Ovid's Metamorphoses Sexuality

and leadership capabilities in an influential way. Since the beginning of time, a multitude of

For example, she is capable to keep up with and come up with witty comments to respond to Benedick. When Beatrice is having an argument with Benedick she says, “Scratching could not make it worse, an 'twere such a face as yours were”(1.1.107-109), showing that she is not afraid to speak her mind and insult men. Being feisty, she continuously takes jabs at Benedick and expresses her honest opinion without having any hesitation. She is a clear illustration of how women are capable of keeping up with men. Her strong and powerful side is portrayed when she says, “But manhood is melted into curtsies, valor into compliment, and men are only turned into tongue, and trim ones, too” (4.1.315-318). She is infuriated about how Hero has been wrongfully shamed and wishes she was a man to get back at Claudio. She believes men should not be easily deceived, so this situation may never happen again. She proceeds to convince Benedick to kill Claudio, displaying her fire and bravery to object and fight the limitations and restrictions on women. She clearly wants to play a bigger role and have a bigger voice, but knows that she cannot, due to the gender expectations for women to be kept quiet. Furthermore, However, Beatrice is hinting at submitting to the gender stereotype and expectation of women towards the end of the play when Benedick says,

Young women could potentially be harmed if they were not physically ready to bear children, which highlights that the treatment of women was harsh and that from a male perspective, their ability to produce children was more important than their health. Additionally, Capulet is very complimentary to females, and calls them ‘earth-treading stars that make dark heaven light’, using a beautiful metaphor to contrast between dark and light to show he appreciates women. This establishes that Capulet is very admiring of attractive females and compares them to nature.

To begin, the infatuation seen between Hero and Claudio is shallow. Claudio had been similar to Benedick before seeing Hero. He was unappreciative of love and wrote off marriage; however, when Benedick asks if Claudio would marry, Claudio answers, “I would scarce trust myself, though I had sworn the contrary, if Hero would be my wife” (I. i. 175-176). Without a second thought, upon viewing Hero’s beauty, Claudio is ensared. He develops new feelings for this woman based on nothing more than lust based upon appearances. Later, Claudio admits to admiring Hero before: “But now I am return'd and that war-thoughts Have left their places vacant,

It is often—in books, poems, paintings, and sculptures—that one hears of and sees the goddess of love. But when is it that one hears of the god? In Greek mythology, Eros is the god of love, and a god who is many times overlooked. In Robert Bridges’ “EPÙÓ” and Anne Stevenson’s “Eros”, the idea that Eros is overlooked is portrayed, but in two separate ways. Techniques such as diction, imagery, and tone are used to help convey the idea.

Hero, just like her suitor, follows the model, at least in the eyes of Claudio, of the perfect ideal woman.  Even though Benedick does not like her and thinks that she is "too low..., too brown..., too little..., [and] unhandsome" (Shakespeare 1.1.138-141), Claudio thinks that she is "the sweetest lady that ever [he] looked on" (Shakespeare 1.1.151-152).  Throughout the play, Hero is   a model of speechless modesty.  She has very little to say or do in the play except live up to the expectations of the courtly lover.  For example, rather than violently or angrily objecting to the false accusations made against her by Claudio at the alter, she, as would be considered proper for the ideal woman, only swoons, blushes, and blanches.

In Ovid Metamorphoses, the Roman literature described the ruthless act of Pluto of rape, to seize and carry away Proserpine without the consent of Ceres and in parallel in the Homeric Hymns of Demeter; Persephone was seized and carried away by Hades without the consent of Demeter. The invariant theme that was identified in both the Greek and Roman literature was the loss of innocence of Persephone/Proserpine. Despite the various differences the story was presented, it reinforced the innocence that was stolen from the god of the underworld, Hades or also known as Pluto. Throughout this paper, it will discuss the similar characteristics of the two myths such as the motive that led and encouraged the god of the underworld to kidnap

She professes to scorn romance in general, but her romantic side is revealed, not only when she confesses her previous love for Benedick (278-282), but in her constant support of Hero's romantic attraction to Claudio at the start of the play--most notably in this scene when she encourages Hero to kiss her knew fiancé. Despite her earlier depiction, she is clearly hiding a more tender, even conventional side than is often assumed.

Their relationship draws parallels with another Shakespearean play, perhaps the most tragic of them all; Romeo and Juliet (c.1597). Hero and Claudio similarly to Romeo and Juliet, met and became engaged in a matter of days, upon a conflict in the story the principal female stages her death. However, unlike the well known tragedy, Hero and Claudio resolve their issues and we can presume lived happily ever after. The likeness of both plays presents the idea that perhaps Much Ado About Nothing is more tragic than expected. Therefore this would agree with the statement that ‘at times Shakespearean comedy veers uncomfortably close to tragedy’.

In one word, the author Ovid describes the overall content and theme of his poem with the word “Metamorphoses” in the title. Some relative synonyms of this word among others are; altar, change, mutate, develop, and reshape (metamorphose). But Ovid goes further to describe the theme within the first two lines of the poem.

The Greek myth of Hero and Leander is the story of Hero, a virgin priestess from Aphrodite in a tower in Sestos on the European side of Hellespont, and Leander, a young man from Abydos on the other side of the straight. They fell in love and Leander would swim across the Hellespont to see Hero. To help Leander, Hero would light a lamp to help guide him to her tower. Leander persuaded Hero to allow him to make love to her by saying that Aphrodite would look down on the praise of a virgin. This went on all throughout the summer but on a cold, stormy winter night, Leander was tossed around in the waves and the wind blew out Hero’s light. Leander lost his way in the water and drowned. When Hero saw Leander’s dead body, she flung herself off of

Ovid's "Metamorphoses" is sometimes argued as a non-epic as well as a true epic. It is mainly viewed as a non-epic because Ovid's subject matter is far from the heroic themes of the "Illiad", "Odyssey", and the "Aeneid" (Keith 237). Ovid was different and was motivated to push the epic beyond its previous boundaries (Ovid). Perhaps in hopes to confirm the structure of his work, Ovid declares that he will undertake "one continuous song in many thousands of verses" (Keith 238-239). Ovid's wording here is a self-conscious declaration that he is going to write in the epic mode.

Finally, we can appreciate how love, just as any instantiation of our moral framework, comes as embodied in a human ideal – and here we witness the figure of a familiar figure. If as we have seen above Lear considers Socrates as a prime example of someone who strived to achieve humanity, and if to achieve humanity is to become enter in an ever stronger relationship with love as our moral source, it follows that Socrates can be seen – as Lear does – as an ideal of what I shall call an erotic life. This, implies that there is a connection between living the life of the ironist and that of living the life of the eroticist. However, in order to fully explain this link between irony, love, and individuation, we must now consider how Lear describes

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

The excerpt of “Hero and Leander” we will focus on is the very beginning of the poem. Here Christopher Marlowe sets the stage. The focus begins with the background. Two cities, opposing each other on either sides of the Hellespont (a body of water). After only a few lines, Marlowe shifts focus from the cities and towards Hero, one of the main characters in the story. The interesting thing here is that Marlowe does not give much attention to the details of the story, but rather dives into an intense seen of imagery regarding Hero. Marlowe, an a successful attempt to convey the Hero's beauty, says “Her kirtle blue, whereon was many a stain, Made with the blood of wretched lovers slain” (29). Not only did she have many suitors, but their love for her wash dashed down like a man being slain. Then Marlowe goes on to say “Many would praise the sweet smell as she past... And there for honey bees have sought in vain” (41). This imagery shows that Hero was so beautiful that even nature could not stay away from her.