Earlier I described Metamorphoses as a mosaic of pictures woven in text. While the text is the 'material' substance that we have, images are mental constructions, first of the author and then of the reader. Initially, the author forges visual images in her imagination and in the process of reading the reader creates her own imagined representations. The textual process that most explicitly reflects on this interaction between author and reader is description. We are facing the difficulty of how to reconcile text and image, for we are discussing with words an experience that has non-verbal aspects. The problem also involves thinking about both similarities and differences between the acts of viewing and reading. Ancient and modern theorists have debated these questions, focusing specifically on the multifaceted phenomenon of ekphrasis. While in modern terms we tend to understand ekphrasis as a textual description of a work of art, like Aeneas' shield, for example, ancient writers understood the term as description in general. These ideas offer clues on how to approach issues of text and image, as it is said that ekphrasis bestows a voice on a mute picture.