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Figurative transformation in ovid's metamorphoses
Figurative transformation in ovid's metamorphoses
Figurative transformation in ovid's metamorphoses
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Apollo's Human Gardening in Ovid's Metamorphoses
In Ovid's epic poem Metamorphoses, he uses many transformations of humanoids to explain the existence of many natural entities such as animals, plants, rivers, and so forth. Ovid uses the Roman gods to be the active agents in many of the metamorphoses, although some of them are caused simply by the will of the being. In the Melville translation of Metamorphoses, the stories "The Sun in Love" (book IV, ln226-284) and "Hyacinth" (book X, ln170-239) have occurrences of both agencies of transformation of people into plants. Apollo is the catalyst that causes the metamorphoses in each of the stories. The metamorphoses involved support the concepts of the "Great Chain of Being" and the metaphor "People are Plants" expressed in the book More than Cool Reason by George Lakoff and Mark Turner due to the aspects involved in the Ovidian metaphors and what the people transform into.
In the section "The Sun in Love", Apollo is cursed by Venus, being punished "with a love as ruinous" as the revelation that Apollo made to Vulcan of Venus' affair with Mars. Apollo loves Leucothoe, a young human virgin, and during his rape Leucothoe "with no complaint accepted his assault." Leucothoe's affair with Apollo is brought to light to her father by Clytie, who responds by burying Leucothoe in the manner that was the "traditional punishment of a Vestal Virgin detected in unchastity." Apollo sprinkles Leucothoe with "heavenly nectar" and she metamorphoses into a frankincense shrub. Apollo spurns Clytie - who loves Apollo and out of jealousy revealed Leucothoe - and she pines away in a field for nine days, watching Apollo pass through the sky each day. Through her own jealousy, envy, and regret, Clytie...
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... Turner explanations of metaphors in their book More than Cool Reason, specifically through the complex and extensive Great Chain of Being and the People are Plants metaphor. Apollo's identification with each of the metamorphoses gives him the identity of the farmer who sows the seeds, and he ends up being - directly with Hyacinth and Leucothoe and indirectly with Clytie - the agent who causes the metamorphoses. Each of the transformations that the characters underwent are fitting, proper, and have a more profound implication and motive than simply transformation from one form to another.
Works Cited
Ovid. Metamorphoses. Trans. A.D. Melville. Oxford University Press. New York, New York. 1986. (pp 79-82, 230-232).
Lakoff, George and Mark Turner. More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor. University of Chicago Press. Chicago, Illinois. 1989.
Figurative Language:.. & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & -"But I could not forget my brownish-red nubbin where one leg should have been, and a left side that looked like the crackling of a roast." (Pg.117) - "I took to teaching like a duck to water" (pg.116) & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; Metaphor & nbsp; -"To me a boy is a green apple." ( pg.116 ) Tone:.. The author wants the reader to take another look at Dunstan from a different angle. Seeing that no one has the perfect life. Mood:.. The reader is a bit shocked to find that Dunstan has acted in such a non-approving way.
mal species. As one can see, when comparing each of the accounts of the flood and creation in Ovid's Metamorphoses and Genesis, there are some very similar actions or events that take place in each of these accounts, while separating themselves a great deal by putting emphasis on very different messages. It is because of these variations in writing and technique that each of these poems have acquired and maintained the respect they truly deserve through many years of evaluation and criticism. Works Cited New American Standard Bible.
The story, Metamorphosis, is an unusual story to say the least. The very first sentence one meets the main character, Gregor Samsa. This sentence really shows how different this story is when compared to other books in this class. Throughout the story the author, Franz Kafka, wants the reader to sympathize with Gregor. ‘When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams, he found himself changed into a monstrous cockroach in his bed’ (87), is the first sentence, and already the author wants the reader to feel sympathy for Gregor. This is no dream either, he is really a bug, and Kafka makes sure there is no confusion. This is just one of many examples that I will discuss where Kafka wants the reader to sympathize with Gregor.
In The Metamorphosis Kafka illustrates a grotesque story of a working salesman, Gregor Samsa, waking up one day to discover that his body resembles a bug. Through jarring, almost unrealistic narration, Kafka opens up the readers to a view of Gregor’s futile and disappointing life as a human bug. By captivating the reader with this imaginary world Kafka is able to introduce the idea that Gregor’s bug body resembles his human life. From the use of improbable symbolism Kafka provokes the reader to believe that Gregor turning into a bug is realistic and more authentic compared to his unauthentic life as a human.
Roman and Greek mythology are filled with multiple interpretations of how the creator, be it the gods or nature, contributed to the birth of the world. These stories draw the backgrounds of the gods and goddesses that govern much of classical mythology. Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Hesiod’s Theogony are two pieces of work that account for how our universe came to be. A comparison of Theogony with Metamorphoses reveals that Hesiod’s creation story portrays the deities as omnipresent, powerful role whose actions triggered the beginning of the universe whereas in Metamorphoses, the deities do not play a significant role; rather the humans are center of the creation. The similarities and differences are evident in the construction of the universe, ages of man, and the creation of men and women on earth.
In Ovid's Metamorphoses, the concept of love seems to vary from character to character. In one case, a god in the form of a man desperately seeks a particular woman and refuses to relent until he has her. In another instance, a female goddess cares deeply for a man and goes to great lengths to protect him from danger. In yet another case, both who are arranged to be married seem indifferent about the matter.
Goldfarb, Sheldon. “Critical Essay on ‘The Metamorphosis’.” Short Stories for Students. Ed. Jennifer Smith. Vol. 12. Detroit: Gale Group, 2001.
"Metamorphosis, The." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 2011. Web. 6 Nov. 2011. .
The difference between the way Homer and Ovid present the gods and their relation to human being is that in Homer, the gods are more tough on the humans than in The Metamorphoses. In The Iilad, some gods were focused on returning Odysseus home while some were trying to stop him in his tracks. This story also focuses more on environment and symbolism because of the way the story is written. In Metamorphoses, the gods seem to care more about human beings. They show stronger emotions towards them. You can see this through all of the theme changes that occur in the story. They penalized people who were wicked and reward those that were piety. Metamorphoses set the tone in Book I, when the gods punished Lycaon for trying to kill Jupiter in his
Over the course of time, many things tend to transform significantly. Such is the case of tragic literature and the cathartic effect it has on the reader, which has deteriorated a great deal from Sophocles' writing of the true tragedy, Oedipus Rex. King Lear exemplifies partial decomposition of catharsis, whereas Desire Under The Elms epitomises an almost total collapse of the cathartic effect. It is assumed that the lower the social status of the tragic hero, the weaker the ability of the 1990's audience to identify with the character's flaw. The term 'identify' refers to the ability to relate to the situation or idea. The lower social status of the protagonist in Desire Under The Elms allows a weaker level of reader identification than that experienced in King Lear or Oedipus Rex, which is made evident by examining stages two and three of catharsis.
...uses symbolism to convey his message about humanity. The underlying message of the Metamorphosis is that it unfolds the truth about human nature; the story tells us that humans have lost their humanity. He uses the vermin, food, Mr. Samsa’s uniform, apple, his autobiography, and violin as symbols in the Metamorphosis. The word transformation does not apply to Gregor but also to all the family members of Samsa family. Grete was one of the members of the family, who transformed. For the first few weeks, she took care of Gregor and leaves food for him but then she transforms and she starts to hate Gregor because the family members thought Gregor was a burden to them and was worthless. The family lost the sympathy for Gregor.
It is also significant that he has intentionally broken away from the stereotypical austere images of the gods, and has set his gods at the opposite end of the scale to the Virgilian gods. BIBLIOGRAPHY: OVID METAMORPHOSES Translated by A.D.Melville VIRGIL THE AENEID Translated by R.Fitzgerald D.C.Feeny The Gods in Epic G.K.Galinsky Ovid's Metamorphoses R.O.A.M.Lyne Further Voices in Virgil's Aeneid Wilkinson Ovid Recalled C.H.Wilson Jupiter and the Fates in the Aeneid --------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Virgil's Aeneid: book: 1.5 ff.
In Homer’s Odyssey there are several different incidences where adultery occurs. When Odysseus is away, he has an affair with Circe in order to save his crew members who were turned into pigs. Afterwards, Odysseus has an affair with Kalypso and becomes trapped on her island because she does not want him to leave. She proposes that he stay with her, and that she would give him everything that he needs. He declines, and tells her that he loves his wife Penelope and wants to return to his home in Ithaca. Throughout both of his affairs, he still expects his wife to stay true to him, even though he has been gone for decades. He also seems to be contradicting himself by sleeping with two others, but still claims to love his wife. Another example
Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" offers a powerfully symbolic expression of personal anguish and uncertainty. The story's opening sequence tells of a man named Gregor Samsa who awakes one morning to find that he has been inexplicably transformed into a giant insect. Isolation, fear, and personal resentment eventually overwhelm the creature. At last, when Gregor Samsa is completely abandoned, death succumbs him. The emotional distress and internal struggle for Samsa in "The Metamorphosis" is quite logical for Kafka's audience. The circumstance of Samsa's sudden fate, however, is not. Kafka solves this problem by providing intimate details about the unbelievable, forcing the audience to accept things otherwise deemed ridiculous. In "The Metamorphosis," for example, Kafka describes inse...
Transformations from one shape or form into another are the central theme in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The popularity and timelessness of this work stems from the manner of story telling. Ovid takes stories relevant to his culture and time period, and weaves them together into one work with a connecting theme of transformation throughout. The thread of humor that runs through Metamorphoses is consistent with the satire and commentary of the work. The theme is presented in the opening lines of Metamorphoses, where the poet invokes the gods, who are responsible for the changes, to look favorably on his efforts to compose. The changes are of many kinds: from human to animal, animal to human, thing to human, human to thing. Some changes are reversed: human to animal to human. Sometimes the transformations are partial, and physical features and personal qualities of the earlier being are preserved in mutated form.