Ovid's Metamorphoses
Prima ab origine mundi, ad mea perpetuum... tempora carmen, "from the very beginning of the world, in an unbroken poem, to my own time" (Metamorphoses 1.3-4). Publius Ovidius Naso also known as Ovid wrote Metamorphoses, which combines hundreds of stories from Greek mythology and Roman traditions. He stitched many of them together in a very peculiar epic poem in fifteen books. The central theme of the book is transformation "from the earliest beginnings of the world, down to my own times." Ovid sweeps down from the creation to the Augustan era. Metamorphoses or Transformations refers to the change of shape and form of the characters of the poem. The theme is presented in the opening lines of the poem, where the poet invokes the gods who are responsible for the changes to look favorably on his efforts to compose. The main agent of transformation is love, represented by Venus and her youthful and mischievous son, Cupid. 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.
the middle section of the work, as seen by the many anachronisms throughout (Callisto (Book 2), Atlas (Book 4), and Cygnus (Book 11). The transitions of the books are very surprising. The reader never knows where the stories are going. Sometimes the reader follows the same character through different adventures (Perseus (Book 4), Hercules (Book10)). Then there are stories within a story. Ovid uses certain characters to act as an internal narrator (Mercury (Book1)). The stories alternate from the story of one character to that of a relative or friend (Epahus and Phaethon (Book 1)). There are also variations in theme. For example in Books one and two there are five obvious variations of the "virgin pursued by god". Thus, throughout the work Ovid creates a complex chain of interconnecting themes. `The characters and the places are too numerous to list. But all of Ovid's characters are so alive and have so much personalities. The settings, which have no names only descriptions) are poetic. For example in Book three he describes " the stream so clear that its pebbles can be counted" or "the still pool hidden among the shady trees" and, " the beach where the sand is of just the right texture for walking". These give the stories a very poetic appeal. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This poem would be enjoyed by anyone who is interested in mythology, love, warfare, nature, animals, monsters, murder, rape, greed, lust, and everything else. Ovid obviously knew what he was doing when he decided to gear this book towards everyone, not just the scholars. Children would enjoy these exc
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Approximate Word count = 1098
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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