King Midas and the Golden Touch, is one of the most famous myths in western lore. It details the story of one man’s greed and lust for wealth leading to his ultimate downfall. Initially written by Ovid, in his Metamorphoses published in 8 A.D, it has been adapted and analyzed even in modern times. Written in Dactylic Hexameter, as customary of great mythological works of the time period, the poem effectively served as a part of a guide to life for the ancient Romans. The morals the story teaches are still applicable in this day and age. As the story is intertwined with the rest of the epic, it is important to evaluate the myth in an educated and modified light. In King Midas and the Golden Touch, Ovid deftly illustrates the importance of restraint by detailing King Midas’ suffering from his greed.
To fully understand the myth, one needs to explore its context. King Midas and the Golden Touch was written in the 11th book of the Metamorphoses. The two previous myths that led up to the story were the Death of Orpheus and the Transformation of the Maenads. Orpheus was a great musician and poet who often performed for the Olympian gods. Towards the end of his life, he refused to acknowledge all the gods and only played for Apollo. One day he went to the oracle of Bacchus, and blatantly disregarded him and instead paid homage to Apollo. Seeing this, infuriated Thracian women (Maenads) ripped him to shreds for not honoring Bacchus. Enraged at the death of the greatest poet and musician of the era, Lyaeus wanted to teach a lesson to the Maenads. He immediately transformed the Maenads into trees on the spot of the murder. Much like Daphne became a laurel tree, the Maenads became a ring of oak trees. Naturally Bacchus was upset with the pu...
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As one of the most well known ancient Roman love poets, Ovid has demonstrated bountiful talents within his writing. When reading myths from his book titled Metamorphoses, you gain an enlightening insight of how he viewed mythology. To Ovid, love was the origin of everything. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that most of his poems relate to the theme of love. However, not all poets are the same and every re-telling of a myth has its own unique perspective. In this paper I will compare and contrast the myth of Medea in Euripides Medea and Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 7. I will then explain how Ovid’s approach to love and loss correlate to his general approach to myth as a whole. I will support my belief with evidence from Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 14.
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Dodds, E.R. "On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex." Greece & Rome, Second Series 13.1 (1996): 37-49. Jstor. Muntz Lib., Tyler, TX. 21 Mar. 2009.
Ovid’s Metamorphoses is an anti-epic that was written in an attempt to poke fun at the seriousness of Virgil’s Aeneid. Although the Aeneid and Metamorphoses differ vastly from one another, both of these two revolutionary Roman works provide contemporary readers with insight into Rome’s treatment of women during the age of Augustus. However, Ovid’s Metamorphoses portrays women in a much more positive light than Virgil does in the Aeneid, and this informs readers that Ovid, not Virgil, was at least somewhat concerned with the oppression of women in ancient Roman society.
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In the scene following Eurydice’s death, Orpheus does not believe that she is dead. He goes to the hospital in hopes of finding his love, Eurydice. However, once he reaches the hospital, he inquires many constraints. The doctors and nurses will only let him go so far in the hospital. In an attempt to avoid the doctors, he runs around frantically, looking for a way to elude the doctors. In my opinion, this is Orpheus decent to Phlegethon,...
Dodds, E. R. "On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex." Twentieth Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Michael J. O'Brien.
The story of Orpheus and Eurydice is one that has been retold countless times over the years. It started as a Greek myth, later being made into a movie titled Black Orpheus. After reading the myth and watching the movie, it is easy to see that there are far more differences in the two works than similarities. These differences are not only in the way the story is told, but also in the organization of the events that take place and in the description of the characters. The main differences in these two versions of the myth are the role of the characters, the main plot scheme, and the journey into the underworld.
Dodds, E.R. "On Misunderstanding the Oedipus Rex." Twentieth Century Interpretations of Oedipus Rex: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Michael J. O'Brien. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice, 2005. Print.
O’Brien, Micheal. “Introduction.” 20th Centruy Interpretations of Oedipus Rex. Ed. Micheal O'Brien. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1968. 8-10. Print.
Mandelbaum, Allen, trans. The Metamorphoses of Ovid. By Ovid. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & company, 2008.