Reading Notes: Ovid's Metamorphoses (1-4), Part A

1. Deucalion and Pyrrha

Floods are pretty crazy. As civilized and advanced as we think we are, there's nothing like a good, old flood from mother nature to remind us how powerless we are to her whims. A flood ending the world sounds pretty devastating, but it's terrible enough when smaller floods strike in big cities, like the flooding that occurred in Paris while I was studying abroad in France. There were a lot of delays and people were really freaked out. I was afraid my bus route was going to be flooded, but I can't even imagine what kind of disaster a flooding from Neptune would do to our world today.

That's actually a decent idea for a story, even if it's kind of been told already in a few end of the world movies. A modern day flooding that wreaks havoc all over the world caused by the gods, or some other powerful existence. 

 2. Io

I was particularly struck by the sentence that the father of Io mentioned about how his sorrow would go on for eternity, and that it was, in this instance, a curse being a god and therefore immortal. 

Also, it's interesting how the author refers to the characters in terms of their relations to other characters in the mythology. It helps show how everyone is related, but also expands your knowledge of the world.

3. Phaethon and the Sun

This is actually a story I am kind of familiar with, but I had no idea Phaethon was so young nor that he was unsure of who is father is. 

4. Phaethon's Ride

5. The Death of Phaethon

I don't really understand the metamorphoses yet. There doesn't really seem to be much explanation, but rather description of the changes occurring. Does change in form come as a result of great emotion, or just great sadness? Both parties that experienced change in this part of the story were intimately connected to Phaethon, so his death affected them greatly. 

6. Callisto

These stories of Jupiter raping innocent virgin girls are pretty sad honestly. What's worse is that Juno, wife of Jupiter, blamed Callisto for the act, and then punished her by turning her into a bear. 

It was cool to find out about Ursa Major/Minor though.

7. Semele

I can see this story retold with a different wish/ending for Semele, but I'm not sure what it would be. Do I preserve the doom that she is destined at the hands of Juno? Or do I save her, but what becomes of Bacchus, whose birth story may be important to his life later on?

Phaethon by Gustave Moreau

Ovid's Metamorphoses, translation by Tony Kline; link to the reading online.