Contemporary Gods of Metamorphosis Ovid’s metamorphosis reads as a collection of mythical poems, describing the timeless battle between the gods and humans. The relationship between humans and gods is not just one of single sided adulation. The gods in the Metamorphosis are susceptible to the same errors in judgement and of living erroneous lifestyles just as humans. The only real difference between the two classes of beings is that one has direct power over another. The relationship is interesting because it mirrors modern day relationships between public figures and the public. Contemporary ideals and culture has led to the demise of a belief in gods that play a role in our day to day activities. For the most part religion has …show more content…
While they may not necessarily be heroes or perceived in a positive light, they are prone to more leeway in Society than most others are. The best example of this would be Bill Clinton, the president of the United States of America. His extramarital affair was a huge public scandal, but he received no punishment. Marion Barry, the mayor of Washington DC, was caught smoking crack on a surveillance film. He was re-elected several years later. What makes the example of political figures applicable is that they actually have power over the masses. While their power may be limited or checked, they possess the power to enhance or limit our freedoms. They are more equivalent to gods who answer to no one, but effect the lives of humans on a regular basis. Ovid’s characters often question the disparities between their own lives and the lives of the gods. The different set of standards they are forced to live by, while the beings they pray to do not live similar lives. The story of Byblis and Caunus tells of a sister who is in love with her brother. Byblis wonders why she can not nurture her love for her brother, when the "it is the gods themselves who wed their sisters: Saturn married Ops, his kin by blood; and Tethys married Oeanus; and he who rules Olympus married Juno." And Jerry Lee Lewis, a rock star from the 1950’s, married his 13-year-old
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.
In 3.2, we see Ovid using his rhetorical skill to woo a lady at the races. This poem seems to present almost an idealistic or fantasy view of love, which is highlighted by the abundance of mythological and religious references: in this poem alone we see Pelops, the legs of Atalanta and Diana and the parade of the effigies of Gods. Ovid uses various devices to encapsulate his little world of love in the circus. He marks out his area by talking about the lines which marked out the seats (“cogit nos linea iungi”) which push the two characters together into their own little world. When, in lines 21 to24, their little world is broken into by various other spectators, Ovid turns on them and scolds them, which is emphasised by the har...
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.
Euripides’ plays Hippolytus, The Bacchae and Iphigenia at Aulis all revolve around the journey of key characters that fail to show respect to various deities within the Greek Pantheon. This disrespect, in all three plays, is met out with retaliation from the gods themselves, thus effecting those that disrespected them as well as their families. To convey these tales Euripides implements many themes, one such theme being divine retaliation. Euripides’ use of the theme of divine retaliation provides a stark illustration of the Greek Pantheon striving to prove their superiority relentlessly and gives insight into their merciless use of mortals as pawns to achieve this.
The studied passage is from Ovid’s eighth book: Daedalus and Icarus. This book treats about heroes. This study aims to analyse several literary devices, which announce the death of Icarus, their function within the story, and the purpose they serve.
Ovid’s Metamorphoses is an anti-epic that was written in an attempt to poke fun at the seriousness of Virgil’s Aeneid. Although the Aeneid and Metamorphoses differ vastly from one another, both of these two revolutionary Roman works provide contemporary readers with insight into Rome’s treatment of women during the age of Augustus. However, Ovid’s Metamorphoses portrays women in a much more positive light than Virgil does in the Aeneid, and this informs readers that Ovid, not Virgil, was at least somewhat concerned with the oppression of women in ancient Roman society.
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.
The final battle a Greek hero must conquer is appeasing the Gods and returning home alive and victorious. Different from a modern hero who has to appease no one and becomes a sort of god him or herself, the Greek hero has many more consequences if he or she does not succeed. This distinction shows how the Greeks felt obliged to honor their gods in order to live a trouble free life and how modern people see their heroes as gods instead of humans.
The main character, Ovid, is a vivid example of how lives can be periodically changed according to alterations in the surrounding environment. At the start of the book Ovid is a stranger to his setting, stranded in a culture that deprives him of his language, his customs, and his pride. This shows that identity is primarily constructed according to the society in which people are placed, and much social learning and norms are derived from conformity to the conditions of a particular environment. In An Imaginary Life, Ovid completes a journey of self discovery, learning how to create and cultivate an existence based on interrelationship with the natural world, entering a into partly idealistic and imaginary existence, hence the title.
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.
Our athletes are looked at as heroes and in our dark and painful world we love superheroes. So what’s better in our world than real life superheroes, nothing. This is why they are given special treatment just like how men of God were back in the day when Religion was the opiate of the
“Gods can be evil sometimes.” In the play “Oedipus the King”, Sophocles defamed the gods’ reputation, and lowered their status by making them look harmful and evil. It is known that all gods should be perfect and infallible, and should represent justice and equity, but with Oedipus, the gods decided to destroy him and his family for no reason. It might be hard to believe that gods can have humanistic traits, but in fact they do. The gods, especially Apollo, are considered evil by the reader because they destroyed an innocent man’s life and his family. They destroyed Oedipus by controlling his fate, granting people the power of prophecy, telling Oedipus about his fate through the oracle of Apollo, and finally afflicting the people of Thebes with a dreadful plague. Fundamentally, by utilizing fate, prophecies, the oracle of Apollo, and the plague, the gods played a significant role in the destruction of Oedipus and his family.
The global celebration of modern celebrity is partly a product of our pre-historic need for heroes. In a world where philosophers keep telling us that God is dead, the modern Hollywood celebrity also serves as a brittle substitute for both the post-Christian and pre-Christian need for deities. If, as is often claimed, Hollywood operates under the assumption that only eight different stories can be told, then all eight stories can be found in the Greek Myths, with the exception of the Christian ideal that the weak, not the strong, are blessed.
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.
Life is a never-ending metamorphosis. It is always changing, always transforming. Sometimes a change is followed by positive results, but on the darker side, a metamorphosis can lead to damage or suffering. But of course, the concept of metamorphosis can also be related into the wonderful yet unrealistic world of magic and sorcery. Metamorphosis can mean a rapid transformation from one object to another or a distinct or even degenerative change in appearance, personality, condition, or function. The concept of metamorphosis is commonly used in pieces of literature to describe an extreme change in character or form.