Unsuccessful in his search and forbidden by his father to return home empty-handed, Cadmus heads into voluntary exile. At the behest of his father Agenor, Cadmus attempts to track down his sister Europa, whom Jupiter had carried off at the end of Book 2 - a veritable mission impossible. The first protagonist of the book is the Phoenician prince Cadmus, whose appearance is a carry-over from the concluding rape/abduction tale of the previous book.
With the beginning of Book 3, Ovid’s literary universe takes on a darker complexion. All cry out for a feminist critique, even if - or, better, because - the narrative tone remains fairly light throughout.
The first two books, for instance, have attracted the label ‘Divine Comedy’: they feature various sexual adventures of the Olympian gods - mostly rapes of mortal women. While some themes can be encountered virtually anywhere in the Metamorphoses, others cluster in certain parts and generate a distinctive narrative ethos.
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