The issue of metamorphosis has preoccupied theologians throughout the Middle Ages. What metamorphosis represented for ovid – a protean world in which men, animals and nature are transformed into and continued each other – was completely at odds with one of the principal christian beliefs: that man was created in god’s likeness. Medieval writers and theologians could not simply dismiss their classical heritage of which ovid was an integral part but they could not take his stories of transformation literally either. In the city of God Saint Augustine discusses at length the theological questions raised by metamorphosis. Augustine does not categorically deny the possibility of metamorphosis of a man into an animal. It can certainly not occur in reality, according to him; however, it does occur in some immaterial reality or space located in the human mind, considered as a kind of theater for the expression of phantasms (barkan 101; harf-lancner 210). It is here that demons can display their talents of illusionistes (from ludere, to play).This is exactly what they do when they stage metamorphoses that do not implicate god’s own creature – a real human being – but rather what Augustine calls a phantasticus hominis (“phantom of a man”; 783).

中文翻译：

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骑士变成熊：罗马·德·波斯森林中的变态与创造力

在整个中世纪，变态问题一直困扰着神学家。变态所代表的卵子-一个人与动物，自然相互转化并相互延续的千变万化的世界-完全与基督教的一项主要信念背道而驰：人是按照神的形像被创造出来的。中世纪的作家和神学家不能简单地摒弃其古老的传统，而奥维奇是其中不可或缺的一部分，但他们也不能从字面上理解他的转型故事。圣奥古斯丁在上帝之城中详细讨论了由变态引起的神学问题。奥古斯丁并没有绝对否认一个人变态为动物的可能性。据他说，这肯定不可能在现实中发生。然而，它确实发生在人类大脑中某个非物质的现实或空间中，被认为是一种表达幻象的剧院（barkan 101； harf-lancner 210）。恶魔就可以在这里展示他们的幻术才能（从ludere到玩耍）。这正是他们上演变态时所要做的，这些变身并不意味着神的本人-一个真正的人-而是奥古斯丁所说的人像。 （“男人的幻象”； 783）。