Reading Journal-Assignment 2

Ovid’s Metamorphoses has a very clear theme of transformation, in comparison to Calvino’s Invisible Cities. In Metamorphoses the dynamic on the heavens and earth is constantly changing, with a progressive decline to evil (Golden Age, Age of Silver, Age of Bronze, and Iron Age) that causes the gods to kill off almost all humans, to gods falling in love with people (Apollo and Daphne). In Invisible Cities transformation occurs more through the characters’ and readers’ perception. Usually when a person visits a city their thoughts and memories become confused and mixed, due to the contrasting characteristics of the city of the non-existence of the city. The intangibility of the city compels a certain transformation in thought, memory, or understanding.

All in all the gods seem to be really controlling and trouble me with their exploitive treatment of humans. The sentence that embodies what I disliked most about the god-human relationship was when Pyrrha “was still uncertain,/ And [Deucalion] by no means sure, and both distrustful/ Of that command from Heaven” (p. 971).

Metamorphoses seems to echo or resemble a lot of different mythical works to me. It immediately reminded me of Milton’s Paradise Lost because of the way they both retell or implement parts of the Bible’s creation story. I just recently took a course on the “Bible as Literature,” so I made a lot of connections with Ovid’s work and the Bible. Lines as subtle as “there were no judges,” are a nod to the judges that upheld justice and were figures of morality as written in the Bible’s book of Judges (p. 964). A more blatant connection that could be made between Metamorphoses and the Bible is the story of the flood. Not only is Ovid incorporating biblical elements, but there is also a close resemblance to Greek myths; which makes sense considering the epic Greek poems, like Homer’s Illiad and Odyssey would have been dominant influences for Ovid.

In general, Ovid’s tone is disconnected and almost aloof. It seems like he’s just recording stories that he knows, not ones he’s passionate about. Without fluid transitions between the stories, Metamorphoses lacks a cohesiveness that would, I think, illustrate the author’s personal attachment to the work’s creation.

The versions of the Demeter/Persephone myth are different because one is written as verse and one is written as prose. In one King Pluto is given a name and in the other he’s not. Also, Persephone is represented as younger and more naïve than in the other.