1. Rapid Transition The beauty of movement in Ovid’s Metamorphosis

2. Contrasts with Aeneid Virgil portrays “tragedy of change” with the goal of permanent stability Ovid celebrates rapidity of change in which “flux is all” –Ovid tells of a world ceaselessly coming to be in a process that never ends. To Virgil’s story of national origins, he opposes creation itself, which sets the pattern of instability, the fleetingness of form and constant transformation. (Norton 1025 [8 th ]) –He celebrates the ephemeral as Virgil longs for the lasting. He is a river not a “cathedral” –My soul would sing of Metamorphoses vs “buffeted cruelly” Changes overt and “covert” –Shifting shapes (characters continually transformed in response to –Swiftly changing narrative technique (Norton 1025 [8 th ]) –Changes in reader’s perceptions (1025 [8 th ]) For instance the combination of the ridiculous and predatory nature of gods can result in swiftly changing view of them

3. Changes in Daphne and Apollo (I. 6-168 [7 th ]; 627-783 [8 th ]) Change in Apollo’s status –From warlike master to Cupid’s victim –Proud god now subject to ironies of love The god of Delos is aflame with love/But Daphne hates its very name Change in Daphne’s fortunes –A lover of freedom who “needs no man” –Into the hunted prey of a love-enslaved god “Your fair form contradicts your deepest wish” (61 [7 th ]) “your beauty kept your wish from coming true” (673 [8 th ]) Other changes –Apollo’s rapid “once over” (70-79 [7 th ]; 686-693 [8 th ]) –Daphne’s rapid flight –Narrative’s rapid perspective changes: “back and forth” from her view to his as he closes in –Daphne’s rapid change into a laurel tree

4. Changes in “Io and Jove” Change in Status of Jove –From ruthless rapist to sneaking husband –From “gusto-grabbing” to self-protecting pity which gets another to do “dirty work” Change in fortunes of Io –From chaste goddess’s daughter –To victimized heifer Changes in tone: From devouring gusto to most delicate pathos (Io as white heifer) Change of stories –IO as hiefer under guardianship of Argus –IO’s “recognition scene” with her father –Mercury’s “bedtime story” to Argus of another “transformation” narrative, Syrinx and Pan –How death of Argus leads to Juno’s “peacock” –Io’s restoration

5. Europa and Jove The IO Story in reverse as Jove “takes on the semblance of a bull Now, majesty and love do not go hand in glove—they don’t mix well. And so great Jove Renounced his solemn sceptre: he—the lord and father of the gods— whose right hand holds his massive weapons, three-pronged lightening bolts the king whose simple nod can shake the world— takes on the semblance of a bull (ii.17-23 [7 th ]; ii.1161-1168 [8 th ]) Key phrases: –“majesty and love” –“Renounced his solemn sceptre Passage as Ovid’s theme in a nutshell –Just as Cupid is stronger than Apollo –So “love” is stronger than majesty

6. Ceres and Proserpina This is Ovid’s at his most Ovidian! 1) A “Chinese Box” of stories inside of stories whose basic story is about a battle between story tellers! a. How did the maidens become magpies? b. The answer to Minerva’s question races into another story: how Pluto “stole” Proserpina c. The rapids of this story in turn surge into a number of swiftly moving “spin offs.” in which anguished nymphs dissolve to water, mouthy males morph intgo newts and birds and Pluto gets to keep his bride part-time. d. Finally the flow of dissolvings, bird transformations, Jovan interventions, and chasm crackings carries us back to the beginning to tell us how the maidens became magpies 2) All-conquering love as major driving force behind the flow of instability and metamorphoses a. If others show the gods subject to fate, Ovid shows them subject to erotic love You conquer and command sky deities Not even Jove is free from your decrees... And why should Tartarus elude our laws Why not extend your mother’s power and yours? One third of all the world is still not ours. (v.122-128 [Norton 7 th] ; 536-539 [Norton 8 th ]) b. Hard not to think of Ovid opposing a sprightly empire of love against Virgil’s empire of Roman arms!

7. Ceres and Proserpina (2) 3) Fast-paced shift from story to story, matched by rapid shift from one character pov to another. There Pluto—almost in one instant saw was struck with longing carried that girl off... the folds were loosened now, the flowers fell. So simple is the heart of a young girl that at that loss new grief is what she felt. (160-170 [7 th ; 562-568 [8 th ])) Note the incredible swiftness with which we move from the lightening strike of a powerful God to the grieving of young girl over the flowers off her dress—and the psychogical acumen of recognizing how great terror and almost “silly” grief could come together in the heart a youngster in such circumstances 4) Breathtaking description. Ovid is a “camera man with words” as he paints the dissolving of Cynea into her own pool She gave herself to tears and then dissolved into the very pool of which which she had— till now—been the presiding deity.... Her slender hairs, her fingers, legs, and feet— These were the first to join the waves... At last, clear water flows through Cyane’s weakened veins. And there is nothing left that one can grasp. (210-221[7 th ]; 597-608 [8 th ]) And the following description of Arethusa’s bathing makes one feel the water drops I strike those waters in a thousand ways dividing, joining, splashing as I play (460-1[7 th ]; 772-3 [8 th ])

8. Ceres and Prosperipina (3) 5) Inventive Metamorphoses –How does Ovid keep our attention telling one story of changing after another? –By varying the motive, the method, and the maker of the changes –Ceres changes a rude boy into a newt as an act of vengeance –Cyane literally “dissolves’ in grief at the rape of Proserpina –The nine singing maidens are changed into magpies as a punishment for pride. –How many metamorpheses can you find in the selections we’ve read? As the “rapid transit” teller of stories of “rapid transit” Ovid has no equals, in his day or ours.