Any Ovid experts on here?

[NCearlymitford]

I'm reading Edith Hamilton's book on mythology. She tells the tale of Zeus transforming Io into a heifer. When Hera catches them, Zeus claims he has never seen the heifer before. Hamilton says this: "And this, Ovid says, shows that the lies lovers tell do not anger the gods".

I was a bit puzzled by this, so I looked up the story of Io in a translation of The Metamorphosis, but I couldn't find anything similar to the "lies lovers tell" quote. I know translations differ, but does anyone know what's going on here?

No idea. I've just checked it in my Loeb of the Metamorphoses and there is no such quote but there do appear to have been a number of textual additions made over the years. There isn't a definitive copy in the same way as there is for other classical texts so it may be that these were additions which are now considered to be medieval and have been removed from most modern texts of the Metamorphoses.

Not an Ovid expert. An AI habituee. Who knows if it's true, but Copilot has this to say:

Here’s what’s going on — and why you couldn’t find that line in your translation of Metamorphoses.
🧩 Why Hamilton says this — and why you can’t find it in Ovid
Edith Hamilton is not quoting Ovid directly. She is paraphrasing a comment made by the Roman poet Ovid in another work, not in the Metamorphoses.
The line she’s referring to comes from Ovid’s Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love), where Ovid makes a wry, tongue‑in‑cheek remark about Jupiter (Zeus) lying to Juno (Hera) about Io. In that poem, Ovid uses the myth as an example of how even the king of the gods lies in love — and gets away with it.
Hamilton is summarizing Ovid’s attitude, not quoting a specific line from Metamorphoses.
This is why you couldn’t find it in the Io episode in Metamorphoses (Book 1) Wikipedia— the episode there is straightforward narrative, with no moralizing aside about “lies lovers tell.”
📚 Where Ovid actually says something like this
In Ars Amatoria 1.563–566, Ovid jokes that Jupiter lied to Juno about Io and that such lies are acceptable in love. Different translations render it differently, but the idea is:
Jupiter denied knowing Io, though he had just seduced her —
and such lies, Ovid says, are permissible in love.
Hamilton compresses this into her own neat line:
“the lies lovers tell do not anger the gods.”
She’s capturing Ovid’s playful moral, not quoting a specific sentence.
🧠 Why Hamilton does this
Hamilton’s Mythology is not a philological text — it’s a literary retelling. She often:

• blends sources
• paraphrases ancient authors
• imports commentary from one Ovidian work into another
• smooths the narrative for modern readers

So she’s using Ovid’s Ars Amatoria to comment on the Io story in Metamorphoses. ✔️ Summary

• You couldn’t find the line because it’s not in Metamorphoses.
• Hamilton is referring to Ovid’s Ars Amatoria, where he jokes about Jupiter’s lies.
• Her phrasing is a paraphrase, not a quotation.