One of the resounding themes in Ovid’s epic poem, the Metamorphoses, is transformation. The poem is full of mythologies that the reader experiences from the onset where Jupiter presides over other gods to Tartarus, the place with dreadful furies. Ovid captivates the mind of his readers by creating a fictional world with capacious geographical boundaries and a different turn of events. Change in the characters such as the blasphemous Lycaon who dared Jove among others. The interest of this essay is to contextually analyze Ovid’s Metamorphosis focusing on the impact of change. Although the Metamorphosis has a twist of events that may be disorienting at the beginning, the consequences of the transformations are apparent.
The title of the poem announces its structure, theme of transformation, and its results. Ovid has a hexametric structure in which distinct tales for each of the 15 books contain supernatural or magical transitions from forms into various bodies. The stories in the poem are chronological, and the message from the presiding episode results in a significant change for the consecutive narratives. For instance, the first book opens with a cosmological description of the creation of the world. The initial condition of the earth was void as indicated by “No certain form on any was imprest” (Ovid, line 21). In the next verse, God or nature intervenes to end the discord. The result is a change from a world that is formless to one with order and beauty.
Changes in different eras result in a worsening of the state of humankind. During the golden age, people live in peace, despite the fact that there are no laws. In turn, the earth bountifully offered its agricultural assistance to people so that they did not toil. However, when Jove becomes a ruler of the world in his reign, the silver age emerged. The seasons changed from spring to extreme heat and cold. The result of the climatic changes is that the people were forced to toil more and have less time for leisure. In the bronze age, the living conditions worsened, and rage among people multiplied. During the final evolution, which is the iron era, mankind lived in constant violence and hardship. In addition, the mortals had to construct shelter because it became unbearable to withstand the weather conditions. It is apparent that as a result of the earth being intolerable to mortals, they became oblivious and aggressive towards each other.
When humans and immortals suffer from failed love or rape, they transform their forms as a way of a defense mechanism. In the narration, there is a rapid shift from Apollo, who is a divine and an elegiac lover, to Diana, a virgin. For instance, Apollos’s infatuation with Daphne causes her to be transformed into a laurel tree. This is after the latter realizes that she cannot win against Apollo in the foot race (Ovid, lines 548-552). In addition, all the victims of Jove’s rape cases try to protect themselves through transformation. In book 10, Pygmalion abhors all women after witnessing how Propoetides prostitutes. However, he decided to form a female statue and fell in love with it. His feelings and focus were not normal, for he liked an inanimate sculptures.
The other impact of change is that it results in shifting identities for people and gods who displease powerful forces. In the poem, Lycaon is a beastly king who tries to test the authenticity of Jove by offering him human flesh. In response, Jove turns this earthly ruler into a terrified wolf that has no option but to run. However, in book 1, Ovid notes that even as a wild animal, he still has “the same fierce face, the same red eyes, a picture” (Ovid, lines 233-240). Lycaon lost his position within the human kingdom, but the soul remained wicked. Lycaon’s present state still reflects the character that he had despite the fact that his physical form changed to that of a wolf.
The last book of the epic depicts the transmigration of the soul, which results in changes in the physical forms such as the body. Human beings in the poem are killed or die from natural death, but their soul goes beyond the grave. Also, to withstand tyrannical authorities, some people decided to sacrifice their bodies, which are mortal. In book 13, the Trojan Princess, Polyxena, chooses to sacrifice her physical freedom at Achilles’s tomb (Ovid, lines 453-480). In that state, she is secure from future ills and struggles of being under an unjust reign. The result is that the mortal is freed from the pains of this world; they also cannot reside in the natural earth without a body.
In conclusion, Ovid’s Metamorphoses contains significant transformation but maintains continuity in that the reader can easily understand the impact of every change. Right from the title, the poet announces this central theme of transformation for each of the mythical narrations in the 15 books. There are seasonal differences from the golden age to the iron age which cause the state of man to depreciate from serene to a chaotic, violent, and toilful world. Failed romantic relationships and lust make the mortals and immortals change their form as a defense mechanism. There are also multiple instances where the identity of a being shifts either voluntarily or by default, but the soul remains constant even in different states.
Work Cited
Ovid. Metamorphoses (Norton Critical Editions). W. W. Norton & Company, 2010.