Poem "Metamorphosis" (Ovid): content, analysis

Today we will talk about such an amazing monument of ancient art, like "Metamorphosis". Ovid could in fifteen volumes not only show all the mythology of his time, but also illustrate through this prism the life of the people around him.

Read on, and you will become acquainted with such a facet of the ancient society as the attitude towards love. You will learn not only what kinds of Greeks and Romans shared this feeling, but you will also understand the deeds of deities and heroes in his incarnation.

Publius Ovid Nason

One of the most famous of his works - "Metamorphoses" - Ovid ended in exile. The poet unequivocally in memoirs does not speak about the reason of falling into disgrace. Researchers believe that because of the poems that are not consistent with the opinion of the emperor.

So, who is this Roman who could light up the capital of the Roman Empire with love elegies, become famous and end his life in exile from the Sarmatians and Gets.

Publius Ovidius Nazon was born in the mountains of Central Italy. His family belonged to one of the Sabine tribes, pelegians. His father was rich, belonged to the "horsemen", as the poet himself says. Due to sufficient prosperity of the family, the boy gets education in the best schools of the capital.

After Ovid traveled through Greece, Asia Minor and Sicily, made friends with Horace and Propericius, saw Virgil. He started writing poetry early enough. The first work was "Heroes", but they burned them to "cleanse" of the coarse syllable.

From the surviving works we know "Love Elegies", as the earliest. Thanks to them, Ovid became famous in Rome. The next work was called The Science of Love. In fact, this is the first book in history on the popular "pick-up" nowadays. In it, the poet gave advice first to men, how to behave and achieve women, and then to the girls.

It is believed that it was for the "Science of Love" that Augustus sent him into exile. It is there, on the shores of the Black Sea, Ovid and finishes his famous "Metamorphosis".

The concept of love in antiquity

The ancient Greeks, like the rest of the ancient peoples, were closer to nature. They tried to understand themselves deeper and through the prism of the senses they knew the world around them.
Aristotle singled out six kinds of love with their own names. About them, we now talk.

The first was "Ludus" - a game of love. He is characterized as a pure attraction, without feelings. Experiencing such feelings, one of the partners seeks to selfishly satisfy one's own physiological desires. The thoughts and emotions of another person are not interesting to him. This kind of love is often enough, but after the storm of passion subsides, the one who took the "ludus" seriously will remain at the broken trough.

Ovid shows all such manifestations of emotion. "Metamorphoses", the brief content of which will be given further, will allow you to plunge into the emotional sphere of the ancient world.

Next comes the "eros" - sensual relations. In the modern world, such relationships are called romantic. Imagine that in communicating with a partner you have a continuous candy-bouquet period.

"Mania" is an obsession with passion. Constant suffering, reproaches and scenes of jealousy from one of the partners. This is a perverse concept of feelings, when on a psychological level there is a combination of a feeling of love and pain.

The next kind is "pragma". It is from here that the concept of pragmatism occurs. In such a relationship, feelings and emotions recede into the background. First of all, the partner is interested in the practical side of the future life together. Whether the wife prepares well, whether the husband earns much.

"Storge", similar is "philia" - tender love-friendship. Mutual understanding, help, warm even relations. If you want an explosion of feelings and an update of emotions, here you will never get them.

The last kind is agape. It is considered the highest stage of manifestation of love. The first Christians called it divine. This feeling is characterized by total dedication. The partner lives only for the sake of another person. He sees his happiness only in the joy of the second half.

The essence of "Metamorphosis"

Let's now talk about why Ovid wrote Metamorphoses. Daedalus and Icarus, for example, about which we know from legends, became famous only thanks to this great poet.

He took the surrounding reality, political, social, economic relations between people and states, and expressed them in the allegorical form of ancient mythology.

The exact translation of the name of the poem is "transformation, transformation." This is precisely what is said in the work. Ovid possessed such a powerful talent that the thoughtful reader feels the effect of personal presence on the events taking place.

The poet cuts off all unnecessary details, and changes show in the form of a process, until the last hiding the final result. With the proper visualization skills, the reader becomes a spectator.

But the most fully expressed in the "Metamorphoses" is the problem of love. This is the poet's favorite theme. He managed to express in minute detail its intricacies.

You will notice how gradually by the end of the composition the deeds of the characters become deeper, more conscious and spiritualized. Let's look at these questions on examples from the work.

Daphne and Apollo

The poem "Metamorphosis" begins with a scene of overwhelming passion. The sun god, blinded by passion, falls in love with a nymph. Daphne does not want to become the object of his lust and quickly runs away.

With his characteristic humor Ovid depicts Apollo as a Gallic dog who, forgetting his dignity, rushes to gallop after the hare. And his feelings compare with a sudden fire on the wheat field. It is these metaphors that show the depth of the life experience of the poet and his observation.

The story ends with the fact that the nymph, despite the pleas of Phoebe that he is the son of Jupiter, and not just a shepherd, asks for protection from his father. Penee, the god of the river, turns his daughter into a tree on the bank of a stream. Apollo, seeing such a turn of events, swears to make the laurel evergreen. In addition, with his wreath, he decorates his brow.

Beloved Jupiter

Researchers have not yet fully understood all the subtleties that the reader offers to Metamorphosis. Ovid is compared with the author of "Thousand and One Nights", because the poet in his poems weaves plots of different parts of the work. The ignorant in ancient mythology from the first time will not understand many events and comparisons. Therefore, "Metamorphosis" is better read several times.

For example, Jupiter, being the main deity of Olympus, has an inexhaustible desire for sensual love and passion. He is in constant confrontation with the jealous and petty wife Juno. Many scientists believe that it was these images that angered the Roman emperor and served as the reason for Ovid's exile.

So, in the work we see several stories related to Jupiter. He falls in love with Io, and to save her from the wrath of his wife, turns a poor girl into a cow. Also, God is often depicted as drunk with nectar. In such scenes, he acts like the lowest plebeian.

In the plot with Zeus, Ovid often touches on issues of violence. For example, in order to achieve Callisto, he must turn to Diana, the goddess to whom this priestess serves. Next, he forces a chaste girl to a love affair.

Thus, in the image of the heavenly ruler, the poet shows the lowest manifestation of this kind of love, as "the Ludus."

Leucotoea and Helios

Not only to annoy the emperor, Ovid wrote, "Metamorphosis." A brief summary of the subsequent stories will give you to understand that he is mocking about the customs in the free estates of his time.

So, the sun god has a jealous fan, Clement, the daughter of Tefida and the Ocean. Himself Helios without memory falls in love with a simple mortal girl, Levkofeyu, the daughter of the Persian ruler Orkham.

But the stupid and jealous envious woman informs the king that his daughter has lost chastity in the arms of a stranger. The angry Orkham orders to bury the girl alive (such a custom, incidentally, did exist in the east).

Grief-stricken Helios strives to help at least something of his beloved. He turns it into a lemon (or white violet), a fragrant flower that turns in the day after the sun.

Narcissus and Echo

With this story, the "Metamorphoses" themselves begin to change. Ovid passes from the violent and selfish love of immortal celestials to the purer, innocent and mundane feelings of ordinary people.

The plot of the failed happiness of Narcissus and the nymph Echo shows high emotions that are inaccessible to the gods. So, the youth has unearthly beauty. But the trouble is that he loves only his reflection. Traveling through Greece, Narcissus comes to a lake, hidden more often by a forest, surrounded by mountains.

The water in it is so pure that a young man can not just tear himself away from what he sees in it. The conflict lies in the fact that he is noticed by the nymph Echo and falls in love with him without a memory. But the girl can not express her thoughts. She was cursed by Juno for the gossip that Echo prevented from following Jupiter.

Now the poor nymph can only repeat the end of the phrase of another person. But nevertheless the girl inspired by love manages to admit Narcissus in the feelings. He does not reciprocate, because he does not see anyone except his reflection. In the end, the guy turns into a flower of the same name on the lake shore.

It is noteworthy that, according to the myth, he does not cease to admire himself and Hades. There Narcissus looks into the waters of Styx.

Piram and Fisba

If you think that the plot of Romeo and Juliet was invented by Shakespeare, you are mistaken. This story was known to Publius Ovid Nason. "Metamorphoses" describe the tragic events in the life of Fisba and Piram.

It's a young girl and a guy who lived next door. Parents forbade them not only to show feelings for each other, but even to meet. The guys talked through a hole in the wall of the house.

Once they secretly agreed to meet outside the city, near one crypt. But Fisba on the way there saw a lioness, was frightened and lost her shawl. She herself hid in the agreed shelter. Pyram was walking to his beloved and saw on the road a torn shawl of a girl. He recognized her and, with the thought that she was dead, stabs herself with a dagger.

When Fisba found him, he killed himself with the same weapon. This story in the work is the first in which the gods do not take part at all.

Hermaphrodite and Salmakid

Publius Ovid Nason "Metamorphosis" conceived not as a linear composition. It has unexpected turns, a return to past events. This is also true of the story of the Salmakid and the Hermaphrodite.

The first was a nymph of a mountain lake. But in her enchanting beauty was combined with unsurpassed laziness. All that the girl did was self-admiration and priests.

Once the Hermaphrodite came to the lake. The young man, being the son of Aphrodite and Hermes, had an amazing appearance and athletic build. The nymph in him fell in love with unconsciousness.

She asked the gods to unite them into one. When the youth sailed, the Salmakid clothed him, and the celestials fulfilled her will. From that time the Hermaphrodite became a two-sexed being. Here, a retrospective of the topic of violence, previously mentioned in connection with the gods.

Kefal and Prokrid

A lot of different manifestations of love told Ovid readers. The "metamorphoses", the analysis of which we give briefly in this article, also show a tragedy without transformation.

This happened in the history of Kefal and Prokrida. These are two ordinary people, a married couple. But they got a disagreement because of her husband's doubts about the loyalty of the chosen one, whom Aurora inspired him.

With her scenes of jealousy, Kefal brings the girl to frenzy, and she runs away from him. But after repentance comes back.

Now the game comes not God, but human complaisance and intimacy. The servant tells Procride that he heard her husband call Aura, the goddess of a cool breeze.

The girl decides to follow her husband, hiding in the bushes nearby. Kefal thought that this animal creeps, and killed his wife with a dart.

In this case, we see nothing more than a tragedy due to the blindness of jealousy.

Baucis and Philemon

And Ovid Nezon says about agape. "Metamorphosis" mentions this most perfect kind of love in the image of Philemon and Baucis.

It's a poor but pious married couple. They went through all their lives together, grew old and lived out the century in a small hut.

Once Hermes and Jupiter came to visit them. Obeying the tradition, the hosts covered everything that they had on the table. They devastated their own bins, but they satisfied all the requests of strangers. In gratitude for such a warm and hospitable welcome, the gods rewarded the old people with the fulfillment of their desires.

Baucis and Philemon were asked before death to be the keepers of the temple, which celestials were erected on the site of their hut, and retired to another world in one day. As a result, after several years they turned into two trees near the sanctuary. The husband - in an oak, and the wife - in a linden.

Keik and Alcyone

On this story Ovid's poem "Metamorphosis" makes a turn from the divine fall of morals to the exaltation of mortals.

This couple is a pious king and queen. He is the son of Aurora, she is the daughter of Aeolus. Once Keik goes on a voyage and dies in a storm.

In the story is inserted a story about the message of the disappointing news to Alzione through a dream.

As a result, the couple turns into gulls, and the consoled wife and resurrected husband fly away happily together.

Vertumn and Pomona

The love story of the nymph of the garden of Pomona and the god of the seasons of Vertumna. The latter is depicted in the image of the classic hero of elegies. He is completely devoted to the object of his adoration. In the end, the young man still achieves reciprocity from his beloved.

On such a happy note, the poem "Metamorphoses" ends. Ovid, whose analysis of the work we attempted to cite in this article, expresses in this story the apotheosis of the triumph of the feelings of ordinary people and demigods over the selfish desires of the celestials.

Thus, today we not only talked about passions in ancient society, but also disassembled this sphere of life on examples from the work of the Roman poet Ovid.