Metamorphoses

In Ovid’s “Metamorphoses: Apollo and Daphne”, Apollo is punished by Cupid to forever chase and love Daphne, the daughter of the river god Peneus. Cupid may have had his reasons for punishing Apollo, but no reason was shown to why Cupid shot Daphne with an arrow, which I consider a punishment as she was always fleeing and avoiding Apollo until she later prayed to her father to destroy her beauty and she transformed into a tree for eternity. Which I also consider a more painful punishment. In “I…

In Ovid’s poem, Metamorphoses, he retells the stories of many Greek myths. The theme behind all of the stories is the title, the changes or metamorphoses that happen in the myths. One of the stories that is littered with changing forms that appears in the text is the tale of Medusa. It has been depicted in various different ways over time, but this paper will focus on comparing the representation of Peter Paul Rubens’ The Head of Medusa to the retelling in Ovid. Ovid tells the story slightly out…

term that was created by German psychologist, Karl-Maria Benkert in the late 19th century (Pickett, 2015). Ovid was a Roman poet that focused on various Greek myths for a Roman audience, which included homosexuality, as a part of his major work, Metamorphoses. The idea of same-sex attraction and other types of sexuality were seen in many ancient civilizations, but with no concrete term to describe the relationships. Homosexuality was seen more, and more widely excepted, in the male population…

Ovid begins his book Metamorphoses with the creation of earth. The world began with a single element called Chaos, it was found throughout the land until the gods created light and order. With the new earth came the creation of plants, animals, and the human race. However, the gods soon realized the ruin that came with each human. The gods summoned the great flood, which was a fresh start for the earth and its inhabitants. The gods spared all the animals and two humans to repopulate the earth.…

famous work was Metamorphoses, a fifteen- book narrative revolving around mythological creatures and events. The epic of Metamorphoses includes a set of small stories ranging from the creation of earth to the various mythological experiences, specifically from ancient Greece and Rome. Unlike most great works of literatures, Ovid’s piece does not contain a hero. However, Ovid’s use of unity of transformation shows readers a different and unique body of work. Ovid’s Metamorphoses should,…

As set within a larger epic, Ovid’s Metamorphoses and also mirrored in Ars Amatoria, “Icarus’” structure conveys a Roman focus on present experiences, using the flight of Icarus to support the idea of flight as a semblance of free will within the present (Ovid). As the poem takes place within an epic, structurally, it brings attention to that there is a significant amount of history both before and after it. The piece does not rhyme, with the first four lines ending in “perōsus”, “amōre”,…

the gods don’t feel the need to completely destroy their humans when their behavior is not up to par with the gods expectations. The use of transformations rather than destruction becomes particularly evident in The Bacchae and The Metamorphoses. In The Metamorphoses, there are several instances in the lives of the characters in which a disheartening, or even destructive, event takes place and the gods take the situation and turn it into something favorable. Likewise, The Bacchae focuses heavily…

to the actions of the Greco-Roman mythological gods and goddesses? How do they share similar characteristics with the human world? This essay will closely analyze and distinguish how the Greco-Roman gods and goddesses share human emotions. “The Metamorphoses of Ovid” demonstrates to the readers on how these gods and goddesses, demigods, monsters, heroes, etc., obtain weaknesses and strength by being highly emotional and behaving inconsistently and immorally like humans do. Interestingly enough,…

Gods of Metamorphoses: Orderly Regulators or Brutal Predators? Ovid’s ever-present theme of change in Metamorphoses is reflected often in the reader’s fluctuating perception of the gods throughout the epic. Two perspectives of the gods are presented in the weavings made by Minerva and Arachne in Book VI; Minerva weaves a symmetrical, balanced portrayal that praises the gods and the order they believe they represent in their power to punish humans, while Arachne’s finished product portrays…

How Siddhartha is going through Nietzsche's Three Metamorphoses For many years intellects from around the world have wondered what the key to true enlightenment is. They have wondered how people can balance their physical and spiritual life, and lead a moral, and satisfying life. With his 1922 novel, Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse addresses these concerns, and through narrating the story of the young prince, tries to answer to these wonders. On a journey of multiple lessons, Siddhartha experiences…