Reading Notes: Ovid's Metamorphoses: (Books 1-4), Part B

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Echo:
  • This is a wild start to the story with 3 different episodes in the first few paragraphs 
  • Might be more difficult to replicate, this plot is very complex
  • The plot got even more complex in the strangest love story I’ve read
  • This story had significantly more detail and description than the last one I read from this book

Mars and Venus:
  • Interesting difference in narrator where it is a separate character telling the story
  • Another unique version of a love story
  • Shorter but still descriptive
  • More straightforward plot but told well, driven right into the story right after some brief exposition

Perseus and Andromeda:
  • In this story and others from this unit there are many myths within the one larger story. For example, as Perseus is flying Medusas blood drops on Libyan sands and that’s why that country has snakes. Many layers to these stories
  • Another interesting opportunity for description as Aurora’s fires are the chariot of dawn
  • Interesting theme with prophecies, always seem to be negative or end up being negative, possible relation to trouble with/fear of death or the future
  • Quick exchange before Perseus turns atlas into a mountain (Don’t always need elaborate explanations)
  • Interesting theme element with innocent and the framing of the innocent by the God’s (Why? Possibly as means of grappling with why bad things happen to good people? Stories indicative of desire to see justice?).
  • Interesting insistence upon marriage negotiations before the monster attacks

Perseus and Medusa:
  • Another seemingly random origin story of coral from plants that have touched Medusa’s head.
  • Action packed monster scene has a good deal of descriptive imagery, could use a bit more as some parts were unclear
  • Interesting set up of after party, altars and banquet halls just seem to appear
  • Constant references to Perseus as “The descendant of ____” 
  • Mentions the Graeae but never really develops that story.
  • Interesting origin for Pegasus who is Perseus’s companion later
  • Backstory for Medusa is told a bit complexly, but can be understood.
Bibliography
Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated by Tony Kline (Book Link)

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