Metamorphoses Essays

Metamorphoses

In Book X of The Metamorphoses, Ovid recounts the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. It is the well-known story of a Thracian poet, Orpheus, who travels into the underworld seeking return of his new bride, Eurydice, who had been bitten by a...

Metamorphoses

Ovid’s Metamorphoses is a work about transience, and perhaps no two things in the natural world are more fleeting than life and beauty. Artists aim to preserve these two qualities in their work by simultaneously imitating the natural world to give...

College

Metamorphoses

The tile of Ovid’s poem Metamorphoses literally translates to mean “transformation.” The compendium is actually itself a transformational work, merging a multitude of Greek and Roman historical traditions into one massive epic poem. There are many...

12th Grade

Metamorphoses

In Metamorphoses, Ovid attempts the great task of recounting the history of the world, from its creation to the death of Julius Caesar. However, Ovid's work is not solely an encyclopaedia of mythology; it is also the source of much standard...

12th Grade

Metamorphoses

Ovid made a strange decision when he wrote his story about Arachne in Book VI, “Of Praise and Punishment.” After all, her story literally describes her spinning and weaving her art, so one would assume that Ovid would place his story about her in...

College

Metamorphoses

“Daphne, the daughter of the river god / Peneus, was the first love of Apollo” (Ovid 1032). Thus begins Ovid’s recitation of the famous story of Apollo and Daphne in Book I of his 8 A.D. collection of stories, Metamorphoses, his most celebrated...

College

Metamorphoses

The mythological figure of Medea and her story has been told throughout the centuries, her deeds encouraging many moral and ethical debates. However, writers from different periods represent her in different ways, no retelling quite the same as...

11th Grade

Metamorphoses

Anna C. Salter, an author, commented on the act of placing blame on victims of rape saying, “We mute the realization of malevolence-which is too threatening to bear- by turning offenders into victims themselves and by describing their behavior as...