Baucis and Philemon. In a hut in Phrygia there were once a husband and wife who loved each other. Their names were Philemon and Baucis . Jupiter and Mercury were travelling through the world dressed as pilgrims and arrived in the couple’s region; it was late, and the gods would have spent the night exposed to the ravages of the cold air if Philemon and Baucis had not been more humane than the other inhabitants. Jupiter, touched by the piety of Philemon and Baucis , and annoyed by the harshness of their neighbours, led the couple to the summit of a mountain, from where they saw all the country submerged, with the exception of their hut, which was turned into a temple. Jupiter ordered them to make a wish, and swore it would come true at once. We would like , said Philemon and Baucis , to serve the gods in this temple, always to love each other, and to die at the same time. Such wishes richly deserve to be heard, and so they were. Philemon and Baucis long served the gods in the temple; they loved each other into an advanced old age, and one day while they were talking to each other at the door of their temple, they were transformed into a tree. La Fontaine, Prior, and Jonathan Swift have all turned this fable into verse. La Fontaine celebrated Philemon and Baucis , in a simple and naïve style, and changed hardly anything in the story. Prior and Swift both composed burlesque and satirical poems; La Fontaine’s aim was to show that piety towards the gods is always rewarded; Prior, that we were not wise enough to make good wishes; and Swift, that there are perhaps more disadvantages in changing a hut into a temple than a temple into a hut. How instructive this fable is! Conjugal love, peace, and happiness that have taken refuge in a hut; the sensitivity that the poor and unfortunate only find among the humble; the hut changed into a temple because the couple rendered the purest worship to the gods through their union; the simplicity of their wishes, which shows that happiness is to be found in the middle way and in anonymity, and how irrational mankind is to seek it so far from themselves.