Reader Response: Metamorphoses by Ovid

             Metamorphoses by Ovid is a beautifully written piece of literature that is both interesting and thought provoking.  Metamorphoses is a collection of physical transformations.  It first begins with a description of the creation of the earth and then includes several stories of accounts of love and passion gone wrong.  I found this text quite enjoyable and entertaining due to the detailed descriptions, the beautiful language and the fascinating tales.  Most of all I really appreciated the language of this poem.  One particular quote from the text I found beautifully explained was in the description of the creation of the earth, “Now when that god (whichever one it was) had given chaos form, dividing it in parts which he arranged, he molded earth into the shape of an enormous globe, so that it would be uniform throughout.”  All through the text, Ovid tells the stories artfully.  He is very descriptive in his writings and evokes the feelings of the characters well.

            Overall, I found the reading understandable and reasonably easy to follow.  One thing that was interesting to me was the focus on the rape of women.  It made me wonder if that was a common occurrence in that time.  The introduction of the text tells of the hypocrisy of the Roman sexual customs and etiquette.  It states that the main way Rome was supplied with offspring was through the rape of Sabine women.  I found this text relatable in the description of love, feelings and desires.  People in modern culture still have the same feelings of love towards others.  One things that particularly relates to today is the taboo of incest.  The incestuous relationship between Myrrha and her father Cinyras was referred to as evil and breaking Nature’s law.  This social rule of abstaining from incest still remains in most cultures today. 

            Metamorphoses is made up of fifteen books and was written around 8 C.E.  Ovid was a Roman poet who lived from 43 B.C.E. to 17 C.E.  The genre of his writings was epic poetry and the main topics he wrote about were relationships, sex and retelling of myths.  Ovid’s poetry is well known and influenced many in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance.      

            I thought the reading was very interesting and different compared to other things I have read.  The main focus of Metamorphoses is “change” with there being a collection of stories rather than having one main character.  I enjoyed reading the poems because they had an interesting story line and the dramatic change of the characters.  There were no particular terms I had to look up or was confused by; however, the footnotes were very helpful. 

Questions for the class

·         List some similarities or reoccurrences of characters from other readings we have done in class.

·         Did you find any symbolism within the story?

·         List some comparisons of the story to modern culture.

·         List some differences to modern culture.

·         What was the significance of the metamorphoses associated with love gone badly?

Work Cited

Puchner, Martin. "Euripides: Medea." The Norton Anthology: World Literature. Shorter Third ed. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 525-564. Print.