1. Metamorphoses The Norton Anthology of Western Literature Ninth Edition
Volume One
Martin Puchner, General Editor Suzanne Akbari
Wiebke Denecke
Barbara Fuchs
Caroline Levine
Pericles Lewis
Emily Wilson

2. Roman Expansion through the First Century C.E.
If the Persian Empire of the ancient world seemed impressive, it would prove no comparison to the Roman Empire, which emerged from the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta (which ended in 404 B.C.E.). After that war, Greece never truly recovered, and its instability left it vulnerable to attack. The Macedonians invaded from the north, and the combined Macedonian and Greek armies, led by Alexander the Great, would invade Persia and eventually occupy vast territories in Egypt and India. Many Greek citizens fled the ruin in their own country to go to these new territories. When Alexander died in 323 B.C.E., the Roman Empire was engaged in a series of wars for control that centered around Rome itself and the Italian peninsula (as depicted on this map), and its expansion would grow into an empire with massive territory, including land in North Africa, modern Europe, and the Middle East. This map indicates main provincial capitals, which includes Rome, of course, but notice others spread across the map: Londinium (modern London), Alexandria (in Egypt), and Ancyra (or Ankara in modern Turkey). A territory of this size enabled cross-cultural exchange among many different societies. A good indication of how goods, people, and ideas were moving at this time is provided by the trade routes and major roads marked on the map, many extending beyond the borders of the empire itself.
The Norton Anthology of Western Literature, 9th Edition, Volume One Copyright © 2014, W.W. Norton & Company

3. A Roman aqueduct, built in the first century B. C. E
A Roman aqueduct, built in the first century B.C.E., still standing at Pont du Gard in France. © DEA/Gianni Dagli Orti/Getty Images
The Norton Anthology of Western Literature, 9th Edition, Volume One Copyright © 2014, W.W. Norton & Company

4. Ovid Ovid’s full name was Publius Ovidius Naso.
He was one of the smartest, most prolific, and most consistently entertaining of the Roman poets.
He wrote funny, perceptive poems about sex and relationships in contemporary Rome.
His poems displayed subtlety and a depth of psychological understanding.
He influenced the poets and artists of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and beyond.
Ovid’s poetry is an important and accessible source for the mythology of ancient Greece and Rome.
Ovid (whose full name was Publius Ovidius Naso) was one of the smartest, most prolific, and most consistently entertaining of the Roman poets. During his long and productive career, he wrote funny, perceptive poems about sex and relationships in contemporary Rome, as well as vivid retellings of ancient myths. His way of telling stories remains extraordinary for its subtlety and its depth of psychological understanding. His work had a massive influence on the poets and artists of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and beyond, and it is one of our most important and accessible sources for the rich mythology of ancient Greece and Rome. 4
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5. Ovid (cont’d.) Ovid became part of the literary circles of Rome.
He was married three times.
He had no children of his own.
Ovid’s love poetry focuses on behavior (not feeling) and sex (not love).
Ovid became part of the literary circles of Rome: he knew the poets Propertius and Horace, and he met Virgil, who was some twenty-seven years older.
Ovid’s love poetry focuses less on feelings than on behavior, and less on love than on sex, which he treats in a light, knowing tone.
Notorious in his own time and later were his two books about sex and relationships: the Amores and the Ars Amatoria. These used the tradition of Roman love elegy, which had begun with Catullus and had been developed by Ovid’s friend Propertius, who evoked the desperate, abject longing of a man for a beloved and unreliable girlfriend. 5
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6. Ovid (cont’d.) Ovid was exiled from Rome to Tomis by Emperor Augustus.
He lived in isolation.
He wrote a series of love poems while in exile.
Ovid was just finishing the Metamorphoses (Greek for “changes”) when he was exiled.
Having seized power after winning the battle of Actium (in 31 B.C.E.), at the end of a long civil war, Augustus was eager to impose order on the fragmented society of Rome. A key element in his domestic strategy was to reform the morals and increase the population of the Roman elite by promoting marriage and traditional family structures. Ovid’s work often seemed calculated to challenge these conservative values.
In 8 C.E., the emperor, acting, unusually, on his own initiative, without input from the Senate, condemned Ovid to permanent exile from Rome to Tomis, a remote town on the Black Sea, in what is now Romania. 6
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7. Metamorphoses
Metamorphoses is a series of miniature stories exploring the theme of change.
It is less obviously provocative than Ovid’s love poetry but still presents a radical challenge both to Augustan moral and political values and to traditional poetic norms.
It is in some ways an anti-Aeneid.
A common element is the lust of male gods for female humans.
The Metamorphoses is less obviously provocative than Ovid’s love poetry, but it, too, provides a radical challenge both to Augustan moral and political values and to traditional poetic norms.
The Metamorphoses is recognizably epic; it is the only poem Ovid wrote in the epic meter, dactylic hexameter. But it can be seen as a critical response to Virgil, even an anti-Aeneid (which focused on traditional Roman values of militarism and duty). 7
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8. Giovanni Bernini’s seventeenth-century interpretation in marble of the rape of Proserpina. © Andrea Jemolo/Scala/Art Resource, NY
The Norton Anthology of Western Literature, 9th Edition, Volume One Copyright © 2014, W.W. Norton & Company

9. Multiple-Choice Questions
What time frame does the Metamorphoses propose to cover?
from the founding of Greece to its fall
from the founding of Rome to its fall
just the present
from the creation of the world to present 9
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10. Multiple-Choice Questions
What does Pygmalion fall in love with and eventually marry?
a) an image of himself in a mirror b) a prostitute c) an ivory statue d) a Pygmy
Answer: c
Feedback: Pygmalion is a sculptor who falls in love with one of his own statues, a beautiful ivory woman. After praying to Venus that he might meet a woman to marry who is like the statue, he returns home to find (while making out with the statue) that the statue has turned real. 10
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11. Discussion Questions How does the theme of love appear in the poem?
If there is a theme in the poem that is equal to change in importance, it is love. And love appears in myriad forms, including romantic love (as in the Apollo and Daphne section of Book I, line 628 and following). Just as often, though, Ovid focuses on sexual desire, predation, and even rape, as in the case of Proserpina (Book V). 11
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12. Discussion Questions
Generally speaking, how do the gods behave throughout Metamorphoses?
In general, the gods behave quite badly. They take advantage of humans and impose their will. They fight among themselves and seem to continually harbor grudges and seek vengeance in one form or another. Readers should note that humans are usually at the mercy of the gods, but the gods were not understood by Ovid or his readers to represent ideals of virtue, nor were they to be taken as role models. 12
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13. This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint
presentation for Volume One: Metamorphoses
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