Most of the Greek and Roman myths you read in high school were re-tellings of stories from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Choose your favorite myth and read Ovid's version of that myth. Read also one of the Ovid myths that you *hadn't* read before. Cite one example for each myth that shows particularly well Ovid's "insight into the human condition."If you want to get the overall picture of the Metamorphoses, see this excellent introduction and commentary by Larry Brown.
Ruth Wilson
ReplyDeleteI think the progression of the ages really illustrates the human condition well. If you look at any great ruler and then compair him to his successor and then the third generation after that, you can see the ages of man in action. Rome had a golden age under Augustas, the silver age under Tiberius and the brutish bronze age under Calligula and Nero.
I see the same progression in religion frequently. The grandparent is totally devoted, the parent tries to tag along on that devoutedness and the grandchildren recognize the hipocracy of the second generation and turn totally against what ever religion it happens to be.
Bk I:32-51 The earth and sea. The five zones.
ReplyDeleteWhen whichever god it was had ordered and divided the mass, and collected it into separate parts, he first gathered the earth into a great ball so that it was uniform on all sides. Then he ordered the seas to spread and rise in waves in the flowing winds and pour around the coasts of the encircled land. He added springs and standing pools and lakes, and contained in shelving banks the widely separated rivers, some of which are swallowed by the earth itself, others of which reach the sea and entering the expanse of open waters beat against coastlines instead of riverbanks. He ordered the plains to extend, the valleys to subside, leaves to hide the trees, stony mountains to rise: and just as the heavens are divided into two zones to the north and two to the south, with a fifth and hotter between them, so the god carefully marked out the enclosed matter with the same number, and described as many regions on the earth. The equatorial zone is too hot to be habitable; the two poles are covered by deep snow; and he placed two regions between and gave them a temperate climate mixing heat and cold.
I picked this because it kind of explains zones we live in. In the middle it is to hot and on the north and south it is to cold. So we live in the temerate zones with the right mixture of hot and cold.
Bk I:274-292 The Flood
Jupiter’s anger is not satisfied with only his own aerial waters: his brother the sea-god helps him, with the ocean waves. He calls the rivers to council, and when they have entered their ruler’s house, says ‘Now is not the time for long speeches! Exert all your strength. That is what is needed. Throw open your doors, drain the dams, and loose the reins of all your streams!’ Those are his commands. The rivers return and uncurb their fountains’ mouths, and race an unbridled course to the sea.
Neptune himself strikes the ground with his trident, so that it trembles, and with that blow opens up channels for the waters. Overflowing, the rivers rush across the open plains, sweeping away at the same time not just orchards, flocks, houses and human beings, but sacred temples and their contents. Any building that has stood firm, surviving the great disaster undamaged, still has its roof drowned by the highest waves, and its towers buried below the flood. And now the land and sea are not distinct, all is the sea, the sea without a shore.
I also picked this one because it kind of shows how humans explain events such as floods. I also think it relates to biblical stories like noahs ark. Its kind of natural for humans so explain disasters as acts of gods.
The human conditions of jealousy and pride are illustrated in a myth that I once knew well, the myth of Minerva and Arachne. Minerva- a goddess, and Arachne, a famed mortal, come into a conflict which is ended with Arachne being turned into a spider. Both are renowned for their beautiful weaving abilities, and the conflict was a tapestry duel, of sorts. I love the colorful imagery and vivid details that Ovid includes in his version; It reminds me of why I loved this myth in the first place!
ReplyDeleteThe myth of Latona and the Lycians is one I had not yet heard. It demonstrates the human condition of lacking charity, in that the Lycians were turned to frogs for refusing to give water to the disguised goddess Latona.
“This conflict was ended by a god and a greater order of nature, since he split off the earth from the sky, and the sea from the land, and divided the transparent heavens from the dense air. When he had disentangled the elements, and freed them from the obscure mass, he fixed them in separate spaces in harmonious peace. The weightless fire, that forms the heavens, darted upwards to make its home in the furthest heights. Next came air in lightness and place. Earth, heavier than either of these, drew down the largest elements, and was compressed by its own weight. The surrounding water took up the last space and enclosed the solid world”
ReplyDeleteI chose this quote because it gives an explanation for the reason behind why certain elements are where they are. It also gives a scientific reason for how the earth was created. This also shows a way in which humans can explain certain things, like the creation of the Earth.
“Either the creator god, source of a better world, seeded it from the divine, or the newborn earth just drawn from the highest heavens still contained fragments related to the skies, so that Prometheus, blending them with streams of rain, moulded them into an image of the all-controlling gods. While other animals look downwards at the ground, he gave human beings an upturned aspect, commanding them to look towards the skies, and, upright, raise their face to the stars. So the earth, that had been, a moment ago, uncarved and imageless, changed and assumed the unknown shapes of human beings.”
I chose the quote because it gives an explanation of how humans were made. This story parallels the story told in the Bible where God created humans in his image. Also, this quote shows how people are able to create stories to explain their existence.
the story of jason and the argonaugts is a familuar one to all of us and ovid showed us the virtue of perseverence and that is a ghood quality of the human quality of life.
ReplyDeleteI chose the first book. The entire thing, starting from The Primal Chaos, attempts to explain how and why things are here, what happened, and how the impact it had. This is what I believe is the human condition, trying to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
ReplyDeleteThe story of Midas and the wish he was granted illustrate the human condition of greed. I would assume that Midas, being a king, had plenty of wealth. Yet he wanted more. The story could also be viewed as an example of people in power wanting more power because at that point in history, wealth was power.
ReplyDeleteThe story of Midas's ears being transformed in to donkey ears waso very amusing but the message that Ovid was trying to send with the story eludes me. Is it about man questioning the decisions of the Roman "gods"? Or a matter of faith or the lack there of?
Perseus to Phineus: "I will cause you to be an enduring monument through the ages, and you will always be seen in my father-in-law’s palace, so that my wife may find solace in the statue of her intended." "Now the frightened face, the suppliant expression, the submissive hands, and the slavish appearance, remained, in marble."
ReplyDeleteThis shows insight both into the "rightful" wrath of a groom towards an overly persistent rival
and the distaste Romans had for cowardice. Phineus was a trouble-maker but a coward, and in the Roman mindset deserved his "death" and the eternal portrayal as a lesser man.
I've read all of these tales before, many times, so I can't cite anything new to me.