Ovid's Metamorphoses - Reading Diary B - Week 2

Perseus holding Medusa's Head

The image above can be found here, it is by Simone Viteri

The story can be found here

I'm not really sure if I should approach the tale of the debate between Zeus and Hera about who enjoys sex more, man or woman. It just seems like a one-off episode that was inserted by Ovid to present some humor in contrast with the darker topics covered in the previous chapters. Although, this story does ring a point that I made in my previous post: the deities of legend seem far more human in their whims and fancies than one might assume.

For similar reasons, I'm not sure if I want to address the stories of Narcissus or the Mars and Venus affair. There's just too much attention paid to lovers by this point, at least for me as part of a modern audience. In Ovid's defense, these stories were probably not experienced in bingeing portions. They were probably told over numerous episodes, where the audience experienced points of rest. But to me at least, some of the nuances of the stories concerning the adventures of lovers are just lost, at least until I can read them at a pace that permits me to be more appreciable.

I do start to like the story arc more as Ovid moves on from the affairs of the Gods to the triumphs that mortals or divine heroes (born from Gods and mortals) take over the classical obstacles and threats that we know and love, starting with the exchange between Perseus and Atlas. I found it refreshing to read the tale of Perseus changing Altas into a mountain after the titan refused to give food or shelter. And worst of all, for Atlas anyway, the titan fell prey to his own superstitious mind. This is sort of unexpected, since I have always read passages about Atlas to describe him as a very discerning character. No matter. Like I said, it was very satisfying to see Perseus give at least one of the immortals a retaliation for their petty whims.
     Further on, Perseus goes onto slay a sea serpent to save Andromeda, the daughter of Cassiopeia and Cepheus, for her hand in marriage. Obviously, this is the sort of tale that would inspire the "Prince Charming" sort of stereotype, which isn't bad in this case. Like I said before, the first part of Ovid's story was almost solely centered round the affairs of the Gods and how they wreaked havoc on mortals who may have not necessarily deserved the torment they received from the heavens. So, the way this section ends in a tale about Perseus slaying Medusa is quite a nice change of pace.