Publius Ovidius Naso

1
Publius Ovidius Naso

• Latin poet

Born in 43 B.C. in Sulmo, 100 miles east of Rome
Completed Metamorphoses around 8 B.C.
Died in Tomis in 17 A.D.
2
Hexameter Couplet

• Standard epic meter of both the Greeks and
  Romans. It is a literary and poetic form,
  consisting of six metrical feet per line.

3
In the Beginning

• No structure and opposites fought with one another

4
God of Creation

• God created he world, but the author
• doesnt specify which one

5
Creation of the World

• Lines 40-72 Ovid describes in detail
• how the world was created

6
Creation of Men

• Line 73-80

Humans are viewed as finer beings and rulers of
the earth
All other animals look downwards. Man, alone,
erect, can rise his face toward Heaven
7
Golden Age

• Nature provided everything men needed

All men were righteous, faithful, and content
with land
Constant springtime of pleasure and peace
8
Silver Age

• Started as the reign of Jove began

The four seasons were introduced
Need for shelter and cultivation
9
Bronze Age

• The third age of fiercer temperament

Glimpse of wars, but free from wickedness
10
Iron Age

• Treachery, deceit, and greed

Men began to seek new lands, mind for wealth, and
war against each other.
11
Giant War

• Giants attacked the very throne of heaven

Jove struck them down with thunderbolt
12
Fall of the giants

• Blood from the giants brought about a new
  generation which was

Contemptuous of gods and murder hungry and
violent
13
Meeting in Joves Chamber

• Jove summoned all the lesser gods to his chamber
  to discuss the destruction of wicked mankind

Jove started to tell the gods the story of Lycaon
14
Story of Lycaon

• Lycaons pride and his attempt to test the deity

The deity became furious and decided to
eradicate all mankind by flood
15
The Comparison of the flood in Ovids works and
Genesis

• Evident similarities

Causes of the flood were immorality and
disobedience to God
16
A family being spared

• Noah in Genesis and Deucalion and Phyrrha in
  Ovids works

17
Story of Apollo and Daphne

• Daphne was a daughter of river god. She had a
  desire of remaining as virgin forever

Apollo was the god of music and also of prophecy,
colonization, medicine, archery (but not for war
or hunting), poetry, dance, intellectual inquiry
and the carer of herds and flocks.
18
Daphne flees from Apollo

• When Daphne was about to be caught, she asked for
  a help to her father, the river god, and he
  changed her into a beautiful laurel tree