Ovid's Metamorphoses

Posts made on social media depict women as the more dominant gender in a relationship and ones who can take control and have their own power. This assumption though is far from the truth of society. Women are far from being seen as equal to men. Similarly to today’s views, the Romans also lowers the value of women whose purpose seem to be prizes to men, to be used sexually by men, and to be their spouses. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, mortal women are portrayed as objects whose voices do not matter. In Roman mythology, the archetype of a hero saving a maiden is common. Although this may seem normal, the women saved by these heroes are treated in a more different way than we’d think. They are treated as objects. In the story of Perseus, Perseus makes the statement, “If I save her by my valor, do I have her?” (p.104). In his statements, Perseus states that if he were to save Andromeda, she will be his. What this clearly lacks is the woman’s judgement. Ovid does not include the woman’s …show more content…
One of these particular men was Jove. In many of the stories in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Jove can be pictured as a man who takes women that he thinks are beautiful. In the story of Jove in Arcady, the following was written, “And kissed her the way a maiden does not kiss, or should not, and just as she was starting in to tell him what forest she had hunted, he stopped the story and gave himself away with his embracing. She really struggled against him,” (p. 41). In short, Jove tried to take a nymph, who does not want him to. Indeed it was stated she struggled against him, but Jove still did not stop. He ignored her words, indicating that what she wanted doesn’t matter, all that matters is that he gets what he wants. Her opinion in this matter was ignored, and it seemed normal. Many women fall into the same situation where they are used to sate Jove’s sexual desires, whose words of opposition disappear into an