Tyler Fall's Metamorphoses

To fully understand the poems; Metamorphoses and Theogony, one needs to understand more about the writers. Hesiod was a greek poet, who lived around 700BC, and was inspired by muses to write epic poetry. Theogony is considered one of earliest works and concerns itself with the cosmogony, or the origins of the world and theogony, or the gods, and pays specific detail to genealogy (West, 1996: 521). Ovid, on the other hand, was a Roman poet, born in 43 BC – the year after the assassination of Julius Caesar and lived during Augustus’s reign. It’s said that his father took him to Rome to become educated in the ways of

Unlike other epics written about the Trojan War, Ovid uses a different perspective to describe it. In other myths and epics, the Trojan War is described with power and strength. Ovid describes the war and its heroes with sarcasm and insignificance. His focus is more on the transformations of the heroes after the fact, not their greatest accomplishments, which goes along with the theme of the rest of the epic. Many of the myths in Metamorphoses center around love and infatuation, as well as rejection. The myth of the death of Orpheus dealt mostly with rejection, which eventually leads to two transformations.

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

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.

The classical era was a point during which humanity took a great leap forward in terms of understanding and documenting itself. One work of fiction, the Metamorphoses by Apuleius, has given historians a look into life into the second century C.E. by telling stories that were written in that time period. Works of fiction often provide metaphors and allegories greater societal and ideological trends of the civilizations they occupy, and that is especially true of this text. Apuleius uses the extraordinary anecdotes of one character’s journey to illustrate the complexities of life as he knows it. In doing so he provides a window into a world long passed without even being aware of it. This paper aims to analyze the roles of politics,

In the Poetics, Aristotle provides an outline of how the artist is to portray or represent the perfect Tragedy. A Tragedy, of course, was nothing more than a drama, in which the characters appeared "better" than in real life (in a comedy, they appeared "worse," according to Aristotle). Aristotle's Poetics makes several references to other dramatic works to illustrate his points, but he most commonly calls upon The Odyssey to support his argument for how a dramatic structure should be designed. However, along with the Odyssey, Aristotle extensively references Sophocles' Oedipus Rex. Both poetic works were enormously popular in their time (the former had been passed down orally for generations, and the latter won the top prizes at the dramatic festivals). Therefore, Aristotle is comfortable using both to support his viewpoint concerning Tragedy and the Tragic Hero. This paper will analyze the standards that Aristotle sets out concerning the definition of the Tragic Hero and show how Sophocles' Oedipus exemplifies Aristotle's definition of a Tragic Hero.

In Ovid’s Metamorphoses his poems have more substance to them than just a simple story. This leads to the thought that Ovid views love as very complicated and not always as easy as everyone thinks based on his poem the Metamorphoses. Some scenes that show this is when Apollo is chasing Daphne and she is scared. Another example is when Jove changed Io into a cow and Juno knew Jove was lying about something.

Although it is considered one continuous poem, there are many different focuses. He begins with the creation of the world and humankind. Roman gods are a critical part to each story, and one of his main focuses is their interaction with normal people. He talks about divine rape, which happened to many women throughout Roman history because gods are much stronger and deserving of everything. He depicts gods as foolish and brutal. He insists that the gods are not moral and care far more for sacrifices and tokens of appreciation, rather than moral behavior from the citizens of Rome. Because a lot of his subject throughout the books is typically very dark and not discussed in poetry, Ovid uses humor to ease his writing. Although Ovid talks about people and gods as ever-evolving people, he also talks of metamorphoses through places. For example, Troy is defeated and Rome rises. He continues his stories, often focusing on the same character in multiple, until he has mentioned every important historical moment from the beginning of earth until present time during Augustus’s rule. In comparison to Virgil’s Aeneid, Metamorphoses has very little similarities. For example, the form of both works are considered epics. This means that both poems are very long narratives. The difference between the two is that the Aeneid focuses on one plotline, with only one heroine. Metamorphoses, however, focuses on multiple

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.

Metamorphoses Ovid, like many of the poets of his time, based writings off the mythical gods. There are many things that Ovid points out in Metamorphoses, being why the epic consists of many books. In Metamorphoses, Ovid paints the picture of the disasters and suffering of the mortals and their misdeeds that were punished by the gods. In many of these books that make up Metamorphoses, the mortal disobeys the advice of the gods, and is therefore punished. An example of some of the mortal failings are self-love, pride, and doubt.

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, adapted by Peter Kuper revealed how people are affected by the demands of society physically, emotionally, and mentally.

In The Metamorphoses, Ovid depicts an entire range of human nature in his myths, such as love, hatred, jealousy and pride; each of which lead to reckless and illogical behavior. Many different forms of human nature are displayed, but the outcome is always consistent. The transformations that result are not unpredictable, but serve to reveal the true character of the persons involved. Ovid’s view of human nature is one where humans and gods alike succumb to their emotions, which then leads to a transformation for the worse.

Further on, in Book Six of “Metamorphoses”, Ovid introduces readers to the characters of Tereus and his wife, Procne. Tereus, at his wife’s request, brings her sister, Philomela, for a visit. However, he becomes so captivated by Philomela that he imprisons, rapes, and mutilates her. In order to avenge Tereus, Procne along with Philomela, trick Tereus into consuming the flesh of his own son. The story of Tereus, Procne and Philomela exists as one of absolute extremes.

The tale of Oedipus and his prophecy has intrigued not only the citizens of Greece in the ancient times, but also people all over the world for several generations. Most notable about the play was its peculiar structure, causing the audience to think analytically about the outcomes of Oedipus’ actions and how it compares with Aristotle’s beliefs. Another way that the people have examined the drama is by looking at the paradoxes (such as the confrontation of Tiresias and Oedipus), symbols (such as the Sphinx), and morals that has affected their perceptions by the end of the play. Nonetheless, the most important aspect is how relevant the story is and how it has influenced modern ideas like that of Freud and other people of today.

Continuing in the epic form, the opening lines of the poem, indeed follow the time-honoured epic tradition of announcing the theme and invoking divine assistance (Ovid). "Metamorphoses'" narrative method involves many of the devices of the epic manner: long extended similes, catalogues, famous heroic figures, quests and journeys, feasts, battles, heroic speeches, councils of war, and a supernatural plane to the action (Ovid). The range and precision of Ovid's references to the classical epic tradition in articulating the program of Metamorphoses establishes the poem's generic alignment with epos (Keith 239).