Critical Response to Ovids The Metamorphoses - Literature Paper Example

The Metamorphoses is a 15-book Latin narrative poem by a Roman poet called Publius Ovidius Naso. It gives a historical account of the worlds creation from the beginning up to the time of Julius Caesars death. The poem incorporates hundreds of Roman and Greek myths and combines them with historical events. It then describes an era of heroes, monsters and magic to give an idea of how ancient Romans perceived their world. The poems title means transformation and change is a major theme explored in the work. This essay looks at how the dominate feature of change is present in Book I of The Metamorphoses. It also analysis the symbolism and imagery used by Ovid throughout this section to illuminate the dominate feature of change.

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Book 1 of The Metamorphoses establishes the poems main theme of change with a narrative of creation that develops into stories about human beings leading the present-day breed of man. This creation story is followed by a flooding narrative and a discussion of mankinds ages. These ages- gold, bronze, iron and silver- describe mans gradual progression from a righteous and wholesome society to a self-destructive, miserable one. The subsequent narratives are about gods and goddesses, and how they manipulate one another as well as the human population. The book ends with the journey made by Phaethon to the Sun, his father, hence setting up Ovids theme of searches for change.

The poem utilizes satire to highlight the wickedness of everything, with the first section exploring the destructive outcome of male gods lust. In an attempt to satisfy their lust by all means possible, they go after every young woman they come across, possess the target and then change her forever. Each female victim ends up physically changed as a result of the experience she goes through. For example, Daphne changes into laurel in order to get away from Apollos lust. However, he still manages to possess her taking the laurel and claiming it as his tree. After raping Io, Jove turns her into a cow so that Juno does not find out. Despite this, Juno still chases Io to Egypt where she eventually changes to the goddess Isis. Iphis alters her form to enable her marry a fellow girl. Orpheus turns Eurydice into a pillar of salt after he retrieves her from hell. Pygmalion dislikes women to the extent that he has to create his own using ivory. He does this to make the woman a beauty image that enables him fondle her.

While some of the changes are upfront literal, others are more figurative and metaphorical. Examples of these subtle transformations include when Jupiter converts Lycaon into a wolf. Making this transformation is his way of getting back at Lycaons wolfish and bloodthirsty personality. Also, the transformation that Pentheus undergoes is figurative. He is hunted by his aunt and mother because they think of him as an animal as opposed to him actually being one. The point that Ovid puts across is that metaphorical transformations pose the same amount of danger as literal ones.

In conclusion, The Metamorphoses title and the theme of change can be seen as a way of tying together a series of rather dissimilar stories. Ovid appears to develop the metaphor of transformation in a manner that incorporates the poem as a whole. Most stories that do not have specific transformation elements are retrieved from Roman history. Hence, they match with the notion of Romes transformation together with that of the Romans.

Works Cited

Solodow, Joseph B. The world of Ovid's Metamorphoses. UNC Press Books, 2014. Print.