Week 2, Reading Diary A: Ovid's Metamorphosis I

Ovid's Metamorphosis I

Short, Sweet, and to the Point!

Deucalion & Pyrrha:
This story is about how Jupiter has the Earth flooded and only Deucalion and Pyrrha survive. They were good little pagans so they were allowed to throw rocks behind themselves to make new women and men. I thought this may be a good story to tell about one of the men or women that didn't quite make it all the way to human and are stuck in their statue form.

Io:
Oh, poor, poor, Io. This poor woman is raped by Jupiter and then turned into a cow so his wife (Argos, Saturnalia, Juno) wouldn't know about her, although it seems that she does know. This story, even with the help at the top, just confused me in the beginning. Anyway, lo is to be watched over by the wife's brother Argus, who by the way, has 100 eyes! Then Jupiter sends Mercury to kill Argus so that lo can turn back into her previous form. Eyes freak me out for some reason, so I will probably stay away from this story.

Callisto:
So, now this poor woman gets raped by the same god, and he gets her pregnant too! She is then shunned by her group, which includes the goddess Diana, for being pregnant, even though she was raped and not her fault. After giving birth to her son, Juno turns her into a bear. At the age of 15, her son Arcas sees the bear, who is his mother, and tries to kill it. Jupiter, seeing what was about to happen, decided to stop it and make them both into the constellations of Little and Big Bear. Why that was the natural progression of the story baffles me. There is no "reason" why it jumped from bear and human to stars?!?!

(Jupiter and Semele, by Gustave Moreau Source: Mythology and Folklore UnTextbook)

Semele:
So, again, Jupiter rapes another poor woman and gets her pregnant! This time Juno disguised herself as an "old woman" and cons Semele into getting Jupiter to amass all his power into him at once and then embrace her. This, of course, kills her. Her baby is ripped from her stomach and attaches to Jupiter's leg (ew, gross!) until it is born.


First, off, Jupiter needs to be neutered. He has serious issues! Other than that, it was interesting to read the Greek myths, since I have never actually read any before. I know most of their names and attributes from movies, constellations and such, but it was nice to see read their stories. I definitely liked the story of Deucalion and Pyrrha the most out of the first half of this Metamorphosis.