Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Caunus.
The gallery
Biblis
William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1884
Bouguereau's Byblis — the twin whose letters drive Caunus from Miletus into exile; Ovid's brother who refuses the unlawful love and founds a Carian city.
Byblis Turning into a Spring
Jean-Jacques Henner, c. 1870–1880
Henner's metamorphosis of the abandoned sister — Caunus already fled east while Byblis melts into the spring that bears her name.
Biblis Changed into a Spring
Armand Point, c. 1890–1900
Point's Symbolist Byblis — the aftermath of Caunus' refusal, the Milesian twin tale as fin-de-siècle myth.
In play
Caunos (mythology)
Twin son of Miletus and Cyane who flees Byblis' incestuous love and founds Caunus in Caria — not the Carian city alone as archaeology.
Byblis
Caunus' twin sister — Ovid's letter-writer who wastes into a spring after he rejects her.
Metamorphoses (Byblis and Caunus)
Ovid
Ovid Met. 9: Byblis' letters, Caunus' flight, the spring — the Milesian twins as a warning against unlawful desire.