The Metamorphoses

The Metamorphoses

1. Homer

   • 3-4 - Theban Cycle
     • Narcissus + Echo
   • 12-15 - Aeneid
   • Focus on marginal characters

2. Proem

   • 'deducite'
     • Cf Catullus
     • Continuity
       • O is eternal poet

3. Narrators

   • Characters
     • Biases
     • Ideologies
     • Change
   • Mixed audiences
   • Tapestry of Epyllia

4. Themes

   • Crime/Punishment
     • Artists
   • The Battlefield
     • Violence not on it
       • Cf Odyssey
     • Nestor
       • Battle at wedding
     • Martial prowess not everything
       • Phineus + kleos
   • Heroes
     • Theseus
       • Must listen
     • Achilles
       • Victory over Cygnus
       • Effeminacy
     • Women
       • Impinge on men
         • Eg boar hunt
       • Not all sexual victims
         • But disaster
       • Words (metis)
         • Cf Jason/Odysseus
         • Eg Medea
     • Artists
       • Challenging power
         • Skill is no substitute
       • Aristeia
         • Work of art
       • Ovid only one unscathed
   • Fate?
   • Rumour
     • tradition is self-serving
       • Not all stories should be believed
     • Aeneid 4
     • Homer = rumours from soldiers
       • O's narrators are unreliable
         • Nestor

5. Gods

   • Sexual violence
     • Comic
       • Eg Apollo/Jupiter
     • Outdoors
       • Beauty of landscape
   • Jupiter
     • Excessive anger
       • Evaluate justice
     • Cf Iliad
     • Link with Augustus
       • 'Palatine'
       • Death of Caesar simile
   • Isis
     • Compassionate

6. Contests

   • Pierides vs Muses
     • Gigantomachy
     • Short vs long
     • Dis hit by cupid
       • Cf Dido/Medea
     • Magpies
   • Arachne vs Minerva
     • Closer
     • Cf Jason's cloak/bed cover
     • Symmetry vs asymmetry
     • Classic vs neoteric
     • Audience judge

7. Song of Orpheus

   • Argonaut
     • Music drowned out Sirens
   • Tragedy of Virgil's Orpheus

8. Ring composition

   • Ends with council of gods