The Metamorphoses by Ovid Dr. Ekin Tuşalp Atiyas Nov. 13, 2017

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BCE-17 AD) Younger than Virgil Wrote during the reign of Augustus Banished from Rome 8 AD Amores, Heroides, Ars Amatoria, Fasti…

Pompei Fresco c. 55-79 CE

Religious and Legal Reforms of Augustus Declared himself as Pontifex Maximus in 12 BCE Introduced Lex Julia in 18 BCE Augustus as Pontifex Maximus

The Metamorphoses Metamorphoseon Libri Divided into fifteen books Describes around 250 myths Invocation Dactylic Hexameter

INVOCATION Now I shall tell of things that change, new being Out of old since you, O Gods, created Mutable arts and gifts, give me the voice To tell the shifting story of the world From its beginning to the present hour. Lines 1-5

Daphne—changed into a laurel tree by Peneus (1.806). Diomedes’ men - changed into swan-like birds by Venus (14.762). Io—changed into a cow by Jupiter (1.899), then back to a nymph (1.1085). Iphis—changed from a girl into a man by Io (9.1252). Julius Caesar—changed into a star and a god (15.1279). Midas—given asses’ ears by Apollo (11.266). Myrrha—changed into a tree (10.754). Narcissus—changes into a flower (3.739). Pygmalion’s statue—changed into a living girl by Venus (10.427).

Literary Genres Epyllion (mini epics) Tragedy Oration/Rhetoric Elegy Panegyric Hymn…

Time Frame ….Before land was and sea — before air and sky Arched over all, all Nature was all Chaos.

Epilogue And now the measure of my song is done: The work has reached its end; the book is mine, None shall unwrite these words, nor angry Jove, Nor war, nor fire, nor flood, Nor venomous time that eats our lives away. Then let that morning come, as come it will, When this disguise I carry shall be no more, And all the treacherous years of life undone, And yet my name shall rise to heavenly music, The deathless music of the circling stars. As long as Rome is the Eternal City These lines shall echo from the lips of men, As long as poetry speaks truth on earth, That immortality is mine to wear.

Chaos and The Creation …Before land was and sea- before air and sky Arched over all, nature was all Chaos… …then God or Nature calmed the elements Land fell away from sky and sea from land, And aether drew away from cloud and rain. As God unlocked all elemental things Fire climbed celestial vaults, air followed it To float in heavens below; and earth which carried All heavier things with it dropped under air; Water fell farthest, embracing shores and islands. When God, whichever God he was, created The universe we know, he made of earth A turning sphere so delicately poised…

Deucalion and Pyrrha

Though wavering Pyrrha heard her husband's voice, Both were in doubt, shaken with fear, with hope. But what harm could be done? They left the temple With floating robes and veiled heads, then furtively Dropped pebbles in their trail and as they ran (Some find this fable more than fabulous, But we must keep faith with our ancient legends) Pebbles grew into rocks, rocks into statues That looked like men; the darker parts still wet With earth were flesh, dry elements were bones, And veins began to stir with human blood — Such were the inclinations of heaven's will. The stones that Deucalion dropped were men, And those that fell from his wife's hands were women. Beyond, behind the years of loss and hardship We trace a stony heritage of being.

Apollo and Daphne

Nicolas Poussin, Apollo and Daphne 1625

The girl saw waves of a familiar river, Her father's home, and in a trembling voice Called, "Father, if your waters still hold charms To save your daughter, cover with green earth This body I wear too well," and as she spoke A soaring drowsiness possessed her; growing In earth she stood, white thighs embraced by climbing Bark, her white arms branches, her fair head swaying In a cloud of leaves; all that was Daphne bowed In the stirring of the wind, the glittering green Leaf twined within her hair and she was laurel.

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Apollo and Daphne (1625), Gallery Borghese

Myth and Origins Aetiology

…So Python perished, but not until his wounds Were black with blood and God Apollo's quiver Almost spent. That is the reason why Apollo's games are called the Pythian Feast, In memory of the serpent's golden death, In honor of the god's swift victory — The Feast that brings fleet-footed, swift-riding Youth garlands of oak leaf as they win the race. This was before the laurel wreath became Apollo's gift of grace in shrine and temple Before he twined the green immortal laurel Within the sunlight of his golden hair.

Even now Phoebus embraced the lovely tree Whose heart he felt still beating in its side; He stroked its branches, kissed the sprouting bark, And as the tree still seemed to sway, to shudder At his touch, Apollo whispered, "Daphne, Who cannot be my wife must be the seal, The sign of all I own, immortal leaf Twined in my hair as hers, and by this sign My constant love, my honour shall be shown: When Roman captains home from victory Ride with the Legions up Capitoline, Their heads will shine with laurels and wherever The Augustus sets his gates, plain or frontier, Or Roman city wall, the bronze oak leaf And the green-pointed laurel shall guard the portal And grace the Roman crown." As Phoebus spoke, The laurel shook her branches and seemed to bow A timid blessing on her lover's pleasure.

Pythogoras’ Speech, The Metamorphoses Book XV Change All is subject to change and nothing to death. The spirit in each of us wanders from place to place; it enters what ever body it pleases, crossing over from beast to man, and back again to a beast. … In the whole world there is nothing that stays unchanged. All is in flux. Any shape that is formed is constantly shifting. Time itself flows steadily by in perpetual motion.  

We see times change and civilizations rise and fall We see times change and civilizations rise and fall. Yes Troy was great in her riches and people; for ten long years she was able to spend the blood of so many sons in her cause; but now she is humbled and all she can show for her glorious wealth is ancestral barrows and ancient ruins. Sparta was highly renowned and so was powerful Mycenae; so flourished the cities of Cecrops at Athens and Theban Amphion. Sparta is bare, flat earth and the towers of Mycenae were toppled; nothing remains of Oedipus’ Thebes or Pandion’s Athens, except for their names. And now word goes that Dardanian Rome is rising; close to the river that’s born in the Apennines, Tiber, foundations are being laid of a mighty city and empire. Rome is changing her shape as she grows. Some time in the future she’ll form the head of the boundless world….

Giovanni Paolo Pannini, Roman Ruins, 1751

Canaletto, Colosseum and The Arch of Constantine, 18th century

Is the Metamorphoses a Hellenistic bundle of separate tales? In what ways does the Metamorphoses fit into the category of the epic. What do scholars mean when they term the Metamorphoses as anti-epic?