Metamorphoses

by Ovid

2004

This is a book of Roman mythology. It
was written in the early first century by a man
named Ovid. These pages are filled with both
beautiful and horrific tales. There are tales of love
and courage and tales of incest and graphic
accounts of war, including the long Grecian war
against Troy. There was the lustful god, Jupiter
and his many children from different mothers.I
needed to map out the geneology to keep
everyone straight. Ovid seemed to delight in
keeping the reader guessing who he was talking
about. For example, he would refer to Apollo as
Phoebus, the sun of Jupiter, the son of Leto or
the son of Hyperion. It was an accomplishment
just to figure this out.

Metamorphoses is about, uh, change. The
characters change into trees, water, animals etc.
They are a metaphor for the many changes in life
and nature.

Ovid was obviously writing for the Roman
emperor Augustus Caesar. Metamorphoses
reaches it's climax when Julius Caesar
approaches his ides of March. His death is a
moment of great metamorphoses as he rises to
the stars and is made a god. From the heavens he
is able to witness his son, Augustus, surpass his
own glories. This is an epic of Rome's
succession to the Greek empire, both politically
and artistically. However, Ovid's mimicry also
demonstrates pomposity of Rome.

It was a departure for me to read a book
from antiquity. It was a challenging but I enjoyed
it. I'll have to do it again sometimes.