Battus Changed into a Stone

In a lush wooded landscape, the god Mercury appears in a simultaneous narrative: on the left, he plays a panpipe while leading away a stolen herd of cattle, and on the right, he returns in disguise to confront the shepherd Battus. Battus, seated with his hand raised, points toward the hidden herd, breaking his previous vow of silence for the sake of a reward. In the moment depicted, Mercury is about to punish the shepherd's greed by turning his body into stone.

This scene from Ovid’s Metamorphoses concludes with the creation of the 'index lapis' or touchstone, a tool used by goldsmiths and alchemists to test the purity of precious metals. The transformation carries a moral and esoteric lesson regarding the dual nature of Mercury as the god of both deceptive theft and the revealing 'Light of Nature' that tests the integrity of the soul.