Ovid
Most of the Greek and Roman myths you read in high school were retellings of stories from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Choose your favorite myth and read Ovid's version of that myth. Read also one of the Ovid myths that you *hadn't* read before. Cite one example for each myth that shows particularly well Ovid's "insight into the human condition."By the way, I loved your skits from today in class. If we have time Thursday, we'll try dramatizing an Ovid theme or two.
If you want to get the overall picture of the Metamorphoses, see this excellent introduction and commentary by Larry Brown.
posted by Ancient Art at 9:15 AM
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"Juno, Saturnia, feed on my ruin: feed, cruel one: gaze, from the heights, at this destruction, and sate your savage heart! Or if this suffering seems pitiable even to an enemy, even to you, take away this sorrowful and hateful life, with its fearful torments, that was only made for toil. Death would be a gift to me, a fitting offering from a stepmother."
This is from the agony of Herules and shows what suffering he is going through. He has been poisoned by his own wife and after he realizes this, he just wants to die. He wants to be freed of the physical suffering, because he is in great pain from the poison, but orvid seems to catch the emotional intensity here too. Hercules is probably also suffering emotionally as well because he realizes that his own wife has poisoned him. He probably wants to know why and is thinking that if his own wife is going to murder him, he might as well die and be sparedthe pain of confronting this fact.
"‘Sleep, all things’ rest: Sleep, gentlest of the gods, the spirit’s peace, care flies from: who soothes the body wearied with toil, and readies it for fresh labours:"
This is another quote that I chose. This quote concerns the nature os sleep. Iris was sent by Juno to cast everyone asleep. Orvid captures how sleep is the one thing that helps people escape the world for awhile. It brings rest to those tired; we all have to sleep. But also, while you're sleeping, you are able to escape your problem for a time and acquire some rest that might help you face the troubles of the next day. Without sleep, people would probably go crazy.
From BookI "They ask Themis for help"
But when Deucalion saw its emptiness, and the deep silence of the desolate lands, he spoke to Pyrrha, through welling tears. ‘Wife, cousin, sole surviving woman, joined to me by our shared race, our family origins, then by the marriage bed, and now joined to me in danger, we two are the people of all the countries seen by the setting and the rising sun, the sea took all the rest. Even now our lives are not guaranteed with certainty: the storm clouds still terrify my mind. How would you feel now, poor soul, if the fates had willed you to be saved, but not me? How could you endure your fear alone? Who would comfort your tears? Believe me, dear wife, if the sea had you, I would follow you, and the sea would have me too. If only I, by my father’s arts, could recreate earth’s peoples, and breathe life into the shaping clay! The human race remains in us. The gods willed it that we are the only examples of mankind left behind.’
He realizes a desperate situation and is suddenly finding himself with the weight of the world upon his shoulder. He is trying not to crack with such a responsibility placed upon him.
From Book I: Inachus mourns for Io
Only Inachus is missing, but hidden in the deepest cave he swells his stream with tears, and in utter misery laments his lost daughter, Io, not knowing if she is alive or among the shades. Since he cannot find her anywhere, he imagines her nowhere, and his heart fears worse than death.
A father hiding from life, mourning for a lost daughter, his grief unable to be assuaged. This is something any man would do for a child.
I read Bk VIII: 183-235 Daedalus and Icarus:
"While he worked and issued his warnings the ageing man's cheeks were wet with tears: the father's hands trembled."
This line demonstrates a father's love for his son and also his fear from his son's life.
I also read Bk IX: 211-272:
Hercules "flung by strong arms through the void, bloodless with fright, and devoid of moistrue, turned to hard flint."
Hercules was terrified and frozen with fright, literally, when Alcides through him through the air. I really like this description of the feeling of being afraid or fearful.
So the toughness of our race, our ability to endure hard labour, and the proof we give of the source from which we are sprung.
This shows his insight by seeing how mankind constantly will face hardships and tribulations. He is pointing out how humans will endure and eventually overcome anything because it is a defining characteristic of the human race.
The myth of the House of Rumour is very good to show an insight. He is able to see that its in peoples' nature to gossip and tell tales and having a God and place for it to occur shows that it is a big part of the human character, whether we like it or not.
One of favorite myth is the one of Midas and his golden touch. Midas is granted a gift that whatever he touches turns to gold. Everything is perfect until he started to try eating food, turning his food into food and not being able to eat. Eventually, he wants to get rich of this gift/curse. "Dismayed by this strange misfortune, rich and unhappy, he tries to flee his riches, and hates what he wished for a moment ago. No abundance can relieve his famine: his throat is parched with burning thirst, and, justly, he is tortured by the hateful gold." Eventually, Midas got rid of his golden touch and realized that his greed got in the way of basic needs and that wealth and money isn't everything in life.
The first part of Metamorphoses is the Roman's version of Genesis. The Primal Chaos between the gods, the end of the conflict that brough life to Earth, and then the Flood. Humankind was created to fill a void. "As yet there was no animal capable of higher thought that could be ruler of all the rest. Then Humankind was born. Either the creator god, source of a better world, seeded it from the divine, or the newborn earth just drawn from the highest heavens still contained fragments related to the skies, so that Prometheus, blending them with streams of rain, moulded them into an image of the all-controlling gods. While other animals look downwards at the ground, he gave human beings an upturned aspect, commanding them to look towards the skies, and, upright, raise their face to the stars. So the earth, that had been, a moment ago, uncarved and imageless, changed and assumed the unknown shapes of human beings." In other words, the Romans believed that humankind was created in the image of the gods and as the ruler of Earth.
"While the conqueror stares at the vast bulk of his conquered enemy, suddenly a voice is heard. It is not easy to imagine where it comes from, but it is heard. ‘Why gaze, son of Agenor, at the serpent you have killed? You too shall be a serpent to be gazed on.’ For a long time he stands there quaking, and at the same time loses colour in his face, and his hair stands on end in cold terror."
In Book III Cadmus has killed the dragon. The cite above shows an honorable man trembling at the sound of a voice. Shortly after, he obeys the command the voice gives him and the story continues on, but what stopped me was the way Ovid wrote. His character, a noble warrior, has very real characteristics. What makes this character a good one is that even though he has terror, it is justified terror (a voice from who knows where) and even though he is unable to tell who is giving the command, he obeys the command. Strength is upheld, but so is righteous fear. This makes the character very real to the audience. There is no human (besides possibly Jesus Christ) that has ever been void of fear.
The bigger kick is that even though he was afraid, he still obeyed. This is an equally amazing characteristic which can be found in humans, if they are able.
Book I is a very similar creation story to that found in the Judeo-Christian tradition. A god reigns in the chaos to form the earth, creates people, the people become wicked, a flood wipes out the world, etc.
Book XV:453-478 illustrates a question which, even today, is brought up. What constitutes murder? Killing a member of one's family would certainly be considered as such--so why do we kill animals we raise for food? Are they not part of the family as well (if only as pets)? (Don't get me wrong here, I am definately a carnivore, but it's interesting that this question was brought up two thousand years ago-and still debated today.)
“But if there is anyone, anyone at all, who is unhappy at Hercules’s deification, and would not wish to grant this gift, he or she should know that it was given for merit…”
This quote is gives insight to hard work and merit. Hercules, after his death, was made a God. Other Gods were angry because they wanted some loved ones to become Gods as well. Hercules became a God because he worked hard and did many great deeds in his lifetime. This just shows that the Romans cherished hard work and believed that people will be rewarded for it.
"I only wish my death could be unknown to my mother: my mother weakens and lessens my joy in death, though it is not my dying but her living that is terrible."
This quote came from the Death of Polydorus and Polyxena and shows insight into the relationship between mother and daughter. Polyxena, after finding that she would be sacrificed for Achilles, made a request that her mother not find out about her death. She fears that her mother will not handle her death well and may break down if her daughter dies before her. Even facing certain death Polyxena wanted to make sure that her mother was kept happy for the rest of her days.
Thetis, Achilles’s Nereid mother, foreseeing her son’s death, disguised his appearance, and wearing women’s clothes he deceived everyone, including Ajax. But, among the things women buy, I placed arms to stir a man’s spirit. Before the hero had abandoned the clothes of a girl, while he held the shield and spear, I said: ‘Pergama the citadel doomed to be destroyed, waits for you, son of the goddess! Why do you hesitate to overthrow mighty Troy?’ And I took him in hand, and sent the brave out to do brave things. So his deeds are mine: I overcame warring Telephus with my spear, and healed him with it, when he was defeated and begging for help.
I wouldn't say this is my favorite but it is interesting a hero would dress as a woman to ward off battle and the posibility of death.
Scylla comes, wading waist deep into the pool, only to find the water around her groin erupt with yelping monsters. At first, not thinking them part of her own body, she retreats from their cruel muzzles, fears them, and pushes them away: but, what she flees from, she pulls along with her, and, seeking her thighs, her legs, her feet, in place of them finds jaws like Cerberus’s. She stands among raging dogs, and is encircled by beasts, below the surface, from which her truncated thighs and belly emerge.
Her lover Glaucus wept, and fled Circe’s embrace, she, who had made too hostile a use of her herbs’ powers. Scylla remained where she was, and, at the first opportunity, in her hatred of Circe, robbed Ulysses of his companions. Later she would have overwhelmed the Trojan ships, if she had not previously been transformed into a rock, whose stone is visible even now: a rock that sailors still avoid.
I always liked the taled of distant peoples and happenings that involved some type of witchcraft or act of the Gods. Still today, many people look for these landmarks and remeber the stories behind them. Even the constialtions have their stories.
"Now he is ash, and little if anything remains of Achilles, once so mighty, hardly enough to fill an urn. But his fame lives, enough to fill a world."
This statement is perhaps trying to slighten the accomplishments of achilles or of warriors at times. Yes they do great things and bad thing, win great victories and lose but in the end they simply die. They are not much when they are dead. Maybe some live on like achilles because of his fame but he is still dead and bearly fills an urn.
I’m not sure if we read any of these myths in high school. About the closest my AP English class came was Oedipus Rex.
I know of the story of Jason and the Argonauts. The golden fleece.
“The Argonauts increased their shouting, and heightened his courage.
Seems that the author knows how good moral and encouragement from comrades can make a big impact on an individual.
Death of Orpheus, Midas, Peleus, Ceyx, Alcyone, Aesacus; not one of these names are familiar to me. The Temptest
”The captain shouts: ‘Lower the yards, now, and close reef all sails.’ He shouts the order but the adverse wind drowns it, and his voice cannot be heard above the breaking seas. Yet, some of the crew, on their own initiative, remove the oars, some protect the bulwarks, some deny the wind canvas-room.”
I think the author does a good job of defining the role of the captain and his men and their mission. Seems they are very goal based.
-Nate Mills
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