Baucis

Baucis - a mythical Phrygian peasant who, along with her husband, Filemon, is a symbol of piety and of everlasting conjugal love.

She and her husband were the only ones to receive the hospitality of Zeus and Hermes as they descended from Mount Olympus pretending poor pilgrims to see if the people had sacred rights over others. After sunset, however, the door closed to strangers seeking shelter and accommodation. Only a couple of poor peasants accepted them and fed them with modest food. But when they both realized during the meal that the food was coming instead of falling, they knew that they were visiting the deity, and that they planned to fold their only goose for the sacrifice. Zeus graciously prevented them, in return bestowed on many good things as the models of human piety he appreciated.

Soon the gods drowned the inhospitable land of the Frydmen, and the inhabitants turned into frogs, saving only the spouses and their household. Filemon and Baucis lived to age the priesthood in their hut converted into a temple, and upon death they were transformed into their two trunks (or boughs) upon their own request - so that one would not look at the other's death. The people of Phrygia worshiped these trees ritually waving them with wreaths.

In European culture, this story was circulated by Owidius, passing it in the Latin version of his Transfiguration (VIII, 616-715). The subject of the gods in the hut of the old people was repeatedly taken up by various artists (Rubens, Rembrandt) in European painting. Bibliography

wiki