Reading Notes: Ovid's Metamorphoses, Part A


In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, quite a lot happens that stuck with me. First off, the way that human life is regarded seems to be from the perspective of an unfeeling god. Deaths are somewhat glossed over, no sure detail is gone into them as seen from the quote, "Overflowing, the rivers rush across the open plains, sweeping away at the same time not just orchards, flocks, houses and human beings, but sacred temples". Furthermore, when humans are transformed into something else (that I absolutely wouldn’t want to happen) it’s often done because of the god’s vain outlooks on their situations. Tragedy seems to be common with the Roman’s. Io and Callisto are both raped by Jupiter, simply because he wants to. From this pointless and terrible act, both women are punished in severe ways, with Io being transformed into a cow and Callisto(1) into a bear (and then constellation with her son). These acts are preventable, but told in such ways that they seem not to be a “big” deal within the story. 

Another thing that stuck with me was how the earth seems to be smaller than it truly is. Phaethon’s mother is able to find her son’s bones even though he was struck off of the chariot in a faraway country. The floods of the earth seem to cover it almost instantly – the gods here are not short on power. Humans seem to be the playthings of gods, receiving true punishments that shouldn’t be meant for them. 

Finally, I loved how the stories flowed. In some instances, action happened while dialogue was occurring, the vivid adjectives helped describe god-like items in mystical ways. The world that is created within these stories is unflinching in its storytelling – from rape, to girls being turned into trees and creatures, to a son dying in front of his father because he was too weak, and how a boy, simply because he was Zeus’ son was turned into a constellation. I loved every story within this section and I can’t wait to try and implement some of these overarching ideas.

        1.  Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated by Tony Kline (2000)

Illustration by Virgil Soils


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