Reading Diary A: Ovid's Metamorphoses

Dis and Cupid:

It took me a moment to begin understanding which Gods were being talked about because I’m used to reading Greek stories with the names of the greek gods. However, after taking Greek Religion last semester, I now understand that the names of the gods between Greek and Roman pantheons are not mutually exclusive and that oftentimes in stories one god can be referred to by several different names (i.e. Hades as Pluto, Plutus, Dis, etc.)

Venus doesn’t seem to care too much about true love, but rather expanding her empire. I can appreciate her manipulative and cunning nature, but advertising yourself as a goddess of love and then using your son to do your dirty work to expand your empire is really shady.

Dis and Proserpine:

I am very familiar with this story and how it will go - I first read the tale of Persephone (Prosperine) when I was 8 years old and had my first taste of Greek Mythology. I have also read this tale in the Homeric Hymns, though Ovid is much more descriptive and visual about Prosperine’s kidnapping. It always irritated me how her husband, Zeus, knew that his brother had kidnapped their daughter but waited until Ceres starved half of Greece before telling her.

Persephone’s Fate:

Didn’t anyone ever tell Demeter not to kill (or mangle, harm, change form of) the messenger? Seriously. Hades stole your daughter, go turn him into a screech owl.

On the one hand, Persephone’s childhood was stolen away from her early, BUT now she’s queen of the underworld and in some sense, is more powerful than her mother.

Arachne and Minerva, Minerva Weaves a Web:

See, I think instead of Athena being jealous of Arachne’s ability to weave better than her, she should instead commend her and maybe make her into a goddess, or some lower deity under her jurisdiction. Then again, she did make her into a spider, which is also pretty cool.

Niobe rejects Latona, The Death of Niobe’s Children:

Oh, man. This woman is just asking for trouble. What do you think is going to happen if you start bragging about all your children and refuse to worship the mother of two of the most famous deities in all of Greece?

Latona and the Lycians:

This story and the one where Niobe rejects Latona all tell me one thing: Don’t piss off the mother of Apollo and Artemis. She will either kill your children or turn into a frog monster.

Marysas:

I’m honestly a little confused by this one. Did Marysas tear himself apart because he was so distraught at losing a music battle to Apollo? Regardless, I am never going to cross Latona, Apollo, or Artemis. No, Thank you.

Check out the stories here!



Persephone
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons