McCollister’s Ovid Summer Assignment 1
Ovid’s Metamorphoses
Summer Assignment
Outline:
1. Directions (1-2)
a. Introduction (1)
b. Translation (1)
c. Grading Policy (2)
d. Directions (2)
2. Ovid’s Biographical Information (3)
3. Introduction to the Metamorphoses (4)
4. Guided Questions / Story Summaries (5-19)
5. Pythagoras Background Information (18)
6. Final Thoughts (19-20)
7. Written Assignment #1 (21)
8. Written Assignment #2 (22)
Dear Students,
In order to get the most you can from the dual credit course next year, it is imperative that we
begin to develop a greater understanding of mythology—not so much an understanding that
requires deep analysis into the stories, but rather one where we are simply familiar with the story.
Also, by the end of this assignment, you will have created a valuable reference tool. You are
advised to space this assignment out over the summer rather than wait till the last minute.
Translation:
Ovid. Metamorphoses. Trans. Rolfe Humphries. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983.
You can get this for about $2 on Amazon. I’ve also seen many copies available at Half Price
Books
All translations are not created equal. Of the myriad translations available of this work, I have
selected a specific one that I believe will help facilitate your understanding. Therefore, I highly,
highly, highly recommend this specific translation. All of the page numbers and quotes are
pulled specifically from this translation. If you choose another version, you do so at your own
risk.
McCollister’s Ovid Summer Assignment 2
Grading Policy:
There are three parts to this assignment, which will be added together and account for roughly
15% of your overall grade. Late assignments will not be accepted. If you are not going to be here
on the first day of class, you must email the assignment to me.
1. Guided Questions and Story Summaries – 33%
2. Written Assignment #1 – 33%
3. Written Assignment #2 – 33%
Directions:
ALL ASSIGNMENTS MUST BE TYPED AND EDITED!
Guided Questions and Summaries:
The bulk of your assignment consists in reading the stories and answering the questions that
correspond to them in this study guide. Each story, its page, and the task for that story are written
below. Most of them ask you to give a brief summary of the story. The summary is not expected
to be exhaustive, but to just demonstrate you are familiar with the basic elements of the story. If
it does not ask for a summary, do not give one. At times, there are specific questions that
accompany a story. Normally a sentence or two will suffice to answer it. At times I’ve also
included commentary that I find pertinent to the Metamorphoses as a whole. Please make this
part as neat and organized as possible.
Due date: first day of class
Written Assignment #1:
This assignment has you choose and episode within the first five books and analyze it. More
detailed instructions are found in its respective section. You must adhere to the word limit or else
your grade will suffer dearly, like Phaethon!
Due date: first day of class
Written Assignment #2:
You will probably find this assignment more difficult than the first: it asks you to create your
own metamorphoses. Once again, you must adhere to the word limit. Bear in mind that this
second assignment also consists of two parts: your story and your commentary on the story. See
its respective section for more details.
Due date: first day of class
McCollister’s Ovid Summer Assignment 3
OVID BACKGROUND
(43 BCE - 17 AD)
Anthologists make much of Virgil's conservatism having stemmed from knowing Roman civil
wars (e.g., Augustus vs. Antony and Cleopatra at Actium), and Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso,
born a year after Julius Caesar's assassination) having been too young: hence his witty, skeptical,
irreverent, almost subversive attitude of a law student drop-out who "took much of what had
been achieved for granted," as the Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces snipes (6th ed. 917).
Obviously this is the old "WWII mentality vs. the Beatles" paradigm.
Ovid lived in a time defined by benevolent despotism, the era of Augustus in the Roman
Republic. Augustus Caesar wanted to "restore" Roman dignity and morality (of the days of the
Republic). He encouraged patriotic writing (propaganda), instituted laws encouraging marriage
and childbearing, and discouraged adultery and luxury. (Of course you can legislate morality!)
In this climate, Ovid was judged guilty by Augustus on two counts, "a poem and a mistake," in 8
ad and exiled to an outpost of Rome (and of civilization). Despite many efforts to win a pardon,
and despite poetic pleading, his appeals failed even after the death of Augustus. What were
Ovid's "crimes"? This is one of the great literary mysteries.
Among his suspected works:
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Ars Amatoria -- (The Art of Love) a witty, solemn parody of the didactic tradition, an
amoral mockery of Roman virtue, essentially a "how-to" book on conducting an
adulterous affair.
Metamorphoses -- a treasury of classical myths, less likely to have landed Ovid in
trouble, but it has been suggested as the cause. It does render amorality in a breezy tone.
The "mistake"?:
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Involved a woman? -- Livia (Augustus' wife)? Julia (his daughter)? A granddaughter of
Augustus? Other "Caesareae puellae"? Was Ovid involved with or only a witness to
something? Augustus' incest? Pederasty?
Treason? -- this seems most unlikely.
He witnessed the "Bona Dea" or other cult mysteries and Livia was involved?
McCollister’s Ovid Summer Assignment 4
OVID:
INTRODUCTION TO METAMORPHOSES
Ovid's Metamorphoses is a treasury of classical myths, a seriocomic reference book almost. Ovid
is also interested in the feelings, idiosyncrasies, sometimes even pathologies, of people in love.
Ovid abandoned his usual couplet, adopting the six-foot dactyllic line of the Iliad, the Odyssey,
and the Aeneid. Thus he self-consciously places the work in this epic tradition, but notice as you
read through how the narrative serves to fill in the gaps left by these great earlier works and
skims through the events related in them, or renders them from a quirky perspective (e.g., we get
a drunken brawl of centaurs in a tavern right where the Trojan War should appear).
Attempts are made towards "Ovid Moralisee" later –that is, forcing a moral onto each of the
seemingly very amoral tales. This can be taken as evidence of the problems readers had with the
work from the start. (The famous Elizabethan translation into English, credited to the otherwise
moralistic and puritanical Arthur Golding, probably was done by his nephew, Edward de Vere,
the foremost proposed candidate as the man who wrote the works of Shakespeare. Shakespeare's
works are saturated with allusions to Metamorphoses.)
"Metamorphoses" are changes of form; note the root word "morph." The first questions
about Metamorphoses may be predictable: why is change such a compelling theme? What kind
of changes are there? How do you perceive change?
The so-called "problem of change" is an age-old Philosophy 101, Chapter 1, textbook issue and
indeed the key early philosophical issue among the Greeks who invented philosophy. The first
among them, the rather eastern-sounding Heraclitus "the Obscure" (540-470 bce) said, "We step
and do not step into the same rivers; we are and are not" (Fragment #81). Ovid inherits this
concern, but treats change as a universal principle, offering endless variety. Still, this is a theme,
not a message, like a paper with a topic but no thesis. So we still need to understand Ovid's
purpose.
As you read, look for:
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Etiologies: stories that explain origins.
Vestiges/Survivals: traces remaining in popular consciousness.
Deeper Meaning: the stories tap into something deeper? a lesson or point?
Larger Meaning: what is Ovid's ultimate purpose in this work?
McCollister’s Ovid Summer Assignment 5
OVID
METAMORPHOSES
Invocation:
Ovid announces his theme of change, but not his purpose. This is similar to the typical poor
essay that includes in the opening paragraph, "In this paper I will [examine the origin of Zeus, or
whatever]" and proceeds to report factoids instead of work towards supporting a thesis. But
Ovid, unlike that obtuse writer, knows what he's doing. It remains for us to determine what this
unspoken purpose is.
Ovid invokes "the gods," but the invocation is minimal, weird, and ambiguous. Instead of
begging for inspiration and humbly praising the higher powers, he says rather bluntly, that the
gods "Will help me--or so I hope" (Ovid 3). Given what he will say about these higher powers in
the next pages, this is not much of an assurance.
The Creation (pg 3-5):
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What can be said about the character of the creator here?
How confident is he of the truth of what he is saying?
Ovid goes so far as to blur the issue of the creator, attributing the work ambivalently to "God, or
kindlier Nature" or "Whatever god it was" (4).
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But what happens when you remove the creator from the story? The emphasis
falls onto what, and why might Ovid be doing this?
Also interesting are the details in Ovid; he sees the earth as a giant ball and he even gives us an
account of the hemispheres, including a sense of global climate. He knows about the existence of
both poles. What do you make of this? In other words, what happened to the history lesson
where Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492? Didn't most of the people in the European world
in 1492 suspect that the earth was flat? So was this information in Ovid's account added later? Is
there any evidence? Or did Roman intellectuals know the reality of earth as planet? Do not
answer.
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This section of the Book I also tells of the creation of humankind: what is our
origin?
How does that make "mythological" sense?
Why does Ovid qualify and hesitate --"So Man was born, it may be, in God's
image"?
Does Ovid believe in the supremacy of humankind (anthropocentrism)?
McCollister’s Ovid Summer Assignment 6
The Four Ages (5-9):
Ovid shows how evil and distress change the once idyllic world.
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Where in Ovid's Four Ages would you place Adam and Eve and their expulsion
from paradise? (See Thomas Cole, American painter, "Expulsion from the Garden
of Eden," 1828).
The well-known metaphor "Cradle of Civilization" implies that civilization is like
a human being growing up, advancing even maturing. Is this the case in Ovid's
story of the four ages of humankind? Is Ovid giving us a moral evolution in
reverse? Why?
What is the diet during the Golden Age (6), or in the Garden of Eden? What does
this signify?
Lycaon (9-11):
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What is lycanthropy?
Lycaon is singled out as wicked and offensive to Jove. How does the story relate
to other stories or folk tales, particularly ones involving animalistic impulses and
transformations?
Is Ovid suggesting that human beings were invaded by an alien animal nature of
is he suggesting that the savage rapaciousness of wolves originated in a human
being? Why is traditional Western culture so vicious about wolves? How do
wolves challenge human dominance?
What then is the true mythological significance of lycanthropy?
The Flood and Deucalion and Pyrrha (11-16):
The wrath of god yields nearly genocidal flood, and one couple -- Deucalion and Pyrrha -- is
saved. That sounds somewhat familiar. But in the aftermath of the flood, Ovid departs from
Genesis; the biblical story gives us the covenant -- the promise inherent in the image of the
rainbow. In Ovid's story, Deucalion and Pyrrha find themselves alone. They pray to Themis,
daughter of Gaia, and she gives them an answer of sorts on how to redeem humankind -- it
comes in the form of a riddle.
o
What are the bones of the great mother?
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What does this riddle explain mythically and etiologically about humans? and
about the earth?
Apollo and Daphne (16-21):
Victimization will quickly seem rampant in this world. Daphne is the daughter of a river god,
Peneus, and the first "love" of Apollo (although "love" here is characterized by "burning").
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How reverent is Ovid in his portrait of Apollo?
McCollister’s Ovid Summer Assignment 7
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How does the metamorphosis of Daphne bring Ovid's portrait of Apollo to its
comic finale?
Mandelbaum and Humphries both place this story on the cover of their
editions/translations of Metamorphoses. Why?
What questions does a contemporary reading of this story raise about ownership
of the female body?
Jove and Io (21-27):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Final Questions:
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Is there a moral to Book 1?
What is the general philosophy of life reflected in Metamorphoses?
What is the worldview manifested in Metamorphoses?
Phaethon (28-40):
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With the story of Phaethon, Ovid tells us the difference between fathers and sons
or the difference between being old and being young. What is the difference
between the Sun God and his son Phaethon?
What do young people want? What do older people want?
Dad supplies "The Rash Promise" from which he cannot back out -- a common folklore motif:
his son may ask any favor and it will be granted. D'oh! -- anything but that!
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Why does Phaethon disregard his father's warning?
Once again Ovid voices the science of Rome. What earth's properties does Ovid
acknowledge? What do we see cosmologically?
What are the sun's stallions--Eous, Aethon, Pyrois, and Phlegan--like? Flying
horses?
If no one had imagined this already, then in what era might we as humans come
up with such a fantastical cross between steeds and birds? Why?
What is Ovid saying about humans? About government or leadership?
In Plato's "Apology," Socrates creates the metaphor of the gadfly and the great horse which is
allegorically the Athenian State:
“For if you kill me you will not easily find another like me, who, if I may use such a
ludicrous figure of speech, am a sort of gadfly, given to the state by the God; and the state
is like a great and noble steed who is tardy in his motions owing to his very size, and
requires to be stirred into life. I am that gadfly which God has given the state and all day
long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and
reproaching you.”
McCollister’s Ovid Summer Assignment 8
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Is Ovid using horses in the same metaphorical fashion as Socrates? What is the
difference between Socrates' story of the gadfly (and the horse) and Ovid's story
of Phaethon and the stallions?
What is the American perspective?
Ovid gives us the Mother as the great provider. The queen of resources now feels the plight, the
confounded chaos of old. With sea and land and sky ruined, Mother Earth "fell silent.... And she
withdrew into her deepest caves...."
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In what ways is Mother Earth still silenced?
In what ways do we continue to forbid the earth to speak of its ruin?
How can we best communicate with the earth?
Phaethon's Epitaph: what does it suggest about the boy's choice?
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Phaethon's mother Clymene and her daughters mourn Phaethon. What happens to
Phaethons' sisters?
Ovid again explicitly expands the human community to include trees. What is
Ovid saying about trees?
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"When you rip this tree, it is my body that you tear."
The Story of the Raven (45-48):
The history of the raven in narrative goes back to antiquity with the story of the flood in
Gilgamesh (2700 bce). In this Summerian epic, the survivor of the flood Utnapishtim--the
precursor to Noah--releases a swallow which failing to find land returns to the ark. He then
releases a raven and "she" does not return. In Genesis, at the end of forty days Noah opens the
window in the ark and releases a raven that "went to and fro until the waters were dried up from
the earth (Genesis 8:7). In the ancient stories, these birds are present at the apocalypse and yet do
not return to the ark, preferring a kind of abandonment or freedom independent of the human
survivors. In contemporary wildlife studies, we learn that the raven prefers to live in the wild, in
the untrammeled places called wilderness where human populations are transitory and
temporary; the crow on the other hand, often seeks out the rural and urban habitat in close
occupancy with humans. Consequently these two birds become a measure of change for as we
domesticate the wild the raven moves on and is replaced by the crow.
Ravens and crows belong to the Crovine family which includes jays. Among other things, this
family of birds is associated with trickery. The Steller's Jay, for instance, can imitate the call of a
Redtail Hawk.
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What does the crow tell the Raven?
Does the crow understand humans and their gods better than the Raven?
What is the origin of the crow in this story?
Nyctimene becomes a night-owl. Why?
Raven disregards crow's warning and goes on to tell Apollo about Coronis' infidelity.
What does Apollo do? What happens to the raven?
McCollister’s Ovid Summer Assignment 9
The Story of Ocyrhoe (48-50):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Mercruy and Battus (50):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Mercury, Herse, and Algouros (51-52):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
House of the Goddess of Envy (52-54):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Europa (54-56):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Cadmus (57-61):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Actaeon (61-64):
Ovid challenges us to find guilt in Actaeon (61). Actaeon's transformation into a deer at Diana's
hand means that he becomes the hunted; the hunter becomes the prey (64).
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What is Actaeon's tragic flaw?
What are Actaeon and his friends doing at the beginning of the story? Are they
hunting to survive or are they hunting for other reasons. How can you tell?
What do you thing the sentiment of the poet is about the hunters and their actions?
Diana without her clothes blushes, which explains the crimson colors of the dusk and dawn. She
punishes Actaeon for seeing a goddess in the buff and turns him into a deer.
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At first, how does Actaeon react?
Then the hounds get the scent. What happens?
What is the moral to this story?
Ovid tells us that some say Diana was too cruel. What do you think of the way she
punishes Actaeon?
Semele (64-66):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
McCollister’s Ovid Summer Assignment 10
Tiresias (67):
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Who is Tiresias?
What did he mean when he tells Liriope that her son will live to see old age if "he
never knows himself."
Narcissus and Echo (67-73):
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Etymology: what is the meaning of the word narcissism?
Compare this word to "ethnocentrism" and "anthropocentrism." Similarites?
Juno puts a curse on Echo. Describe the curse.
Where is Echo now and why?
Narcissus and the pool: explain.
What happens to Narcissus? Why a flower?
For medieval symbologists, the pool of Narcissus is located at the center of the
Garden of Love. In the most famous and influential tale, the Lover first catches a
glimpse of his beloved (Rose) reflected in this pool. What does this indicate about
love?
Pentheus and Bacchus (73-82):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Introduction (83):
No need to do anything here
Pyramus and Thisbe (83-86):
o
o
Briefly summarize this story
Why is the fruit of the mulberry tree red?
Mars and Venus (86-87):
o
Briefly summarize this story
The Sun-God and Leucothoe (87-90):
o
o
Briefly summarize this story
Why do flowers face the sun?
Salmacis (90-93):
o
o
Briefly summarize this story
Where do we get the word Hermaphrodite from?
McCollister’s Ovid Summer Assignment 11
The Daughters of Minyas (93-94):
o
Briefly summarize this story
Athamas and Ino (94-99):
o
o
Briefly summarize this story
The End of Cadmus (99-100):
o
Briefly summarize this story
The Story of Perseus (100-114):
o
o
o
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Offer one interpretative comment regarding Perseus’ weapon against Atlas.
Is Phineus justified in being angry?
What might the Gorgon signify in contemporary culture?
Minerva and the Muses (115-128):
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Briefly summarize this story.
Ovid interjects that earth is not to be blamed for any willing aid in the ravishment
(122). What part did earth play in this story?
Arachne (129-133):
o
o
o
Aside from Minerva's pettiness and jealousy, why does Arachne receive such a
vicious punishment? Is it her skill, or the content of her artistic works?
Why are spiders associated with this particular story?
What is Arachne’s punishment?
Niobe (133-143):
You may remember Niobe from the fourth episode in Sophocles' tragedy Antigone. Antigone
compares herself to Niobe.
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What do Antigone and Niobe have in common?
What do Niobe and Arachne have in common so that their stories are juxtaposed?
In the end of the story, Niobe is turned to stone. In your imagination, what causes
her metamorphosis to stone? How is her transformation appropriate?
Tereus, Procne, and Philomela (143-152):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
McCollister’s Ovid Summer Assignment 12
Jason and Medea (153-167):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
War between Crete and Athens (167-174):
After an effective description of heat, drought, and pestilence brought by Juno, in which the earth
and humans mutually suffer a blight (170), we hear about the Myrmidons (173).
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What were the Myrmidons originally?
Where did we last encounter the Myrmidons in mythological texts?
How does the transformation make mythological sense?
Cephalus and Procris (174-180):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Nisus and Scylla (181-187):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Daedalus and Icarus (187-190):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
The Caledonian Boar (190-195):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
The Brand of Meleager (195-198):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Return to Theseus and Achelous' Story (198-200):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Baucis and Philemon (200-204):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Erysichthon (204-208):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
McCollister’s Ovid Summer Assignment 13
This may be the best representative story for what seems to be Ovid's final perspective.
o How is the intense famine impulse that does him in (ultimately he ends up eating
himself) an appropriate punishment for his crime?
Freud used the Oedipus myth. Jung found many myths to be registering and manifesting various
psychological issues. Many successful pop-psych gurus have made their way through the talkshow circuit pitching a book with one or another mythological figure in the title and claiming
that many people suffer from an inner conflict expressed in the myth (e.g., The Peter Pan
Syndrome). So it's easy! You make one up and win valuable prizes!
Achelous vs. Hercules for Deianera (209-212):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Hercules, Nessus, and Deianera (212-217):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Hercules Birth (217-219):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Dryope (219-223):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Caunus and Byblis (223-229):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Iphis and Ianthe (229-233):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Orpheus and Eurydice (234-237):
One of the classic myths that appeals to writers and directors of art films is the story of Orpheus.
Some see Orpheus as the archetypal artist -- and not simply because his music made even the
mountains sway and the trees strain to hear it. The journey of Orpheus to the Underworld could
be considered an allegory for the artistic process. Like Orpheus, the poet or artist descends to the
darkest depths of the soul and stares death in the face. And like Orpheus, the artist who gives in
to his or her doubts will lose everything.
Orpheus' wife Eurydice is bitten in the ankle by a serpent and dies. Orpheus respectfully requests
of Pluto a "loan": his wife back until she's older -- after all, we all will end up here in the
underworld sooner or later anyway.
McCollister’s Ovid Summer Assignment 14
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How is the Underworld of mythology different from Christian Hell?
How is Hades/Pluto different from the Devil?
Who the devil is the Devil?
As Orpheus sings his request, all those miseries of the underworld in
Virgil's Aeneid stop: Ixion's wheel stops spinning, the vulture stops chewing on
Tityos' liver, Tantalus stops trying to reach food and water, and so on (235). What
does it mean that "Hell" stops in the underworld when Orpheus sings?
Orpheus' request is granted with a catch in the form of folklore's "one forbidden thing" motif: as
he and Eurydice exit, he is not to look back at her. Of course, he's worried and on the way out he
does look back. She's gone forever.
Ovid's tale of Orpheus' journey to the Underworld, the realm of Hades, provides a beginning
place from which to consider the changing constructs of the afterlife in mythology. It is possible
to view the changing images of the underworld by looking at the iconography of hell and the
devil.
Cyparissus (237-239):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Ganymede (239):
o
Briefly summarize this story. (one sentence is fine here)
Apollo and Hyacinthus (239-241):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Pygmalion (241-243):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Cinyras and Myrrha (243-251):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Adonis (251-252):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Atalanta (252-257):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
McCollister’s Ovid Summer Assignment 15
Back to Adonis (257-258):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Orpheus (259-261):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Midas (261-265):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Building the Walls of Troy (265-266):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Thetis (266-68):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Daedalion and Chione (268-270):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Peleus' Cattle (270-272):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
The Quest of Ceyx (272-282):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
Aesacus and Hesperia (282-284):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
The Invasion of Troy (285-290):
o
Ovid tells of the force of rumor (286-287) right at this point: why?
Nestor's Story of Caeneus (290):
o
Briefly summarize this story.
McCollister’s Ovid Summer Assignment 16
The Battle with the Centaurs (291-304):
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Briefly summarize this story.
Is Nestor senile?
Nestor tries to justify his failure to mention Hercules. What is his explanation?
What questions does Ovid raise about the reporting of legend and why?
Ajax vs. Ulysses (305-318):
Ovid's roundabout way of covering the salient points of the Trojan War is to provide at
length the debate between Ajax and Ulysses over rightful inheritance of Achilles' armor.
Traditionally reduced to a clash between brain and brawn -- warrior vs. intellectual, or
jock vs. scholar -- the debate bears a closer look. Aided by recollections of Homer's Iliad,
evaluate the merits of the respective arguments.
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Ajax has eleven arguments against Ulysses. What are they? Number
them appropriately.
How does Ajax propose to settle the dispute?
Ulysses has sixteen arguments. What are they? Number them
appropriately.
It is obvious that Ulysses is more fluent in the art of rhetoric than Ajax. But
what do you think Ovid is saying?
The armor goes to Ulysses, and Ajax goes bonkers and kills himself.
The Fall of Troy (319-320):
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Briefly summarize this story.
Polyxena (320-323):
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Briefly summarize this story.
Hecuba's Revenge (323-324):
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Briefly summarize this story.
Memnon (325-326):

Briefly summarize this story.
Aeneas and Anius (326-330):

Briefly summarize this story.
Galatea and Polyphemus (330-335):
McCollister’s Ovid Summer Assignment 17

Briefly summarize this story.
Glaucus, Circle, and Scylla (335-340):

Briefly summarize this story.
Aeneas and the Sibyl – Pilgrimage Resumed (340-344):

Briefly summarize this story.
Achaemenides (344-346):

Briefly summarize this story.
Picus and Canens (348-352):
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Briefly summarize this story.
Diomedes (352-354):

Briefly summarize this story.
The End of the Aeneid (354-357):

Briefly summarize this story.
More Roman History (357-364):

No need to write anything here. Book XIV with another historical
sequence of Roman leaders.
Numa and Myscelus(365-367):

Briefly summarize this story.
Pythagoras (367-379):
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Ovid goes out of his way to spend a significant amount of space on this
philosopher in the final book of his masterpiece.
Besides the Pythagorean Theorem of mathematics, what else did Pythagoras
teach? Ovid says, “He was the first to say that…?”
Below is some background information on Pythagoras that you may find useful. There are two
questions at the end and then it returns to Ovid with Numa.
McCollister’s Ovid Summer Assignment 18
A 6th-century BCE Greek philosopher and mathematician, originally from Samos (an island off
the coast of Asia Minor settled by the Greeks), and born about 570 BCE, he left home around
530 BCE to escape the tyranny of the autocrat Polycrates. He lived in southern Italy, influencing
city politics until the turn of the century when the citizens revolted against his influence and
forced him to settle in Metapontum instead. Followers venerated him and they formed some sort
of religious order. Although he did not set down his ideas in written form, Pythagorean centers
sprang up throughout the Greek mainland during the 5th century BCE, including in Thebes and
Athens, so he certainly influenced Socrates and therefore Plato. Legends include an instance of a
superhuman voice wishing Pythagoras good morning as he was crossing the river Casas, and his
being able to appear in both Croton and Metapontum on the same day at the same hour.
Pythagoras' concepts included the mathematical order of the cosmos, and he may have been led
to this assessment from the mathematical order of music (consonants of octaves, fifths, and
fourths being produced by simple ratios in the lengths of the vibrating strings). We know "the
square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the sides
containing the right angle." But Pythagoras had an all-inclusive vision, which also included the
"music of the spheres" (the sound that no doubt had to be produced by the planets encircling
earth).
Pythagoras believed in reincarnation and claimed to remember previous incarnations.
[Transmigration of souls is not a Greek leaning, so one school of thought says Pythagoras
travelled east beyond Egypt and came back with the notion (but they say this of Jesus too).] A
later report claims he told followers that he has once been Aethalides, a son of Hermes, who
allowed him one wish excluding immortality. He wished to remember what happened to him,
alive and dead. One of his remembered incarnations was as Euphorbus, who was wounded by
Menelaus. Afterwards, he became Hermotimus, who in a temple of Apollo identified the shield
of Menelaus (dedicated to Apollo when he sailed back from Troy). His next incarnation was as
Pyrrhus the Delian fisherman, and then Pythagoras.
There is a famous story that he once stopped an animal from being beaten because he insisted he
recognized the voice of a dead friend. (I wonder if that might not have been merely a humane
device to stop the beating of an animal.) (Asimov 535)
Due partly to his belief in metempsychosis, he opposed the taking of life, the eating of flesh, and
association with those who benefit by the slaughter business. He supposedly coined the term
"Philosophy" first as a word to signify the love and pursuit of wisdom, which helps the soul
bring itself into attunement with the cosmos.
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
Do you agree with the philosophy of Pythagoras?
Would you consider this section as the part that links the entire book together?
Numa Returns (379-380):

Briefly summarize this story.
Hippolytus (380-381):
McCollister’s Ovid Summer Assignment 19

Briefly summarize this story.
Cipus (382-384):

Briefly summarize this story.
Asculapius (384-388):

Briefly summarize this story.
The Deification of Caesar (388-392:


Briefly summarize this story.
Besides his murder, what does Ovid discuss as having happened ultimately to
Julius Caesar?
Epilogue:
Ovid knows that he too will die one day.
Still, part of me,
The better part, immortal, will be borne
Above the stars; my name will be remembered
Wherever Roman power rules conquered lands,
I shall be read, and through all centuries,
If prophecies of bards are ever truthful,
I shall be living, always.

Has Ovid achieved immortality?
Even this final cheeky claim to immortality of the poet contains the ambiguous "If."
Ovid Final Thoughts:
Reading through story after story of people's miserable lives and miserable transformations as
the only escape from misery and victimization by gods in what certainly seems like a completely
amoral world, one has to wonder what the point of Ovid's Metamorphoses is.
The environmental theme has been easy enough to see perhaps. Earth was given a voice and
considered our "mother"; hunters typically fared badly; and Erysichthon's story came closest to
revealing Ovid's apparent attitude about respect for Nature.
But the wide side-step to Pythagoras in the final book ought to be the key. The Romans go back
to killing animals in the remainder of Book 15, but the long section on Pythagoras serves as
Ovid's commentary on the natural world: Metamorphoses tells us that it is filled with souls. It's
not necessarily that we need to subscribe wholeheartedly to Pythagoras' philosophy and way of
McCollister’s Ovid Summer Assignment 20
life, although it's a good idea for a myriad of reasons -- it's not that we should respect a tree or a
bird because it might be the reincarnation of Aunt Millie; rather, we should respect that tree or
bird because it too has a life story.
Some extreme English teachers claim that we are our stories, that all we have is our stories. This
sounds a bit batty, and a literal reception of Metamorphoses, even in this respect, is suffocatingly
anthropocentric. But understood on these human terms, and granted some tolerance for the
dramatic nature of them, the stories of Metamorphoses are the stories behind various flora and
fauna -- the things on earth that do indeed have life and with which perhaps we can occasionally
empathize.
So, "the problem of change"? No, the joy of change! And the joy of being able to connect with
life.
McCollister’s Ovid Summer Assignment 21
Written Assignment #1:
Due First Day of Class
Write a response to the following, making sure to cite specific passages to support your
argument. Limit your responses to 300-400 words. Do not exceed 400 words.
Choose a single instance of metamorphosis from Books I-V and write on the following
questions:
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Where does the metamorphosis occur within the story? Does it begin the story or
serve as its climax? What effects does this metamorphosis have on the story and
the character?
What form does the metamorphosis take? How does it reflect on the character
transformed?
How would you describe the tone of the metamorphosis (tragic, grotesque, comic,
etc.)?
Post-metamorphosis, is any part of the character left unchanged? Does the
unchanged portion serve as a comfort or torment for the character changed, or
other characters in the story?
How extensive or detailed is the description of the metamorphosis?
How does the story relate to those immediately preceding or following your
chosen Metamorphoses story?
McCollister’s Ovid Summer Assignment 22
Written Assignment #2:
Write your own Metamorphosis!!
It is due on the first day of class.
2 parts:
1. You are Ovid reborn – and something has survived the transition: your desire to tell stories!
For this response paper you will be writing your own metamorphosis story in the Ovidian style.
As a preliminary to writing your own Metamorphosis, begin by choosing a figure (modern,
mythological, or historical) and how and why it would be transformed. Following Ovid’s style
seen in the story patterns and techniques in the Metamorphoses, write a unique 300-400 word
Metamorphosis story. Feel free to stretch your creative muscle and select a literary or historical
figure – or even your teacher – and have fun concocting a tale of transformation. (You could
metamorphose Ben Franklin into an owl, an owl into a teacher, or your teacher into Ben
Franklin.) But be sure to stay as close as possible to Ovid’s model.
2. Discuss your story. Include a 50-100 word commentary examining your newly written
Metamorphosis. In your discussion focus on the questions below and identify which stories of
the original Metamorphoses inspired you.
When writing your own metamorphoses consider the following:
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


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

Where does the metamorphosis occur within the story? Does it begin the story or
serve as its climax? What effects does this metamorphosis have on the story and
the character?
What form does the metamorphosis take? How does it reflect on the character
transformed?
Why does this metamorphosis occur?
How would you describe the tone of the metamorphosis (tragic, grotesque, comic,
etc.)?
How extensive or detailed is the description of the metamorphosis?
Post-metamorphosis, is any part of the character left unchanged? Does the
unchanged portion serve as a comfort or torment for the character changed, or
other characters in the story?
What attitude does the narrator take towards the character and its metamorphosis?
Note: This commentary is required in addition to the 300-400 word story.
*This assignment has been adapted with the expressed permission of Dr. Michael Delahoyde of
Washington State University and Dr. Richard Tarrant of Harvard University.