Metamorphoses is a Latin Narrative Poem by the Roman Poet Ovid

Metamorphoses is a Latin Narrative Poem by the Roman Poet Ovid

This poem chronicles the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Caesar. The poem is epic by all criteria. Despite this fact, the work defies simple genre classification by using different tones and themes.

This poem consists of fifteen books, which represent the most known stories from the Greek mythology. The poem includes 250 stories that are separated among the 15 books. Every story includes some transformational element that links all of them together.

Further, transformation is the main theme of the poem, because it aims to express the idea that there is nothing permanent in the world, but it can explain the phenomenon of existence. This masterpiece still remains one of the most popular mythological works. Most probably, this is also one of the best known classical works written before medieval writers. Moreover, it strongly impacted the Renaissance and medieval poetry.

One of the reason The Metamorphoses is an epic poem is because it was written in the dactylic hexameter form that was mostly used in such great epic ancient poem as The Aeneid, The Odyssey, and The Iliad (Jones 13). Moreover, it is a historical poem that has a strong chronology that starts from the beginning of the world to the times of Julius Caesar. In general, a epic poem can be defined as a lengthy narrative poem that usually focuses on a serious subjects, including details of significant events for a nation or culture, heroic deeds, Gods, and mythological creatures. This description fully supports the position that Ovid`s poem can be defined as epic. Therefore, the paper focuses on the change as the main theme. It is expressed through transformations of people to animals, stones, water, and trees. This unites all stories together in an attempt to express the idea that change is the key to the understanding of existence, because there is nothing permanent in the world.

Transformation is the Main Theme

In general, the poem includes different themes and motives. All fifteen books examine such issues as violence, art, morality, nature, loss, destruction, love, anger, politics, desire, creation, sexuality, death, gender, birth, war, monstrosity, peace, and many others (Liveley 7). Transformation is the main theme of the poem that unites all stories together. To provide the atmosphere of change, Ovid uses metamorphoses to connect the stories. Almost everything in the poem is in the process of changing. For example, people are transformed by hate and love; chaos is changed in the universe; gods are able to change their shapes; rivers are created from nothing; and people are transformed into animals and plants. However, very often such transformations can be irrelevant and tangential, or even include a comic effect. Therefore, Ovid expands the transformation metaphor in a way that encompasses the poem as a whole piece of work.

The process of shifting between the small and large views makes readers transform their own focus. The inclusion of Pythagoras philosophical ideas at the end of the poem only proves this position by explaining the meaning of transformation. Pythagoras explains that everything in the world is in the process of constant change to his own students. Hence, some elements simply transform into other elements, while land masses are destroyed and created and power moves between people and cities. Therefore, when a person begins to look for change, they can see many examples of it. This only means that change in contrast to constancy defines the phenomenon of existence.

The Transformation to Animal

Such metamorphoses are expressed through transformations into trees, animals, water, and stone. The transformation into animals is often showcased in the poem because the similarities between animals and people are believed to be the main reason for people`s souls moving to animals’ bodies. A clear example of this can be a story about Lycaon. He was an Arcadian tyrant, who was well known for his evil behavior. In the end, his reputation reached Jupiter, who decided to check everything by himself. When he arrived, he was properly greeted by Lycaon`s subjects, while the tyrant laughed and promised to challenge the divinity of Jupiter. To do this, he decided to kill the God in his sleep. Before this, he offered Jupiter a meal that consisted of cooked man. However, when the meal was served Jupiter caused a fire in the house, and the terrified Lycaon ran to the countryside where he was transformed into a wolf (Ovid).

In this case, the transformation was a way to show the real face of Lycaon. His desire for blood and killing caused him to transform into his true form. In the quiet countryside, the reader can see the drama, when the wolf begins howling. The horror of this moment is only intensified by the realization tha
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