Here is the sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini of Daphne metamorphosing into the laurel tree just as Apollo, the god of poetry, is about to catch her. (You can click on the picture to make it bigger.) The story is told in the Metamorphoses, by the Roman poet, Ovid. You can read Ovid's story (in an English translation) here. The Metamorphoses is one of the most important of the many Roman texts that fascinated writers and artists in the Renaissance.
That's true. Ovid had a great impact on Renaissance Writers including Shakespeare. Writers writes their masterpieces mostly taken from Mythology based on Ovid's Met.
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