Today we will talk about such a stunning monument of ancient art as the “Metamorphoses”. In fifteen volumes, Ovid was able not only to show the whole mythology of his time, but also to illustrate through this prism the life of the people around him.
Read on, and you will become acquainted with such a facet of ancient society as the attitude towards love. You will learn not only what types the Greeks and Romans shared this feeling, but you will also understand the actions of deities and heroes in its embodiment.
Publius Ovid Nason
One of his most famous works, Metamorphoses, Ovid ended up in exile. The poet clearly does not speak in his memoirs about the reason for falling into disgrace. Researchers believe that because of poems that did not agree with the opinion of the emperor.
So, who is this Roman who was able to light the capital of the Roman Empire with love elegies, become famous and end his life in exile among the Sarmatians and Getae.
Publius Ovid Nason was born in the mountains of Central Italy. His family belonged to one of the Sabine tribes, pelegs. His father was rich, belonged to the "horsemen", as the poet himself says. Thanks to the sufficient prosperity of the family, the boy is educated in the best schools of the capital.
After Ovid traveled to Greece, Asia Minor and Sicily, made friendship with Horace and Propercius, met with Virgil. Early enough, he began to write poetry. The first work was “Heroids,” but he burned them to “clear” the coarse syllable.
From the surviving works, we know the "Love Elegies", as the earliest. Thanks to them, Ovid became famous in Rome. The next work was called The Science of Love. In fact, this is the first ever book on the now-popular pickup truck. In it, the poet gave recommendations first to men, how to behave and achieve women, and then to girls.
It is believed that it was for the Science of Love that Augustus sent him into exile. It is there, on the Black Sea coast, that Ovid finishes his famous “Metamorphoses”.
The concept of love in antiquity
Ancient Greeks, like other ancient peoples, were closer to nature. They tried to understand themselves deeper and through the prism of feelings they cognized the world around them.
Aristotle also identified six types of love with proper names. We’ll talk about them now.
The first was Ludus - a game of love. It is characterized as pure attraction, without feelings. Experiencing such sensations, one of the partners seeks selfish satisfaction of their own physiological desires. The thoughts and emotions of another person are not interesting to him. This kind of love is found quite often, but after the storm of passions subsides, the one who took the “ludus” seriously will remain with nothing.
All such manifestations of emotions are shown by Ovid. "Metamorphoses", a brief summary of which will be given below, will allow you to plunge into the emotional sphere of the ancient world.
Next comes the "eros" - a sensual relationship. In the modern world, such relationships are called romantic. Imagine that in communication with a partner you have a constant candy-bouquet period.
"Mania" is an obsession with the subject of passion. Constant suffering, reproaches and scenes of jealousy from one of the partners. This is a perverted concept of feelings when a combination of feelings of love and pain occurs at the psychological level.
The next view is pragma. This is where the concept of pragmatism comes from. In such relationships, feelings and emotions fade into the background. First of all, the partner is interested in the practical side of the future life together. Does the wife cook well, does the husband earn a lot.
“Storge”, similar is “filia” - tender love-friendship. Mutual understanding, help, warm equal relations. If you want an explosion of feelings and renewal of emotions, here you will never get them.
The last species is agape. It is considered the highest stage of manifestation of love. The first Christians called it divine. This feeling is characterized by complete dedication. A partner lives only for the sake of another person. He sees his happiness exclusively in the joy of the other half.
The essence of "Metamorphosis"
Let’s now talk about why Ovid wrote “Metamorphoses”. Daedalus and Icarus, for example, of which we know from legends, became famous exclusively thanks to this great poet.
He took the surrounding reality, political, social, economic relations between people and states, and expressed them in the allegorical form of ancient mythology.
The exact translation of the name of the poem is “transformation, transformation”. This is what the essay says. Ovid possessed such a powerful talent that a thoughtful reader feels the effect of personal presence at current events.
The poet cuts off all unnecessary details, and shows the changes in the form of the process, hiding the final result to the last. With proper visualization skills, the reader becomes a spectator.
But the problem of love is most fully expressed in “Metamorphoses”. This is a favorite theme of the poet. He managed to express in the smallest details of her intricacies.
You will notice how gradually towards the end of the composition, the actions of the characters become deeper, more conscious and spiritualized. Let's look at these issues with examples from the work.
Daphne and Apollo
The poem "Metamorphoses" begins with a scene of all-consuming passion. The sun god, blinded by passion, falls in love with a nymph. Daphne does not want to become the subject of his lust and quickly runs away.
With his characteristic humor, Ovid depicts Apollo as a Gallic dog, who, having forgotten his dignity, rushes to race for a hare. And his feelings are compared with a sudden fire on a wheat field. It is these metaphors that show the depth of the poet's life experience and his observation.
The story ends with the fact that the nymph, despite the pleas of Phoebus that he is the son of Jupiter, and not just a shepherd, asks for protection from his father. Peny, the god of the river, turns his daughter into a tree on the banks of a stream. Apollo, having seen a similar turn of events, swears to make the laurel evergreen. In addition, he decorates his brow with his wreath.
Beloved of jupiter
Researchers still have not fully understood all the subtleties that the reader is offered with “Metamorphoses”. Ovid is compared with the author of “A Thousand and One Nights,” because the poet in his poems weaves plots of different parts of the work. The ignorant in ancient mythology the first time will not understand many events and comparisons. Therefore, "Metamorphoses" is better to read several times.
For example, Jupiter, being the main deity of Olympus, has an inexhaustible desire for sensual love and passion. He is in constant confrontation with the jealous and petty wife Juno. Many scholars believe that it was these images that outraged the Roman emperor and served as the reason for Ovid's exile.
So, in the work we see several stories related to Jupiter. He falls in love with Io, and in order to save her from the wrath of his wife, he turns a poor girl into a cow. Also, a god is often portrayed intoxicated by nectar. In such scenes, he behaves like the lowest plebeian.
In stories with Zeus, Ovid often addresses issues of violence. For example, to get Callisto, he has to turn to Diana, the goddess this priestess serves. Further, he forces the chaste girl to have a love affair.
Thus, in the image of a heavenly ruler, the poet shows the lowest manifestation of such a kind of love as ludus.
Levkotoya and Helios
Not only to annoy the emperor, Ovid wrote “Metamorphoses”. A summary of the subsequent stories will make you understand that he mockingly talks about the prevailing customs in the free classes of his time.
So, the sun god has a jealous admirer, Clitius, daughter of Thephis and the Ocean. Helios himself, without memory, falls in love with a simple mortal girl Levkofey, the daughter of the Persian ruler Orham.
But the stupid and jealous envy informs the king that his daughter had lost chastity in the arms of a stranger. Angry Orham orders the girl to be buried alive (such a custom, by the way, really existed in the east).
Heartbroken Helios seeks to help at least something with his beloved. He turns it into a levka (or white violet), a fragrant flower that turns in the afternoon after the sun.
Narcissus and Echo
With this story, the Metamorphoses themselves begin to change. Ovid goes from the violent and selfish love of immortal celestials to the purer, innocent and mundane feelings of ordinary people.
The plot of the failed happiness of Narcissus and the nymph Echo shows high emotions inaccessible to the gods. So, the young man has an unearthly beauty. But the trouble is that he loves only his reflection. Wandering through Greece, Narcissus comes to a lake hidden more often than a forest surrounded by mountains.
The water in it is so clear that a young man cannot just tear himself away from what he sees in it. The conflict lies in the fact that the nymph Echo notices him and falls in love with him without a memory. But the girl cannot express her thoughts. Juno cursed her for her talkativeness, which Echo prevented from following Jupiter.
Now the poor nymph can repeat only the end of the phrase of another person. But still, the girl, inspired by love, manages to confess to Narcissus her feelings. He does not reciprocate, since he does not see anyone but his reflection. In the end, the guy turns into a flower of the same name on the lake.
It is noteworthy that, according to the myth, he does not cease to admire himself and Hades. There, Narcissus looks into the waters of Styx.
Piram and Fisba
If it seems to you that the story of Romeo and Juliet was invented by Shakespeare, you are mistaken. This story was also known by Publius Ovid Nason. “Metamorphoses” describe the tragic events in the life of Fisba and Pyram.
This is a young girl and a guy who lived next door. Parents forbade them not only to show feelings for each other, but even to meet. The guys talked through a hole in the wall of the house.
Once they secretly agreed to meet outside the city, near one crypt. But Fisba saw a lioness on her way there, got scared and lost her shawl. She herself hid in the agreed shelter. Piram went to his beloved and saw a torn shawl of a girl on the road. He recognized her and with the thought that she was dead, stabs herself with a dagger.
When Fisba found him, he killed himself with the same weapon. This plot in the work is the first in which the gods do not participate at all.
Hermaphrodite and Salmacida
Publius Ovid Nazon “Metamorphoses” was conceived not as a linear composition. There are unexpected twists and turns to past events in it. The story of Salmacide and Hermaphrodite refers to just such.
The first was a nymph of a mountain lake. But in her bewitching beauty combined with unsurpassed laziness. All that the girl was doing was narcissism and preening.
Once Hermaphrodite came to the lake. The young man, being the son of Aphrodite and Hermes, had a stunning appearance and athletic build. The nymph fell in love with him to unconsciousness.
She asked the gods to combine them into one. When the young man was swimming, Salmakida entwined him, and the celestials fulfilled her will. Since that time, Hermaphrodite became a bisexual creature. This is a retrospective on the theme of violence, previously mentioned in connection with the gods.
Mullet and Procrida
Many different manifestations of love told readers Ovid. The "metamorphoses", an analysis of which we give briefly in our article, also show tragedy without transformation.
This happened in the history of Mullet and Procrida. These are two ordinary people, a married couple. But they got disagreements because of her husband's doubts about the fidelity of the chosen one, which Aurora inspired him.
With her scenes of jealousy, Kefal drives the girl to frenzy, and she runs away from him. But after remorse comes back.
Now, not God enters the game, but human helpfulness and nearness. The servant tells Procrida that he heard her husband calling Aura, the goddess of the cool breeze.
The girl decides to follow her husband, hiding in the bushes nearby. Mullet thought that this beast was sneaking up and killed his wife with a dart.
In this case, we see nothing more than a tragedy due to blinding by jealousy.
Bavkida and Philemon
And Ovid Nason speaks of “agape” in his work. "Metamorphoses" mention this most perfect kind of love in the image of Philemon and Baucis.
This is a poor but pious couple. They went all their lives together, grew old and lived a century in a small hut.
Once, Hermes and Jupiter came to visit them. Obeying tradition, the hosts laid on the table all that they had. They emptied their own bins, but satisfied all the requests of strangers. In gratitude for such a warm and cordial welcome, the gods rewarded the elderly with fulfillment of their desires.
Bavkida and Philemon were asked to death to be the keepers of the temple, which the celestials had erected in the place of their hut, and to depart to another world one day. As a result, after several years, they turned into two trees near the sanctuary. The husband is in oak, and the wife is in linden.
Keyk and Alcyone
On this story, Ovid's poem Metamorphoses makes a U-turn from the divine fall of morals to the exaltation of mortals.
This couple is the pious king and queen. He is the son of Aurora, she is the daughter of Aeolus. One day, Keik sets sail and dies in a storm.
A story is inserted in the story of the message of disappointing news to Alcyone through a dream.
As a result, the couple turns into seagulls, and the comforted wife and resurrected husband fly happily together.
Vertumn and Pomona
Love story of the nymphs of the garden of Pomona and the god of the seasons Vertumna. The latter is depicted in the image of the classic hero of elegy. He is wholly devoted to the object of his adoration. In the end, the young man still seeks reciprocity from his lover.
On such a happy note, the poem Metamorphoses ends. Ovid, the analysis of the work of which we tried to cite in our article, expresses in this plot the apotheosis of the triumph of the feelings of ordinary people and demigods over the selfish desires of celestials.
Thus, today we not only talked about passions in ancient society, but also examined this sphere of life using examples from the work of the Roman poet Ovid.