Ovid's Metamorphoses is the best classical source for hundreds of myths. Ovid wrote the poem as a continuous epic, but one unified by a central theme rather than a central character. The story begins with the creation of the world and follows a roughly chronological sequence, ending with Augustus on the throne of Ovid's Rome. Ovid finished the poem around 8 AD.
My primary edition is the 2005 Charles Martin translation. I also own the Allen Mandelbaum translation. The Mandelbaum translation is more poetic and accurate; the Martin translation is more readable and immediate.
Wikipedia says: ". . . the recurring theme, as with nearly all of Ovid's work, is that of love—personal love or love personified as Amor (Cupid). Indeed, the other Roman gods are repeatedly perplexed, humiliated, and made ridiculous by Amor, an otherwise relatively minor god of the pantheon who is the closest thing this mock-epic has to an epic hero. Apollo comes in for particular ridicule as Ovid shows how irrational love can confound the god of pure reason. While few individual stories are outright sacrilegious, the work as a whole inverts the accepted order, elevating humans and human passions while making the gods and their desires and conquests objects of low humor."
Ovid acknowledges and begs inspiration from the gods. The poem is about "forms changed/ into new bodies." Ovid calls his poem an epic.
A creation story. Similarities to Genesis are striking. A god creates the land, sea, et cetera from chaos. Man and society changes from an Edenic golden age to a wicked and bloody iron age. The giants stacked mountain on mountain in an attempt to storm Olympus, and were laid low by Zeus (shades of Tower of Babel).
Being about change, transitions are important. The transition after the giants scene: Zeus was reminded of another event that angered him. That other event is Lycaon's feast. Zeus calls a meeting of the gods to tell them about this outrage. Interesting that the gods are divided by class distinctions. The lesser gods have to walk through the exclusive neighborhood on their way to Zeus' palace. Zeus comes off as a bit of a self-important buffoon. He needs to be the center of attention, demands that the other gods express outrage on this behalf. Ovid here equates him directly with Augustus. In fact, Ovid addresses Augustus directly:
nor was the piety of your own subjects,
Augustus, any less agreeable
to you than that of Jove's had been to him.
Zeus tells the story of Lycaon's feast. Zeus disguises himself as a mortal. Zeus sends signs that a god has come. Common folk offer prayers, but Lycaon mocks their piety and decides to set a trap to humiliate the supposed god. Lycaon kills and butchers a hostage, and serves him to Zeus for supper. Zeus knocks down the house with lightening bolts. Lycaon runs in fear:
Frightened, he rusn off to the silent fields,
and howls aloud, attempting speech in vain;
foam gathers at the corners of his mouth;
he turns his lust for slaughter on the flocks,
and mangles them, rejoicing still in blood.
Because of the Lycaon incident, Zeus decides to destroy the human race with a great flood (Genesis again). Deucalion and Pyrrha are the only mortals to survive the flood. They appeal to Themis, who tells them how to repopulate the earth. They throw stones behind their backs. The stones Deucalion throw transform into men, while Pyrrha's stones become women. Animals (and heretofore unknown monsters) spontaneously generate from the earth.
One of those monster is a giant Python. Apollo kills it with arrows. That leads in to Apollo making fun of Cupid. Cupid shoots Apollo and Daphne with arrows, causing Apollo to love Daphne and Daphne to hate Apollo. There are several layers of hunting metaphore here. This is often sited as a love story, but might be more accurately read as attempted rape:
so he in hope and she in terror race.
Two questions. What are Apollo's intentions? Is Daphne's fear reasonable? Her father turns her into a laurel tree to stop Apollo raping her. Apollo thereafter uses the laurel as his symbol.
The Daphne and Apollo story could be read as having a gonzo, grotesque tone. Imagine the Benny Hill theme playing during the chase, then a John K. animated close-up of Apollo's sloppy, splintery lips smacking the laurel trunk. The comedy of the episode persists so long as the reader doesn't think about Daphne's terror, and Ovid makes a point to remind the reader. The combination of Apollo's clownish lust and Daphne's ernest terror shadows the scene with a manic desperation.
This is not a flattering picture of Apollo. Note that Augustus held Apollo in especial regard, enlarging his temple and practically elevating him above Zeus.
The next story, of Jove and Io, begins with a meeting of rivers called by the river god Peneus, Daphne's father. This meeting reminds me of the meeting Zeus called to announce the Lycaon incident. The transition from the Apollo and Daphne story to the Jove and Io story is one of like characters in like situation:
Inachus was the only river absent,
concealed in the recesses of his cave:
he added to his volume with the tears he
grimly wept for his lost daughter Io,
Zeus saw Io, pursued her, and raped her. Juno realized that Zeus was up to no good and went looking for him. Zeus sees Juno coming, and hides Io by transforming her into a beautiful heifer. This doesn't fool Juno at all. Juno decides to screw with Zeus by commenting on what a lovely cow he has, and asking for it as a gift. Zeus can't refuse Juno without arousing her suspicions, so he gives over Io. I read this like a sitcom bit, along the lines of Married With Children maybe.
To keep Io away from Zeus, she puts the heifer in the care of Argus. Argus has 100 eyes, and at least half of them are open at any given time.
Io at last came to the riverbank
where she had often played; when she beheld
her own slack jaws and newly sprouted horns
in the clear water, she fled, terrified!
Her father and sister naiads don't recognize her until she writes the story in the dirt with her hoof. Peneus laments:
"Oh, wretched me!" he groaned. "Are you the child
for whom I searched the earth in every part?
Lost, you were less a grief than you are, found!
"You make no answer, unable to respond
to our speech in language of your own,
but from your breast come resonant deep sights
and—all that you can manage now—you moo!
"But I—all unaware of this—was busy
arranging marriage for you, in the hopes
of having a son-in-law and grandchildren.
Now I must pick your husband from my herd,
and now must find your offspring there as well!
Tragic, but also veering toward the farcical ("you moo!"). I should say that the Mandelbaum reads less so. This, I suspect, would be an instructive passage to visit in the Latin. Not having taken a Latin class in many year (and not having been particularly gifted in the language), I'll give it a whirl....
The bit I quoted above starts at line 904 in Martin, and 653 in the Latin.
Note also: there is quite an emphasis in this story about Io being silenced.
Zeus is the king of gods. He's pompous, and seeks approval and adoration of lesser gods. Perhaps this is partly a reaction to humiliations inflicted by his overbearing wife. Also, his excessive temper.
Apollo Arrogant and mean spirited as seen in his interaction with Cupid in Book I.
Juno is Zeus' wife and sister. She is jealous, and likes to mess with Zeus, to teach him a lesson, make him stammer.