Apollo and Daphne by Antonio Pollaiuolo (1429? - 1498)

Apollo and Daphne by Antonio Pollaiuolo, one tale of transformation in Ovid's "Metamorphoses"— Apollo lusts after her and she escapes him by turning into a bay laurel. The importance of Ovid's narratives is that they provide metaphors for mental states: Daphne freezes up under sexual threat. Alternatively, the poet only pursues his mistress in order to generate poetry which will win him the laurel wreath of fame. Shakespeare alludes to this episode in Ovid's Metamorphoses in The Taming of the Shrew in the Induction Scene 2 when Servants tempt Sly:


SECOND SERVANT.
Dost thou love pictures? We will fetch thee straight
Adonis painted by a running brook,
And Cytherea all in sedges hid,
Which seem to move and wanton with her breath
Even as the waving sedges play with wind.

LORD.
We'll show thee Io as she was a maid
And how she was beguiled and surpris'd,
As lively painted as the deed was done.

THIRD SERVANT.
Or Daphne roaming through a thorny wood,
Scratching her legs, that one shall swear she bleeds
And at that sight shall sad Apollo weep,
So workmanly the blood and tears are drawn.

Picture and data courtesy of the Yorck Project, under Creative Commons Attribution-Share- Alike License (Wikipedia)