Ashley Frost

Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Rohrbacher, David

Keywords

Ovid, Metamorphoses, Roman Mythology, Greek Mythology

Area of Concentration

Literature

Abstract

Ovid’s Metamorphoses compiles more than 250 Greek and Roman myths. This thesis seeks to explain how the poet differentiates tales that share the same theme through close analysis of both the Latin text and an English translation. I show that Ovid individuates myths by controlling how his reader perceives and responds to each tale. In chapter one, which discusses myths that share the theme of unrequited love, including Apollo and Daphne, Pan and Syrinx, Acis, Galatea and Polypehmus, and Glaucis and Scylla, Ovid manipulates every such tale to encompass some degree of humor, either undercutting or compounding the threat of rape in each. In chapter two, which discusses myths that feature vengeful gods punishing mortals, including that of Niobe, Marsyas, Arachne, and Actaeon, Ovid ascribes various levels of culpability to the transgressions of the mortals, leading the reader to either condemn or sympathize with the character’s plights. In chapter three, which discusses nontraditional or perverse love myths, including that of Iphis and Ianthe, Pygmalion, Byblis, and Myrrha, Ovid prompts the reader to respond to the characters and their passions with either sympathy or repulsion by manipulating the aspects of a tale that he chooses to focus on. Ovid carefully narrates well known myths in a variety of tones and through a variety of authorial focuses, allowing Ovid the poet and his active presence within the narrative to stand preeminent among the legendary stories that he compiles.

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