Daughter of the Thessalian king Erysichthon, who inherited Proteus' power to change her form — Ovid makes her wife of deft Autolycus — and whom her starving father sold again and again as slave, mare, and fish until she escaped each time in a new shape.1
When Erysichthon's hunger had devoured his wealth, creditors closed on the king and he sold his daughter to buy food. Mestra had inherited Proteus' power to change form — Ovid calls her the wife of deft Autolycus — and each time she was sold she slipped her bonds as bull, stone, tree, stream, or fire, returning to her father until her price fed his maw again.2
The metamorphosis is hers to command, not a punishment from the gods: while her father was consumed from within by Ceres' curse, Mestra survived by Protean shifts — the daughter's changing body set against the father's unchanging void.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