Ovid was a much respected Roman poet, who lived in the Augustan period, from 43 B.C to 17 or 18 A.D. He greatly influenced literature in the Antiquity period, the Middle Age, and even Modern periods of literature. He was enthralled by the themes of love and eroticism and therefore, he used it frequently in his poetry. Therefore, in much of the Metamorphoses, he explores themes of love lost, love betrayed and love rejected as popular themes. Unsurprisingly, the story of Echo and Narcissus presents a tale of love that is spurned. The poem is part of a collection of poem published in his epic, titled Metamorphoses. Many have already written on morality as a theme, I will however look at his use of literary devices like, his use of language, imagery and plot devices to create the various tones in order to propel the theme of spurned love. In this essay, I will explore the various outcomes of spurned love, and in aid of sustaining my point, I will bring in contemporary modern interpretations of this myth; as well as other ancient Greco – Roman versions.
In many of the tales of the Metamorphoses and other poems from Ovid, most notably the Heroides there is a recurring theme of rejected love. Thus in the poem of Narcissus and Echo, Ovid recycles this theme once again. The story speaks of Echo an Oread a (mountain nymph), who falls in love with the fair Narcissus, but through his pride he rejects her. Sadly, this tragic love story ends tragically for both characters. Ovid emphasises the motif of revenge for spurned love, by having Echo parallel the experiences of Narcissus. The combination of these two mythological characters is used by Ovid to explain the protagonist’s self obsession and vanity; therefore the two contrast each other. ...
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“The Picture of Dorian Gray” is a novel written by Oscar Wilde. The story takes place in England, where the artist Basil Hallward paints a portrait of the young and beautiful Dorian Gray. During his stay at the artist’s studio, he gets introduced to Lord Henry who later becomes one of the most influential people in his life. Dorian Gray becomes aware of his amazing beauty and youthfulness due to the portrait and wishes that the portrait ages instead of him. His wish comes true, Dorian remains beautiful and youthful while the portrait changes. Lord Henry becomes his best friend and motivates him to live in abundance, to sin and always strive for beauty. After a while, Dorian discovers that his portrait doesn’t only age, but also changes face expression as a result of all his sins and evil deeds. Dorian gets anxious by the fact that the portrait shows his evil soul and is scared that somebody will see it, therefore he hides it. The portrait haunts Dorian although it’s hidden. As Dorian’s sins gets worse, he feels that he can’t handle the pressure anymore and decides to destroy the portrait that shows his true self.
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.
Nashville, TN: Broadman 1977. Ovid. Metamorphoses. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces.
In classical Greek literature the subject of love is commonly a prominent theme. However, throughout these varied texts the subject of Love becomes a multi-faceted being. From this common occurrence in literature we can assume that this subject had a large impact on day-to-day life. One text that explores the many faces of love in everyday life is Plato’s Symposium. In this text we hear a number of views on the subject of love and what the true nature of love is. This essay will focus on a speech by Pausanius. Pausanius’s speech concentrates on the goddess Aphrodite. In particular he looks at her two forms, as a promoter of “Celestial Love” as well as “Common Love.” This idea of “Common Love” can be seen in a real life context in the tragedy “Hippolytus” by Euripides. This brings the philosophical views made by Pausanius into a real-life context.
"Book One of Ovid's Metamorphoses establishes the book's theme of metamorphoses with a tale of creation that progresses into human stories leading to the current breed of man. The creation piece is followed by a flood story and a discussion of the ages of mankind. The ages of mankind - gold, silver, bronze, and iron - describe man's slow progression from a good, wholesome society into a miserable, self-destructive one. The next stories concern tales of gods and goddesses and their manipulations of the human population and each other. Book one ends (appropriately) with Phaethon's journey to meet his father, the sun, thus establishing Ovid's theme of quests for change."(auburn. edu)
These traits -choosing significant relationships where love can never be satisfactorily consumated, and the tendency to mirror significant others- were motivating features for choosing the term Echo Personality Disorder. In Greek mythology Echo was the lover of Narcissus. In this myth Echo, a forest nymph, falls in love with the egocentric youth Narcissus, and when he shows clear signs of rejecting her she persists in her attatchement, and will not be moved from her aim. She finally satisfies herself with the masochistic task of echoing back to him all that he says. This too is a central feature of EPD behaviour in relationships, where the individual will mirror, echo, and compliment another at the expense of their own self-worth and dignity. This echoing behaviour, though, does not exhaust the mythological potential of Echo, even if commentators on the myth narrow their descriptions to this single episode with Narcissus. Echo also has relations with Zeus, Hera, Pan, and Gaia, which have a different coloration to those she has with Narcissus, and has many friends in the form of other forest nymphs -"sisters" as we would call them today; attesting to the complexity we find within the Echo personality constellation.
In this essay I will examine the war-of the-sexes taking place in The Eumenides, the final play of The Oresteia. The plot of The Eumenides pits Orestes and Apollo (representing the male gods and, to a certain extent, male values in general) against the ghost of Clytemnestra and the Furies (equally representative of female values.) Of more vital importance, however, is whether Athene sides with the males or females throughout the play.
Though they were written thousands of years apart, Sappho’s “Fragment 16” and Edgar Allen Poe’s “Bridal Ballad” each show how infatuation can often be mistaken for true love. In order to do this, each author depicts a character who is tormented by regret. In “Fragment 16”, Sappho points out that power can often become synonymous with beauty. Sappho is quick to disagree with this notion, instead arguing that love trumps power every time when it comes to beauty. To prove her point, Sappho uses the story of Helen to show how a desire for true love can lead Helen to abandon all that she knows. Similarly, “Bridal Ballad” depicts a woman who has made the fatal mistake of assuming that love should come with marriage, not the other way around. By contrasting this woman’s husband with the man she
Initially one sees Averagus as the classic 'courtly lover'. He observes a standard pattern of feeling. H...
When examining the works of Propertius and Tibullus as descriptions of a new Roman woman, a number of things must be examined. First, to what extent does each poet refer to the power of romantic or sexual love as that which restricts or hurts them in contrast to the power of women in general. Second, what is the contrast between women's sexual liberty and that of men. Third, how does the current-day reader determine whether the works of each poet are representative of reality.
Love and beauty is another theme that recurs in Greek discussion, especially in Plato’s dialogues. In the Phaedrus and especially the Symposium, Plato discusses the nature of erotic love and give the argument for the ultimately transcendental object of love: Beauty. In both dialogues, Plato presents Socrates as a quintessential philosopher who is a lover of wisdom, and through his great speeches we are able to grasp Platonism and Plato’s view on the interesting theme.
In Ovid's Metamorphoses, the concept of love seems to vary from character to character. In one case, a god in the form of a man desperately seeks a particular woman and refuses to relent until he has her. In another instance, a female goddess cares deeply for a man and goes to great lengths to protect him from danger. In yet another case, both who are arranged to be married seem indifferent about the matter.
In The Crying of Lot 49, by Thomas Pynchon, Oedipa Mass leaves her uniform world to execute the estate of her ex-boyfriend in San Narsicso. While executing the estate she finds herself thrust into a complex search for the estate, which becomes a search for meaning. During the search for meaning, the myth of Narcissus and Echo is used as a stylistic tool through out the novel to show the self-evaluative journey that Oedipa embarks on and exposes her true self-identity in modern American culture. This tool can be seen clearly in the love scene between Oedipa and Metzger, the motel Echo Courts, and the gender roles that are prevail throughout the novel. The myth of Narcissus and Echo in this novel points out a point that is stressed by Marshall
Mandelbaum, Allen, trans. The Metamorphoses of Ovid. By Ovid. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & company, 2008.