Ovid, Metamorphoses Part 2

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Roman Poet Ovid.

In the second half of Ovid’s book “Metamorphoses,” he stated that the worst curse someone can have is eternal life. The gods are cursed with this, which may be the cause of their cruelty. To punish humans, the gods burdened them with the uncontrollable emotion of sexual passion. Jupiter was continuously unfaithful to his wife and was a rapist, causing him to lose favor with the other gods. Apollo also taunted Cupid because he had no real power. 

Ovid wrote that at the beginning of time there was a set hierarchy: that gods would always be over men. Two women rebelled against this hierarchy, which caused the gods to place negative sanctions on mankind. These sanctions shaped nature and the gods were changed into a fixed, inhuman nature. 

Ovid claimed that man has total pride against the gods and that the fall of man will be because of his pride. The gods, especially Apollo, will punish man ruthlessly for this. Men are under the gods’ authority, since nature is seen as reflecting the sovereignty of the gods. Some will rebel and will be crushed. 

Aeneas was made a god, as were Romulus and his wife. The gods later made Julius and Augustus Caesar divine, as a reward for making the empire strong. Julius and Augustus would become gods after their death because of their fame and fortune. Ovid was confident that his poem “Metamorphoses” would live on as long as Rome survived. He concluded that gods turn people into natural objects and turn great men into gods. 

Rome After Barbarians and Saint Augustine

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The Ostrogothic Kingdom in 510, under Theodoric.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Ostrogoths controlled most of what would be modern-day Italy. They were led by the relatively enlightened king Theodoric from 493-526. Theodoric even tried to keep the Roman culture and customs alive, and preserve some sort of hierarchy. The Vandals claimed most of the Roman colonies in North Africa. Unlike the Ostrogoths, who treated the former Romans fairly, the Vandals ruled with an iron fist, killing out many of the old Romans living in North Africa. Under their ruler Genseric (428-477), the Vandals murdered hundreds of Christians before being defeated in battle by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in 533. 

In 493, Theodoric, the leader of the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths, declared himself the “King of Italy.” However, the Goths and Christians resisted the Ostrogoth oppressors, and the Byzantine Empire invaded and conquered Italy in the 560s. Soon, the barbarians, who were previously pagan, converted to Christianity, making much of France, Germany, and Britain Christian. 

Even after Rome fell, it continued to influence Europe for centuries, in literature, language, and government. Many European languages, such as French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian, came directly from Latin. Rome also helped preserve Greek architecture, art, and philosophy. Amazingly, the ruins of Roman roads, bridges, aqueducts, and dams still stand today throughout Europe. 

Icon of Saint Augustine.

Originally a manichaeist, Saint Augustine (354-430) believed that he was trapped in a world of evil. Augustine wanted to know the origin of human thought, and the reason for the good and evil. In 386, Augustine converted to Christianity and was baptized by the bishop St. Ambrose of Milan. Between 397 to 398, Augustine wrote his book “Confessions,” which continues to be a studied Christian book. In “Confessions,” Augustine stated that original sin affects everyone, and we need to turn to God in order to be saved from this punishment. The ultimate moral perfection is to find God, he explained, and the ultimate sin is to turn away from God. By the 6th century Western Europe became more Christianized, due to the influence of Saint Augustine and other christian scholars during the early Middle Ages.

Livy’s History of Rome and Ovid’s Metamorphoses

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Roman Historian Livy.

Livy was a Roman historian around the time of the first century BC. He is best known for writing his history of the founding of Rome. Although some of his work might be true, a good portion was probably fiction. Livy even acknowledged this, stating that the historical records of early Rome were weak because they mixed human action with divine myth. He wrote that the founders of Rome were driven by ambition and that fate helped them succeed.
Believing that Romulus and Remus were the founders of Rome, Livy thought they were the heir of the gods’ covenant. Romulus established a new legal order by investing it with authority. When Rome was first established, there were not enough Roman women, so Romulus ordered 100 women of nearby settlements to be kidnapped. Romulus then built the first pagan temple and offered sacrifice to the god Jupiter. 

During the first century AD, the poet Ovid wrote “Metamorphoses,” which was one of the most influential pieces of poetry during ancient and early medieval times. Ovid stated that chaos was the original source of everything, and that the gods or Nature ended the strife with peace. He also recognized that there were three different ages, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. 

In “Metamorphoses,” Ovid wrote that Jupiter punished the king of Greece, Lyacoan, and turned him into a wolf because he tested the god’s omniscience. Zeus stopped using thunderbolts against man, instead using water. Ovid also proclaimed that those who do not worship the gods have no hope and face their wrath.