhood by floods in punishment for the inhospitable treatment they had met with, changed their miserable cottage into a magnificent temple. Here the two hold the priestly office for the rest of their life, and finally, on their prayer that they might not be separated by death, were both at the same moment changed into trees [Ovid, Met. viii 611-724).