In my opinion, THE most important thing about the first 112 pages, is that whether it be Agnes, Sophie, Iustas or Persephone, bad things happen in your life, that you are not able to always control. I think in each of these characters, real or not, there is a lesson to learn from them. They each had situations that caused them hurt or harm at the hands of a man. Their innocence was robbed from them. Their trust in love, and in men, proved to cause them enormous consequences. Each of the female figures, past or present, real or unreal, here or in the after life, show that you can not always trust in human nature/mankind.
All the male figures so far do not bode well in my opinion. I also can't help but notice the "cult mentality" of the men. They are weak, so they succumb to self destructive behavior. They all needed control over women. Rape is not about sex, it is about power and control, the erotic frescoes in the villa even painted under supervision of John Lyros is not so much about art, as I see it is about men placing women in weakened positions for their own self satisfaction.
Maybe the theme of this is about women freeing themselves from the hands of men. Women empowering them selves.
I was curious about Ovid's Metamorphoses, since this seems to be the reason for the trip to Italy, hence the Papyrus Project..(Role of women in mystery project.)
This particular site, I think answers a lot of questions, and gives me a clearer insight into Carol's inspiration for this book.
http://larryavisbrown.homestead.com/files/xeno.ovid1.htm Introduction:
Ovid's influence on Western art and literature cannot be exaggerated. The Metamorphoses is our best classical source of 250 myths. "The poem is the most comprehensive, creative mythological work that has come down to us from antiquity" (Galinsky). Based on its influence, "European literature and art would be poorer for the loss of the Metamorphoses than for the loss of Homer" (Hadas). Ovid was a major inspiration for Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton (see bibliography on last page). If Virgil is Rome's greatest poet, Ovid is the most popular (even in his own time; Ovidian graffiti has been found on the walls of Pompeii).
Biography:
Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC - 18 AD). Ovid seems to have believed in art for pleasure's sake, having no ethical agenda for his writings, unlike his predecessor Virgil, who wrote for the betterment of Romans. Ovid's other works include: Medea (a tragedy, no longer extant), Heroides (letters to legendary heroes from their wives; read them here), Amores (poetic essays on love), The Art of Love (advice on how to seduce a woman; scandalous in Augustus' time, one possible reason for Ovid's banishment in 8 AD), the Fasti (a poetic calendar of religious festivals). Ovid offered something of an apology for his immoral reputation (Tristia 2:354): "My life is respectable, my Muse is full of jesting. A book is not evidence of one's soul."
Organization:
In the first verses of the Metamorphoses, Ovid claims to write one continuous epic, not an anthology of myths. Unlike the Iliad, however, there is no central hero, thus no simple Aristotelian unity to the work. So what binds this poem together, making it more than a random collection of stories? We might first consider three superficial strategies of unity within the poem:
1. All of Ovid's tales involve metamorphosis. But some stories (see Phaethon, Pentheus, Heracles) only have metamorphosis tacked on as an incidental element, almost as an afterthought. Ovid is more interested in metamorphosis as a universal principle which explains the nature of the world: Troy falls, Rome rises. Nothing is permanent.
2. Chronological progression: Ovid begins his poem with the story of creation and the flood, and ends in his own day with Augustus on the throne. However, chronology becomes unimportant in the vast middle section of work, as seen by the numerous anachronisms throughout (see notes on Callisto, Atlas, Cycnus stories for examples).
3. Transitional links: Ovid continually surprises us, as we never know where he's going next. He changes strategies using several techniques:
o He follows the same character through different adventures (Perseus, Hercules).
o He tells a story within a story: to put Argus to sleep, Mercury tells another story, becoming an internal narrator within Ovid's story.
o He "slides" from the story of one character to that of a relative or friend (Epaphus and Phaethon, end of book 1).
o He even will note the absence of a character in one tale as an introduction to a new story (Tereus, book 6).
These different types of links provide only a superficial continuity to the poem. A better way of viewing the artistic unity of the Metamorphoses considers Ovid's use of "theme with variations." For example, in Books 1-2, there are five variations (at least) of the virgin-pursued-by-god theme:
1.Daphne and Apollo: with focus on the chase, her metamorphosis into a tree serves as Daphne's means of escape.
2. Jupiter and Io: with emphasis on Hera, the jealous wife, and the metamorphosis as Io's disguise in hiding from Hera (both these early instances make the gods appear comic).
3. Syrinx and Pan: a meta-narrative or story within a story, told by Mercury, serving to put Argus to sleep.
4. Jupiter and Callisto: similar to the Juno/Io plot but not treated comically; this more serious tale prepares for the later savage treatment of Semele and Ino by the gods; here metamorphosis serves as apotheosis (Callisto taken up to heaven as a constellation).
5. Jupiter and Europa: serves primarily as a transition to the story in Book 3 of Cadmus' exile.
This pattern of theme and variations gives Ovid numerous means to tell his stories in inventive ways, weaving a complex web of interrelationships throughout the entire work. This thesis, suggested by Brooks Otis (Ovid as an Epic Poet, 1970), will organize (with some modification) the following discussion notes.
Otis sees four major divisions (after a prologue depicting the Creation and primordial events) to the Metamorphoses:
I. "Divine Comedy" or Gods in Love: Books 1-2
II. "Avenging Gods": Books 3-6, line 400 (up to the story of Tereus and Procne)
III. "Pathos of Love": the rest of Book 6-11
IV. "History of Rome & the Deified Caesar": Books 12-15
I especially found this interesting........................................
Following this outline, we see a general movement from gods acting like humans (section I), to humans suffering at the hands of gods (II), to humans suffering at the hands of humans (III), to humans becoming gods (IV).
Each section prepares the reader for future sections: the tales of the Minyads (section II, book 4) foreshadow the thwarted or forbidden loves in section III; Hercules' becoming a god (section III, book 9) points toward those later of Aeneas, Romulus, Caesar (section IV). Thus, throughout the work Ovid creates a complex chain of interconnecting themes.
Ciao for now........................
