Transformations in Ovid's Metamorphosis Essay

Change and transformations are constantly happening and are a part of our everyday life. Ovid’s Metamorphoses is a book of collections of Roman Myths about the changes and transformations in the physical world and ones we experience in human life. Ovid explores transformations of all kind in his epic poem, some literal and others figurative. There are stories of change in the human context of aging and also very literal transformations such as turning into a plant.

In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the world came to be in a much different way than in The Songlines. A “Great Creator” separated the Earth and the sky, the sea from the land, and the heavens from the the air.3 In this work, not only did Ovid describe the creation of the world, he also wrote about how the “things” of the world came to be. The Metamorphoses are filled with stories about the gods getting angry with the humans and punishing them for their actions. The first one written is about Lycaon and the god Jupiter. Lycaon questions Jupiter’s legitimacy and then tries to trick him. Outraged, Jupiter turns Lycaon into a wolf and floods the earth, only sparing one man, Deucalion, and one woman, Pyrrha, because of their devotedness to the gods. This is not the only example of this and is seen again with Arachne and the goddess Minerva. Minerva, a cunning and confident goddess, approached Arachne and challenged her to competition: weaving. After the competition came to an end, Minerva turned her rival Arachne into a spider out of rage for being defeated. 4

In Metamorphoses, Ovid tells the reader his intention--"to tell of bodies changed / to different forms"--and invokes the gods to help him with the poem.

    Byblis and Myrrha, two of Ovid's impassioned, transgressive heroines, confess incestuous passions. Byblis yearns for her brother, Caunus, and Myrrha lusts for her father, Cinyras. Mandelbaum translates these tales effectively, but sometimes a different translation by Crane brings new meaning to an argument. As Byblis and Myrrha realize the feelings at hand, they weigh the pros and cons of such emotions. Despite the appalling relationships in question, each young girl provides concrete support and speaks in such a way that provokes pity for her plight. Their paths of reasoning coincide, but Byblis starts where Myrrha's ends, and visa versa; Myrrha begins where Byblis' concludes.

In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the reader is faced with a wide array of transformation of humans to objects, plants and animals and also the seasonal transformation due to the emotions of the Gods’. Too most of us today, the changing of the seasons is due to the rotation of the earth around the sun. In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the changing of the season are shown to be due to the emotions of Ceres, and this changing of the season is one such transformation due to the emotion of a God. Ceres is angry over the loss of her daughter, Proserpina, to Dis, (also know as Pluto or Hades, King of the Dead), her anger causes devastation to the land by droughts, floods and other natural disasters. Ceres

The ironic lesson that is learned from reading The Metamorphosis is that Gregor Samsa experiences a metamorphosis in the bodily sense only; theoretically Gregor had always been a bug and becoming one bodily has no consequence on his pleasure of life. After understanding that he is no longer human, Gregor's thought developments experience no alteration. Out of all the things Gregor could revolution into, he alterations into a creature. One cannot help but draw counterparts between the Gregor's life and an insect's life. Most bugs, especially ants and bees, have some sort of labor force that deliver for the rest of the group. Gregor delivers for his family in much the same way as a creature would offer for its nest or store. He expenses almost all aspects of fun, and does not

In The Metamorphosis Gregor Samsa is forced to deal with his transformation from a human being into an insect. After his transformation Gregor is no longer able to do everyday ordinary things. He now has to depend on someone to do these things for him. His younger sister, Grete, makes herself responsible for Gregor. She takes it upon herself to make sure that Gregor is fed and his room is cleaned. This leads to the question; why does she place such a huge responsibility on herself? An optimist like Gregor who only sees the good side of people would say it is because she is a loving and caring person. That her brother’s current condition makes her feel sorry for him and

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka is a critically-acclaimed novella for the bizarre manner it is written in. Gregor Samsa, the protagonist, awakens from his slumber one morning only to discover he is no longer a human being. Strangely enough, he is now a grotesque insect. Although some may see this as an author not taking their literary work earnestly, Gregor’s transformation to an insect is symbolic in many ways to the society he is living in. In addition, his drastic change in appearance serves as a metaphor to key themes that are essential to an adolescent’s life. The Metamorphosis should be a required high school reading because it involves themes such as identity, family, and alienation that any high school student can relate to and acquire moral lessons.

In Ovid’s “The Story of Daedalus and Icarus”, Ovid uses characterization to make the characters realistic and vivid and to reveal plot through the characters’ actions, thoughts, speech and physical appearance. Without the characterization of Daedalus and Icarus, understanding “The Story of Daedalus and Icarus” completely is not possible. Ovid hides important pieces of the plot in the text, and wants the readers to reveal the true meaning of the story by looking into the characteristics of the main characters, Daedalus and Icarus. With the view of their wants and responsibilities, the story becomes clear to the reader and the purpose of this story in a poem is revealed.

Ovid’s interpretation of the creation myth, begins the same way the Greek creation myth begins, with only chaos. A god or entity forms and orders the chaos into different elements of the earth. Here the world, or the universe itself is undergoing a metamorphosis, but Ovid implies through his works that the universe never truly moved beyond the essential chaos that predated the universe. In Book V of the Metamorphoses, Ovid uses the significance and the quantity of the transformations to demonstrate the idea of everything is operating in a state of constant flux. He then, uses the order of the stories, to develop his ideas about a hierarchical pattern of existence.

There once was a Nymph by the name of Daphne. She was the daughter of Titaness Gaea. Daphne was Apollo’s first love. He loved her as soon as he saw her. Daphne, however, tried to flee Apollo as she didn’t care about him. Apollo didn’t give up so e chased her and finally held her in his arms. Daphne prayed to Gaea, her mother, to make her disappear. The Titaness fulfilled this and made Daphne into a

When individuals are rejected by family and society, they tend to feel abandoned and unloved. In Franz Kafka’s, The Metamorphosis, Gregor’s transformation into a “monstrous vermin” (Kafka 1) results in him being psychologically and even physically abused by his family. Rejection from his mother, sister, and father leave Gregor feeling unwanted and feeling as if he is a terrible burden on the family and their well being.

In the section of the poem, Book I:1-20 The Primal Chaos, the first line reads,” I want to speak about bodies changed into new forms” (Ovid). In this line Ovid is announcing that he is the narrator of this poem and it is about events which have caused change and/or transformation.

The sculpture Apollo and Daphne, created by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, is based off a story from Book 1 of Ovid's Metamorphoses. It is a portrayal of when Daphne is turned into a tree when trying to escape Apollo after they were both shot with an arrow by Eros. The sculpture is a powerful visual of Daphne and Apollo’s emotions as Daphne was captured by him. To evaluate the photo further I will discuss the feeling of empathy the sculpture made me feel and two connections the sculpture has to Ovid’s story.

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.