Page 1 of 2
Ch. 20: The Retelling of Greek Myths: Ovid’s Metamorphoses
For a summary of the chapters, students are directed to http://highered.mcgrawhill.com/sites/0072818492/information_center_view0/ for a very good outline of the chapter’s
material. These comments will primarily be my comments, with an occasional expansion on
something contained in the text. As such, these comments will not be comprehensive.
A couple of things to note here – Ovid is a different sort of poet than Virgil. Virgil is largely a
serious and respectful artist, full of the pietas we see in his hero, Aeneas. Ovid, though, is
something of a joker. He was a technically proficient poet, and had a large output. A lot of his
works, though, were more satiric in tone. He wrote a work called The Art of Love, which is
basically an advice book on how to pick up members of the opposite sex (keep in mind this was
written in the 1st c. BC) and Love Cure, which offers advice on how to dump unwanted
partners. Both works were written for an urbane audience, and there were many in Rome
who loved the stuff (both Virgil and Ovid were famous poets in their lifetimes, and almost
immediately gained classic status). These books flew in the face of the official policy of
Augustus’ administration. Augustus claimed that he was restoring the Roman Republic – a key
part of that restoration was bringing back old Roman virtues (thrift, frugality, and so forth) that
were appropriate to Rome as a farm town. Part of those old-time values was the idea of
marital fidelity and chastity. Here is a guy openly flaunting those values and doing it with great
poetic power. Yipes.
At one point, Augustus had laws passed that made infidelity illegal and those caught in some
extra-marital love affairs, would be exiled from Rome (that’s a big thing for a Roman). Soon
after these laws were passed, it was discovered that the emperor’s daughter, Julia, had dozens
of lovers. In a scene from the book and TV show, I, Claudius, Augustus, upon hearing of this,
enters the Senate chamber and angrily inquires of the Senate – “Is there anyone in Rome who
hasn’t slept with my daughter?” Some papers of Julia mentioned Ovid – it is unclear if he was a
lover of Julia’s, or knew of Julia’s affairs, or if it was nothing but a sign to Augustus that Ovid’s
pernicious influence had seduced his daughter from the path of righteousness. In any event, as
soon as this was found out, Ovid (as was Julia) was exiled. He was sent to a city on the far end
of the Black Sea, the furthest point from Rome you could get, and still be in the Empire.
Imagine Woody Allen being sent away for the rest of his life to live in Butte, MT – it must have
been like that for a very urbane poet to be sent to a far-off outpost of the Empire. For the last
dozen or so years of his life, Ovid lived in exile, and died there.
Even the Metamorphoses, Ovid’s epic poem about “changes,” might be viewed as poking fun at
the emperor. It is in this work that we get lots of the love affairs of the gods. Jupiter (Zeus)
often seems ludicrous by the extents to which he goes to get some action. And Ovid clearly
sympathizes with Callisto who is raped by the king of the gods, then badly treated by Diana
(Artemis) and Juno (Hera), who don’t bother to learn the facts of the case. Apollo, who might
be seen as Ovid’s patron god – he’s the god associated with the Muses and with poetry – also
Page 2 of 2
comes in for rather harsh treatment. In the story of the musical contest between Apollo and
Marsyas, the god of order is quite vindictive in cruel as he takes delight in the flaying of the
unfortunate satyr. That interchange seems a lot like what a regular person might expect were
he to fall out of favor with the emperor Augustus. Outwardly, the emperor gave the
impression of an impassive calm, but when he got angry, the recipient of his anger would be
amazed. Likewise, in the contest with Pan, Apollo, upset that King Midas cast an opposing vote
for Pan over Apollo, gave him donkey ears. Pretty petty and vindictive for so powerful a god.
What’s significant about Ovid’s treatment of Apollo is that Augustus chose the Greek god to be
his patron god when he led Roman forces against Antony and Cleopatra. For Augustus, the
symbolism was clear – Apollo represented order and he, Augustus, was going to return Rome
to order. By pointing out Apollo’s dark side, he may also have been suggesting that the man
who chose him as patron god also had a dark side. He found out just how dark when he found
himself driven to the far end of the Roman Empire.
Something should be noted about Ovid and the Metamorphoses. During the Middle Ages,
Europe only knew ancient myth through authors like Ovid and Virgil – Western Europe did not
know Greek and did not have access to Greek literature. And so, Ovid’s Metamorphoses,
which can serve as a collection of Greek myths, was the basis for the medieval understanding of
myth. Even after the West’s discovery of the Greek classics during the Renaissance, Ovid
continued to enchant. Ovid’s treatment of Greek myth, however, is not uncritical. Ovid is,
albeit a very sophisticated and urbane one, a Roman. He viewed everything through a Roman
lens. The Metamorphoses devotes the last two books to Roman legends, and concludes with
the deification of Julius Caesar (man to god) that took place during victory celebrations of
Augustus. A comet that flew through the sky was judged to be Caesar’s spirit flying through
the heavens to his new home as a god. Whether Ovid took all this seriously (he shows signs of
being an agnostic or even atheist), there is something in the Roman soul that suggests some
level of belief behind the unbelief.
One point where we can make a comparison is in his treatment of the creation. This may be
compared to Hesiod’s treatment in the Theogony. In the Greek version, Gaia and some of the
earlier deities just appear, and then, largely though sexual reproduction they make other gods,
and then humans are created. In Ovid’s account, Chaos is not an unknown quantity, but a
swirling mass of undifferentiated elements that some intelligence comes and begins to sort out.
That divine intelligence does suggest some sort of belief on the part of Ovid, even if he treats
the Olympian gods with a certain amount of contempt.