Based on: Katarzyna Marciniak, Elżbieta Olechowska, Joanna Kłos, Michał Kucharski (eds.), Polish Literature for Children & Young Adults Inspired by Classical Antiquity: A Catalogue (accessed: June 11, 2021), Faculty of “Artes Liberales”, Warsaw: University of Warsaw, 2013, 444 pp.

Zeus and Hera are about to marry; Hermes is ordered to invite gods, animals and people from all over the world for the wedding. During his journey, Hermes also finds the tiny hut of a nymph named Chelone. She declines Zeus’ invitation because she prefers to remain in her own home. Hermes tells Zeus about the nymph’s refusal. The angry Zeus sends Hermes again and tells him to transform Chelone into a turtle, should she refuse again. She obstinately declines and is transformed into a turtle, as Zeus decreed. The poem is illustrated with black and white images that children can colour.

This poem, like many other works by Franciszek Kobryńczuk, a specialist in zoology, focuses particularly on the relationship of the Greek gods (and other beings, such as nymphs) to the natural world. This is particularly evident in the many enumerations and comparisons used by the author: the gods live “in the mountains, forests, rivers, and lakes,”* Zeus and Hera’s wedding is to be attended by “owls, ravens and eagle-owls, roe deers, foxes, moles, hedgehogs, martens, wolves, raccoons, snakes, frogs, bats,” there are “violets, cornflowers, wild lilies” growing around Chelone’s household, and Hermes is quick as a bird. The writer’s interest in the natural world harmonizes perfectly with the main theme of this retelling: the transformation of a nymph into an animal, a turtle. In this way, the story of metamorphosis is encased in a natural environment, which may encourage one to read the work in an ecocritical optic – as a poem that speaks as much about a mythological transformation as nature, and how it is subject to constant change. All the more so, since the poem finishes, in keeping with the ancient explanation of natural phenomena by reference to supernatural ones, “Many of the characters of yesteryear are now embodied in animals.”

* All quotations translated by Maciej Skowera.

Entry: “Chelone (Khelone)” on theoi.com (accessed September 13, 2022).

Nosek, Anna, W przestrzeniach universum i regio. Wiersze dla dzieci współczesnych pisarzy regionu podlaskiego – interpretacje [In the Spaces of universum and regio: Poems for Children by Contemporary Writers of the Podlasie Region – Interpretations], Białystok: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu w Białymstoku, 2015.

In Ancient Greek, χελώνη [khelṓnē] means ‘turtle,’ ‘tortoise,’ which is used in taxonomical nomenclature for both plants (e.g., the genus Chelone) and animals (e.g., the genus Chelonia within the family Cheloniidae).