The passage to be analysed comes from Book 11 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (lines 399-538) (A.Melville, 1986) it is the story of Callisto translated meaning the Moon which is a fitting transition as it starts with the ending of the story of the Sun. Ovid uses the destruction caused by Phaethon after using this fathers chariot and winged horses to prove his paternal parentage.
An important narrative within at least the first two books of the Metamorphoses must be the repetitive and increasingly disturbing nature of the sexual attacks upon Diana’s nymphs. The story of Callisto brings about the forth attack and to date in the book the most deceitful of all.
(Heath, 1991)States:
These narrative conventions build to a momentary yet sundering climax in book three in the tale of Actaeon, in which Diana a careful and understandably suspicious audience of Ovid’s Narrative word of hunt and rape cannot help misinterpretation Actaeon’s actions.
However ; although it can be seen that the tales of Daphne, Syrinx, Io and Callisto are just a graduation leading to Actaeon’s in book three each hold significance especially that of Callisto as it shows not only the growing closeness of the attacks to Diana but also that Jupiter/Jove/Almighty, learning with each attack like any sexual predator
At the start of the story Jove seen healing the earth from the destruction, the merciful almighty (god of gods) almost endearing Jove to the readership. Ovid’s use of scenery does not go amiss (Parry, 1964)suggested ‘ Ovid remains as Herter insists a poet not a painter... a poem always is something more than a transcription from pictorial to literally’
Ovid uses these opening lines to set the scene showing the imagery of mountains...
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... must simply bow to the writers cunning and somewhat existential flair in renewing the myths of old. It is hard to see why it took so many years for the Metamorphoses to become part of mainstream education yet it can also be seen as a work of mythological superiority in the form of poetry covering all genres with its underlying tales of deception, sexual exploits, corruption, rape and the hunt can be transported into modern life.
Works Cited
A.Melville. (1986). Ovid Metamorphoses. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Heath, J. (1991). Diana's understanding of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Th classical Journal , 186 (3), 223-243.
Parry, H. (1964). Ovid's Metamorphoses: Violence in pastoral landscapes. Transactions and proceedings of the American Association , 95, 268-282.
Segal, C. (2001). Jupiter in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Arion: Third series , 9 (1), 78=99.
In this essay I will examine the war-of the-sexes taking place in The Eumenides, the final play of The Oresteia. The plot of The Eumenides pits Orestes and Apollo (representing the male gods and, to a certain extent, male values in general) against the ghost of Clytemnestra and the Furies (equally representative of female values.) Of more vital importance, however, is whether Athene sides with the males or females throughout the play.
The Roman poet Ovid once said in his narrative poem The Metamorphoses: “But since, o Gods, you were the source of these bodies becoming other bodies, breathe your breath into my book of changes”. Thus, literal and figurative transformation has been an enduring theme in literature since the dawn of civilisation. Over the centuries, literature has captured humankind’s use of transformation for survival purposes: be that social, physical, political and economical. For example, Les Mutineries by Guy Pedroncini, an account of the French riots that took place in 1917 regards transformation among the people as a form of revolution. This is a text that was key to Faulks’ knowledge surrounding the context of the Great War. In his 1993 novel Birdsong, Faulks, too, treats transformation of social order and norms, as a form of revolution. Transformation is represented via the episodic structure in Birdsong which transports his female protagonists through rapidly changing social and personal time frames. By doing so, he manages to connect the females to their pasts and presents thereby facilitating an exploration of how they form and adapt their values across their lives.
Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus can be argued that it is related loosely to Rita Dove's The Darker Face of the Earth. This comparative and contrasting characteristics that can be seen within both plays make the reader/audience more aware of imagery, the major characters, plot, attitudes towards women, and themes that are presented from two very different standpoints. The authors Sophocles and Dove both have a specific goal in mind when writing the two plays. In this paper I will take a closer look of the two, comparing and contrasting the plays with the various elements mentioned previously.
As one of the most well known ancient Roman love poets, Ovid has demonstrated bountiful talents within his writing. When reading myths from his book titled Metamorphoses, you gain an enlightening insight of how he viewed mythology. To Ovid, love was the origin of everything. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that most of his poems relate to the theme of love. However, not all poets are the same and every re-telling of a myth has its own unique perspective. In this paper I will compare and contrast the myth of Medea in Euripides Medea and Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 7. I will then explain how Ovid’s approach to love and loss correlate to his general approach to myth as a whole. I will support my belief with evidence from Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 14.
The depiction of the Greek and roman myths are given unique insights from different authors. The Hymn to Demeter and Ovid's Metamorphosis provide and insight to Demeter's love for her daughter, Persephone, and explores its affect on the surrounding environments. The theme of separation and isolation is present in both of these myths, however, in Ovid's Metamorphosis, he symbolizes the environment in important events, has characters playing different roles, and empowers female deities.
‘Instantly, in the emptiness of the landscape, a cry arose whose shrillness pierced the still air like a sharp arrow flying strait to the very heart of the land; and, as if by enchantment, streams of human beings-of naked human beings – with spears in their hands, with bows, with shields, with wild glances and savage movements, were poured into the c...
“Remember we are women, we’re not born to contend with men” (Sophocles, 18). The popular literary works, Antigone and A Doll’s House, written by Sophocles and Ibsen, are two famous tragedies that have been performed and read throughout the decades. Although countless audiences have been entertained by these well written plays, few would care to guess that many lessons and several unfortunate truths can be found with a less than tedious inspection of the characters and the reactions they give to their circumstances. The two main characters in these stories, Antigone and Nora, face adversities and problems that are amplified by their society’s views on the rights and abilities of women. The two main male characters in these plays, Creon and Helmer, cause the greater part of the struggle that the female protagonists face. The difficulties that Helmer and Creon create during the plot of these stories are the cause of three major characteristics of what one would consider typical to a headstrong man in a leadership position. The three features of Creon and Helmer that lead to the eventual downfall of Antigone and Nora, are pride, arrogance, and ignorance.
"Book One of Ovid's Metamorphoses establishes the book's theme of metamorphoses with a tale of creation that progresses into human stories leading to the current breed of man. The creation piece is followed by a flood story and a discussion of the ages of mankind. The ages of mankind - gold, silver, bronze, and iron - describe man's slow progression from a good, wholesome society into a miserable, self-destructive one. The next stories concern tales of gods and goddesses and their manipulations of the human population and each other. Book one ends (appropriately) with Phaethon's journey to meet his father, the sun, thus establishing Ovid's theme of quests for change."(auburn. edu)
Many readers feel the tendency to compare Aphra Behn's Oroonoko to William Shakespeare's Othello. Indeed they have many features in common, such as wives executed by husbands, conflicts between white and black characters, deceived heroes, the absolute vulnerability of women, etc. Both works stage male characters at both ends of their conflicts. In Othello, the tragic hero is Othello, and the villain is Iago. In Oroonoko, the hero is Oroonoko, the vice of the first part is the old king, and the second part white men in the colony. In contrast to their husbands, both heroines—Desdemona and Imoinda—seem more like "function characters" who are merely trapped in their husband's fates, occasionally becoming some motivation of their husbands (like Desdemona is Othello's motivation to rage, Imoinda's pregnancy drives Oroonoko restless to escape). While Shakespeare and Behn put much effort in moulding them, to many readers they are merely "perfect wives". This paper aims to argue that, Desdemona and Imoinda's perfect wifehood may be the product of compliance to male-dominated societies, where women are
Morford, Mark P.O., and Robert J. Lenardon. Classical Mythology. '7th ed'. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Atwood is playing with two levels of myth here: the Homeric myth of ‘faithful Penelope’ and cultural myths about women as either submissive or domestic (Howell 9). After marriage Penelope spends most of her time alone in boredom and Eurycelia, former nurse of Odysseus, often reminds her duties as wife by saying, “So you can have a nice big son for Odysseus. That’s your job” (63). Furthermore, Atwood recounts the vulnerability of alone woman in the male dominated world. To grab opportunity of being king, a number of suitors assemble at Ithaca, to marry Penelope, and she thinks, “They all were vultures when they spot the dead cow: one drops, then another, until finally every vulture for miles around is tearing up the carcass” (103). Moreover, Atwood argues about the partiality of sexual of freedom along with the vexed relationship between man and woman, as the former can do sex with any other woman such as Odysseus’s affairs with the goddess and whores, but the woman is restricted to marriage like Penelope. The foremost fatuous allegation makes on Penelope is about her faithfulness and loyalty for her husband Odysseus, and she defends herself from any sexual conduct in the chapter, “slanderous gossip”. The death of Amphinomus, the politest suitor among all, leaves the question of marital infidelity among the genders.
Kaika, Franz. The Metamorphosis and Other Stories. 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, N.Y. 11501: Dover Publications, 1996. Print.
Gregor's metamorphosis also suggests two arguments: that his transformation portrays the intense nature of humanity and that the transformation reveals a future escape from the intense existence. Th...
The ineffaceable impression which Sophocles makes on us today and his imperishable position in the literature of the world are both due to his character-drawing. If we ask which of the men and women ofGreek tragedy have an independent life in the imagination apart from the stage and from the actual plot in which they appear, we must answer, ‘those created by Sophocles, above all others’ (36).
Mandelbaum, Allen, trans. The Metamorphoses of Ovid. By Ovid. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & company, 2008.