Proud maiden of Teucer blood on Cyprus who mocked Iphis' love and was turned to stone when forced to watch his funeral — the warning tale Vertumnus told Pomona in Ovid's Metamorphoses.1
Anaxarete, born of the ancient stock of Teucer, scorned the humble Iphis who loved her and refused every gift and plea. When he hanged himself before her door, she looked from her window at the procession without pity — until the gods hardened her into stone from feet to face, a monument to cruelty still shown in Salamis.2
Vertumnus, in the guise of an old woman, recounted her fate to Pomona on the Palatine to teach the orchard nymph that hearts shut against love may end in metamorphosis worse than yielding — persuasion by example before the god dropped his mask and won his bride.3
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story