Background
Ovid was a contemporary of Christ, Augustus reigning during Jesus’ life. Augustus known for bringing in a period of stability, Pax Romana. Ovid was banished (exiled) around the time Metamorphoses was published. Conjecture is that Ovid was banished for this work in an effort to clean up living. They were trying to define marriage at this time from a legal standpoint. He passed a monogamy law during his reign. Ovid was not a big fan of monogamy. Ovid was also friends of Augustus’ enemies. Ovid would publish other works on love, even from exile in modern day Romania. Many of the nobles were from equestrian families.
Organization or Stucture
Not about one hero and one story, instead is like a theme and variations, where a theme is presented in the first part, and then varied in many different ways in subsequent parts. Ken played Variations on a Theme by Hadyn by Johannes Brahms. A mock epic. In dactylic hexameter, six dactyls in a line. Some translations attempt to keep this meter even in rhyming couplets, but the prose versions are much easier to read and understand.
There were other compilations of mythology, (see the notes below).
Connection: Jesus is coming to offer his own metamorphoses, we shall all be changed.
Discussion:
Creation: a nameless god seems to “organize” chaos, not really create it from nothing (ex nihilo) as in Genesis.
Poles: north and south poles, equator, etc. The 4 winds.
Description of man: man created to look to the sky, unlike the animals. Contrast this man looking for God instead of man created in God’s image. A mixture of biblical truth and man’s imagination thinking up what happened when no man was present. Humans created to rule over everything else.
Man and animals are different. Again a hierarchy: gods, men, animals. What does that tell us about the stories he’s going to tell? He will tell stories based on the theme of change. Usually the gods will initiate this change. When natural order is disrupted, this may be a cause for gods to right this by acting and causing metamorphosis. There is nothing just about it necessarily.
4 ages: Gold, (the god Saturn’s fall ushers in) Silver where life is work, then Bronze, finally Iron age, where fighting breaks out in full force.
Jupiter’s anger is unleashed because the gods are not worshiped anymore, and decides to destroy the world with a flood.
Our first metamorphoses
Daphne and Apollo: Daphne was beautiful and Apollo chases here down. Her father turns her into a laurel tree, which would become the wreath of the victor.
Given how fickle the unjust the gods are, what must worship of them be like? Appeasement? Do we attribute to God things that are not true of Him? Did he allow some bad thing for the cause of good?
Jupiter and Io: (The funny one with a happy ending) Io was the daughter of the river god. Jupiter wanted her and comes to her in a fog, seized her and dishonored her. Juno sees the mist and comes. Jove turns Io into a cow because she knows he is coming. But, Juno asks for the cow because she knows what’s going on. The cow is put under watch by Argus. Then, Mercury lulls Argus to sleep and Io is able to get away. She returns to her family and eventually transforms back to herself. Io has a son Epaphus who is friends with Phaethon who is Apollos son.
Phaethon – Father promises his son anything. Phaethon asks to drive his father’s winged chariot. Apollos tries to talk him out of it, but cannot and feels he must honor his promise. It causes the destruction of many. Pride and hubris taint the requests and the promises. Could this be an explanation of a shooting star?
Book II:
Jupiter and Callisto – Many of the gods go after the girls that desire to follow Diana and be virgins. Callisto becomes pregnant by Jupiter. When Dianna discovers her pregnancy, they blame her and Diana banishes her and Juno turns Callisto into a bear. Her son, Arcas, was going to kill her because he didn’t recognize her, but Jove intervenes and turns them both into constellations.
The House of Envy – Mercury see a beautiful girl, Herse, and enters her house. Mercury asks Herse’s sister, Aglauros, to enter Herse’s room. Aglauros requests gold and Minerva overhears. She tells Envy to poison Aglauros’ heart. Envy is described as never being happy until it sees another’s misery. Aglauros is turned to stone. Themes: Better watch what you say, it may happen. (Aglauros refusing to move is turned to stone.)
Transitions keep the story line going. Such as…Mercury goes back to heavens and calms down. Then, Jupiter sends Mercury on an errand. and Jove pursues Europa.
Book III – Narcissus and Echo – This is where we get the word narcissistic. We see the theme of unrequited love. Two transformations. Narcissus looses his body and a flower grows where he was. Beautiful love poetry. Echo wasted away into an echo.
Bacchus – The gods compensating humans for their loss, or consoling them.
Book IV – Perseus and Andromeda – Perseus is clever and has to fight of suitors, like Odysseus. Perseus is in love with Andromeda and wants to rescue her. He has to defeat the sea serpent. Clash of the Titans is loosely based on this.
Book VI:
Arachne- Another theme is art as seen is the story of Arachne. Art is almost more revered than the gods. Artistically beautiful things live on. Tapestry, stories, weaving,
Summary – More poking fun of the gods. Gods are on the decline, only revisited to seem silly. Augustus’s reaction was to banish him. Rome was still enamored with their gods as a nation. The setting is the first Roman Emperor at peace which puts more confidence in the power of man. When man feels in control, you laugh at the idea of fate. This is a culmination of the religious beliefs of the past.
Interesting weaving of the many stories.
Big Themes
- metamorphosis (change, often from man to animal)
- love (lust, eros, unrequited love often because of gods’ actions)
- hubris (pride that prevents clear thinking or right action)
- fate (often fated to unrequited love)
- loyalty
- hospitality
Notes:
Biography:
Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC – 18 AD). Ovid seems to have believed in art for pleasure’s sake, having no ethical agenda for his writings, unlike his predecessor Virgil, who wrote for the betterment of Romans. Ovid’s other works include: Medea (a tragedy), Heroides (letters to legendary heroes from their wives;), Amores (poetic essays on love), The Art of Love (advice on how to seduce a woman; scandalous in Augustus’ time, one possible reason for Ovid’s banishment in 8 AD), the Fasti (a poetic calendar of religious festivals). Ovid offered something of an apology for his immoral reputation:
“My life is respectable, my Muse is full of jesting. A book is not evidence of one’s soul.” Tristia 2:354
Organization:
In the first verses of the Metamorphoses, Ovid claims to write one continuous epic, not an anthology of myths. Unlike the Iliad, however, there is no central hero, thus no simple Aristotelian unity to the work. So what binds this poem together, making it more than a random collection of stories? We might first consider three superficial strategies of unity within the poem:
1. All of Ovid’s tales involve metamorphosis. But some stories (see Phaethon, Pentheus, Heracles) only have metamorphosis tacked on as an incidental element, almost as an afterthought. Ovid is more interested in metamorphosis as a universal principle which explains the nature of the world: Troy falls, Rome rises. Nothing is permanent.
2. Chronological progression: Ovid begins his poem with the story of creation and the flood, and ends in his own day with Augustus on the throne. However, chronology becomes unimportant in the vast middle section of work, as seen by the numerous anachronisms throughout (see notes on Callisto, Atlas, Cycnus stories for examples).
3. Transitional links: Ovid continually surprises us, as we never know where he’s going next. He changes strategies using several techniques:
- He follows the same character through different adventures (Perseus, Hercules).
- He tells a story within a story: to put Argus to sleep, Mercury tells another story, becoming an internal narrator within Ovid’s story.
- He “slides” from the story of one character to that of a relative or friend (Epaphus and Phaethon, end of book 1).
- He even will note the absence of a character in one tale as an introduction to a new story (Tereus, book 6).
These different types of links provide only a superficial continuity to the poem. A better way of viewing the artistic unity of the Metamorphoses considers Ovid’s use of “theme with variations.” For example, in Books 1-2, there are at least five variations of the virgin-pursued-by-god theme:
- Daphne and Apollo: with focus on the chase, her metamorphosis into a tree serves as Daphne’s means of escape.
- Jupiter and Io: with emphasis on Hera, the jealous wife, and the metamorphosis as Io’s disguise in hiding from Hera (both these early instances make the gods appear comic).
- Syrinx and Pan: a meta-narrative or story within a story, told by Mercury, serving to put Argus to sleep.
- Jupiter and Callisto: similar to the Juno/Io plot but not treated comically; this more serious tale prepares for the later savage treatment of Semele and Ino by the gods; here metamorphosis serves as apotheosis (Callisto taken up to heaven as a constellation).
- Jupiter and Europa: serves primarily as a transition to the story in Book 3 of Cadmus’ exile.
This pattern of theme and variations gives Ovid numerous means to tell his stories in inventive ways, weaving a complex web of interrelationships throughout the entire work. This thesis, suggested by Brooks Otis (Ovid as an Epic Poet, 1970), will organize (with some modification) the following discussion notes.
Otis sees four major divisions (after a prologue depicting the Creation and primordial events) to the Metamorphoses:
- “Divine Comedy” or Gods in Love: Books 1-2
- “Avenging Gods”: Books 3-6, line 400 (up to the story of Tereus and Procne)
- “Pathos of Love”: the rest of Book 6-11
- “History of Rome & the Deified Caesar”: Books 12-15
Following this outline, we see a general movement from gods acting like humans (section I), to humans suffering at the hands of gods (II), to humans suffering at the hands of humans (III), to humans becoming gods (IV).
Each section prepares the reader for future sections: the tales of the Minyads (section II, book 4) foreshadow the thwarted or forbidden loves in section III; Hercules’ becoming a god (section III, book 9) points toward those later of Aeneas, Romulus, Caesar (section IV). Thus, throughout the work Ovid creates a complex chain of interconnecting themes.
Classical Sources:
Throughout the notes are links to other ancient works of mythology, most of which were available to Ovid. Homer’s famous epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey were written sometime in the 8th century BC. Homer’s contemporary Hesiod wrote his Theogony about the birth of the gods around the same time. The Greek playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides composed their tragedies during the 5th century BC. Virgil completed his Latin epic the Aeneid, patterned after Homer, about 19 BC, a generation before Ovid. The Library of Apollodorus was attributed to a writer in the 2nd century BC, but scholars believe the work was actually written more than a century later by an anonymous author; it may or may not have existed prior to the Metamorphoses. Hyginus wrote his Fabulae sometime in the 1st or 2nd centuries AD, after Ovid.
Discussion Questions:
Book 1
1. What does the narrator ask of the gods in his brief invocation?
“The Creation”
2. How was the Earth created (6-87), and by whom? How does this creation account differ from the one offered in Genesis?
3. Who created humans, and why? (73-87) How did they differ from animals? What does Ovid’s handling of this issue tell you about his stance towards the stories he tells?
“The Ages of Mankind”
4. How does the narrator describe the Four Ages (95ff)? What reason does he offer for the deterioration from the Golden to the Silver Age? What causes the deterioration into the Bronze and Iron Ages?
5. What seem to be Jove’s intentions with regard to the Iron Age human race? Does he plan to destroy them all? Why do Deucalion and Pyrrha alone survive? What redeeming qualities do they have? (319ff)
“The Flood” and “Deucalion and Pyrrha”
6. How does the narrator transition from his description of the Four Ages into the Flood Story? What comes between these two recountings, and what significance does this interlude hold for the material surrounding it?
7. Deucalion and Pyrrha pray to Thetis (370ff). What does she tell them to do? What, if anything, does Themis’ promise have to do with Jove’s promise to make a new and better race of beings? (249ff) How does the narrator sum up the principle of this new dispensation?
“Apollo and Daphne”
8. What logic underlies the transition (440ff) from the new creation to the story of Apollo and Daphne? What ties them together?
9. How, from 502ff, does Apollo at first court Daphne? What metaphor does the narrator employ to describe the pursuit that follows?
10. What becomes of Daphne around 546ff? How does the narrator tie the story of Daphne’s metamorphosis to his own time? How does her change differ from the one suffered by Lycaon? Does some principle underlie this change—why does Daphne change in the specific way she does, and not in some other way?
“Io”
11. What connects the Apollo/Daphne story with the Jove/Io Story? (cf. 573ff)
12. What metamorphosis does Io, the daughter of the river god Inachus, undergo? (586ff) How does she manage to turn into a human again?
“Phaethon”
13. What is the connecting link between the Jove/Io story and Phaethon? (753ff)
14. How is the final tale of Book One (about Phaethon) related to Ovid’s task as an epic poet?
Book 2
“Phaethon, continued”
15. The obvious moral of this tale is “don’t aspire beyond your powers or your lot.” But how does Ovid case this moral in doubt–what does his narration suggest about the way the Gods uphold their order?
“Callisto”
16. What links this story to the previous one, aside from the fact that Jove meets Callisto while surveying the damage from Phaethon’s disastrous ride?
“The Raven and the Crow”
17. How does the sad story of these two birds frustrate the theme of natural regeneration set forth at the outset of Book 2?
“Ocyrhoe” and “Mercury and Battus”
18. What common theme links these two stories? What connects them to the whole of Book 2?
“The Envy of Aglauros”
19. Why is it appropriate that Minerva should turn Aglauros into stone? Why not some other punishment?
20. Describe the behavior and the effects of Envy. Why is she so closely associated with poison?
“Jupiter and Europa”
21. How does this story complete the poet’s reflection in Book 2 on the relationship between humans and nature?
Book 3
“Cadmus”
22. What does the manner of Thebes’ founding suggest about the city’s future?
23. How does this tale relate to Ovid’s ironic handling of nature in Book 2?
“Diana and Actaeon”
24. When Actaeon turns into a stag and is pursued by hounds, what human characteristics does he miss most? Why?
25. How does this story handle the theme of female violence? Does such violence seem justified here? How does its significance go beyond the immediate tale? Why do you suppose the narrator comments at the end on others’ views of Diana’s conduct?
“Semele and the Birth of Bacchus” 23. How does Ovid’s Juno compare to Virgil’s Juno, and/or Homer’s Hera?
26. How does this story relate to the story of Phoebus in Book 2? What relationship between the human and the divine does it explore or assert?
“Tiresias”
27. In what way does this story advance the theme of “compensation for loss” as one significant feature of relations between gods and human beings?
“Narcissus and Echo”
28. How is this tale an exploration of the psychology of love? How does it compare to other tales in which Ovid’s narrator addresses this complex issue?
“Pentheus and Bacchus”
30. How does Pentheus interpret Bacchus and his rites? What power does Bacchus represent in this story?
31. Offer your view on why Pentheus’ mother, Agave, does not recognize her own son before she tears him to pieces. One possibility — how might the fact that she cannot recognize him be taken as a comment on Ovid’s theme of poetry’s power?
32. What attitude does the teller of the tale take towards the violent behavior of the Bacchantes? Is their violence a positive and appropriate thing here?
“The Daughters of Minyas”
33. Why is the girls’ storytelling inappropriate? How might this impropriety reflect back upon Ovid?
“Pyramus and Thisbe”
34. Ovid seems to have invented this story rather than to have borrowed it, and he offers it in a “deadpan” style. Again, how does the tale-telling make Ovid subject to the perils of his own fictional storytelling?
35. What is unusual about the metamorphosis here?
“The Sun in Love”
36. What is the connection between Hyperion and the daughters of Minyas? How do they both transgress?
37. How does Ovid’s tale show the limitations of metamorphosis as a strategy for escape from peril or compensation for harm done?
“Salmacis and Hermaphroditus” and “The Daughters of Minyas Transformed”
38. Salmacis aggressively pursues and merges with the son of Hermes and Aphrodite. The gods grant her wish–why, then, does the narrator allow Hermaphroditus to retain his male identity? How is Ovid treating the female character in this story?
39. What opposition does the narrator explore between “weaving” and the vines of Bacchus? Why is the punishment–transformation into bats–appropriate?
“Athamas and Ino”
40. Describe the back-and-forth process of punishment and compensation in this tale: what do children have to do with this process? Why are they at the center of it?
“The Transformation of Cadmus”
41. What does Cadmus hope to accomplish by his prayer to be turned into a snake? What comfort do he and his wife get from their transformation and what happens afterwards?
“Perseus and Andromeda”
42. In what sense might Perseus be said to redeem the “star-crossed lovers” theme of Book 4?
43. Perseus shows his mettle as a storyteller at the end of Book 4. Consider the beginning of the next book–how is Ovid underscoring the limitations of even this powerful kind of storytelling?
TIME PERMITTING:
The Rape of Proserpine (from Book 5)
1. Explain the “nature myth” involved in this tale – how is the story about the seasons or cycles of nature?
2. How does this story treat the issue of sexuality? Why does Venus, goddess of love, insist on pursuing the course she does, and why does Jove (the Roman Zeus) accept the outrage that has been committed against Proserpine (also called Persephone)?
3. Who or what undergoes metamorphosis in this story? Is metamorphosis invariably a positive thing in “The Rape of Proserpine”? Why or why not?
Arethusa (from Book 5)
1. How does Ovid construe the gods in this story?
2. How does Ovid treat sexuality in this story?
3. Does this story offer any comment or perspective on “The Rape of Proserpine”? What are your reasons for thinking as you do on this point?
Tereus, Procne, and Philomela (from Book 6)
1. How does Ovid handle the violent subject matter of his story? To what extent, for example, does he describe Tereus’ rape and mutilation of Philomela graphically? What would you say is Ovid’s attitude towards the cannibalistic revenge Procne takes on Tereus?
2. We have seen that weaving is often a metaphor for poetry and its power. How might that be the case in this story? Is there any other way to connect the tale with this theme of poetry’s power?
3. How does Ovid, in this tale and others, differ from authors who offer us some conventional “moral”? What do you suppose we are expected to take away from our reading of such Ovidian fables about metamorphosis?
Orpheus and Euridyce (from Book 10)
1. You have read Persephone’s story – does that cast any light on (or shadow over) Orpheus’ quest to recover Euridyce from the Underworld? Why or why not?
2. What reasons does Orpheus give Persephone for wanting to enter Hades? What constraint do the Underworld gods impose on Orpheus in his quest, and why can’t he return for a second time after his initial failure?
3. What powers does Orpheus have as a poet?
4. What do you believe to be the significance of the course of love that Ovid pursues after he is denied a second chance to rescue his Euridyce?
The Death of Orpheus (from Book 11)
1. Orpheus is torn to shreds by Bacchantes, female followers of Bacchus’ wild mystery cult. What power or order might the Bacchantes represent, in a wider social and political context? That is, how, with reference to the previous Orpheus tale, has Orpheus offended more than these women’s vanity?
2. What role do Apollo and Bacchus play in this tale? Why do they take Orpheus’ side? Why is it appropriate that the Bacchantes are turned into trees.