And luckily for us nobody back then, mortal or god, seems to be capable of pausing to consider the consequences of their actions before doing something stupid. Much of the appeal of Ovid’s tales is their horror most of the humans are aware of what’s happening to them as they are transformed, sometimes keeping their human minds, sometimes not. Diana and Actaeon by Titian, c 1556 Source: Wikimedia Public Domain Pity the humans who cross the path of Diana, the huntress, such as Actaeon, who “accidentally” sees the goddess bathing, gets turned into a stag, and is torn apart by his own dogs. Sometimes these people have been transformed to be saved, often they’ve done something to annoy the gods, and some poor souls just seem to have got the gods on a bad day. The bulk of the poem is taken up by people getting turned into things: trees, birds, and an inordinate number of springs (these were originally weeping women). Much of it is full of overt sideswipes at Rome’s governing class, although most of these are too subtle for non-Romans like me. Starting with a strangely accurate (scientifically speaking) depiction of creation, the poem follows the travails of gods and men up to the Roman times when Ovid was alive. Ovid’s Metamorphoses is a history of the world told through transformation.
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