ENGL 217/LIT 231
Prof. G. Steinberg

Response Paper:  Metamorphoses, Books 1-3

Just as Virgil’s Aeneid is a reaction and response to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Ovid’s Metamorphoses is a reaction and response to Virgil’s Aeneid.  Virgil thought that he was correcting Homer’s errors by telling the story of a Trojan who escaped the destruction of Troy in order to found Roman culture.  Ovid thinks that he’s correcting Virgil’s errors by telling stories “of bodies changed / To different forms... from the world’s beginning to our own days” (Book 1, lines 1-4).

Choose one of the following areas as the focus of your response paper:

1. How do the first four lines of the Metamorphoses compare to the first 12 lines of the Aeneid? What seem to be the main ideas, issues, and themes that Ovid is going to develop (as opposed to those developed by Virgil in the Aeneid)?  What do we learn of Ovid’s values and motives from the opening lines of his poem?  Why isn’t Ovid as forthcoming as Virgil is in his poem’s opening?  What does Ovid's reticence tell us about how his approach to life and the world differs from Virgil's?
2. How do humans and the gods interact in Books 1-3 of the Metamorphoses?  Are the gods like the gods in the Aeneid?  What do the gods seem to value in the Metamorphoses (as opposed to in the Aeneid)?  What motivates them (especially in their transactions with mortals)?  How do mortals respond to the gods and their motives?  How do the gods’ decrees affect mortals?  How does Ovid portray the gods initially?  Does his portrayal change in later stories?  Focus in particular on two or three stories, such as those of Lycaon, Deucalion and Pyrrha, Daphne, Phaethon, Europa, Cadmus, Actaeon, Semele, Echo and Narcissus, or Pentheus and Bacchus.
3. Why would Ovid choose change as the theme of his response to Virgil?  How is focusing on change a fit response to Virgil’s way of thinking in the Aeneid?  What kind of world does Ovid create in the Metamorphoses?  Is it like the world in the Aeneid?  Who prospers in Ovid’s world?  Who loses?  How do the winners and losers in Ovid’s world compare to the winners and losers in Virgil?  Would you want to live in Ovid’s world?  Is it a safe place? a wicked place? a fun place? a wonderful place? a stable place? an unstable place?  Would you prefer to live in Virgil’s world?