Ovids Metamorphoses The Theme Of Change And Mythology...

In Ancient Rome, there were an abundant amount of myths that involved the gods and the religions of the Romans. These myths told stories of the gods’ interactions with the humans, which the Romans took seriously. Some examples of these myths were the story of Aeneas and his eventual role in the Trojan War in The Aeneid and the story of Lucius and his transformation into an ass in The Golden Ass. An important text that involved many myths is Metamorphoses, written by Ovid. This epic involved many stories of different gods and different humans and their interactions. The main theme in this epic is the theme of change and transformation, which is the center of most of the myths that are told in the epic. One myth that is significant is of the†¦show more content†¦Unlike other epics written about the Trojan War, Ovid uses a different perspective to describe it. In other myths and epics, the Trojan War is described with power and strength. Ovid describes the war and its he roes with sarcasm and insignificance. His focus is more on the transformations of the heroes after the fact, not their greatest accomplishments, which goes along with the theme of the rest of the epic. Many of the myths in Metamorphoses center around love and infatuation, as well as rejection. The myth of the death of Orpheus dealt mostly with rejection, which eventually leads to two transformations. This myth began when Orpheus rejected the advances of the Ciconian women. He did this because he had rejected the advances of all women because he was still in love with his late wife. He was distraught over the fact that he could not save her from the Underworld and therefore, swore off all women (Metamorphoses 10.82-86). Because of this, the Ciconian women found Orpheus performing one of his songs and decided to get their revenge. They first began killing the animals that had been enthralled by Orpheus’ song and then turned on Orpheus. They murdered him viciously and savagely, using stones and the earth to kill him (Metamorphoses 11.20-44). Orpheus then descended into the Underworld to join his late wife. Orpheus was mourned by a lot of beings, including the god Bacchus. 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