Other myths about the creation Ovid Metamorphoses Ovid

Other myths about the creation Ovid, Metamorphoses

Ovid and the Metamorphoses • Roman poet of late 1 st c. BCE and early 1 st c. CE (20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18 • Metamorphoses (“Changes in form”) in 11 books: myths about transformations from one thing into another • One of the most influential collections of myths, used by writers and artists from middle ages onward (“painter’s bible”)

Ovid’s version of creation • What are some of the differences and similarities between his account and Hesiod’s? • How is the world created? • Which gods are involved? • What aspects of creation does Ovid seem particularly interested in? • How do human beings appear in his account? • How does his myth of The Four Ages differ from Hesiod’s?

Creation of the world (pp. 3 -5) • Emphasis on constant change, physical process, scientific and philosophical language and approach • Atomism of Democritus and Lucretius • Principle of strife and love, Empedocles • Unnamed God, demiurge type (Gk. demiourgos, “craftsman, artisan”) • Cf. Hesiod’s naming of gods, succession myth

Four Ages of Man • Hesiod as model, but changes: no ages of heroes, bronze age extremely compressed • P. 6 “Saturn” = Cronos • “Jove” = “Jupiter” = Zeus

Zeus and Lycaon. Ceramic, end of 18 th century

Lycaon • Feasting of men and gods, testing of gods by Lycaon, serving of human flesh, anger of Jupiter/Zeus, transformation. [Cf. myth of Tantalos and Pelops] • Lycaon (cf. Gk. lykos, “wolf”) and lycanthropy (change of human into wolf) • Connection between myth and ritual (what people do, how they worship the gods). Reading the myth against the ritual of the Arcadian festival of Lykaia to Zeus Lykaios • Arcadia: isolated, landlocked area in Peloponnese, traditionally regarded as backward (“acorn-eaters”: cf. acorns in Ovid’s description of Golden Age, p. 6) and older than other places in Greece (“older than the moon”)

Pausanias (Gk. travel writer, 2 nd c. CE) and Lycaon and the Lycaia in Arcadia. 8. 2. 3 -8. 2. 7, Anthology pp. 350 -351 • How does Pausanias’ account of the Lycaon myth differ from Ovid’s version? Are they comparable? • What does Pausanias think about this myth? • Pausanias’ report of ritual practice: “…they say that from the time of Lycaon downward a man has always been turned into a wolf at the sacrifice of Zeus Lycaios, but that the transformation is not for life; for if, while he is a wolf, he abstains from human flesh, in the ninth year afterward he changes back into a man, but if he has tasted human flesh, he remains a beast forever. ” • What does Pausanias have to say about this account of ritual? How does it compare to his comment about the myth?

A family tradition as told by one Arcadian historian, Euanthes: A young boy of the family would be selected by lot and led to a lake. He had to strip, hang his clothes on an oak tree, and swim across the lake. Then he would go away into the wilderness and turn into a wolf and live among wolves for eight years. Then (if he abstained from human flesh) he would return to the lake, swim back, take his clothes from the tree, and become a human again - nine years older, a fullgrown man.

Connection between myth of Lycaon and ritual at Lycaia: reconstruction of ritual at Lycaia by Walter Burkert in Homo Necans (“Man the Killer”) • Transformation into wolf connected with idea of initiation of males? • Male initiates often presented (and dressed) as nonhumans, rapacious pack animals, ghosts • Initiation paradigm: dehumanization, separation from normal society for a period either separately or in same-sex group (German “Männerbund”), practising hunting and raiding, reintegration into normal society with status as adult

Xhosa initiation of boys and teenagers in Western Cape, South Africa

Burkert’s reconstruction of how the ritual might have been conducted • Secret, night-time sacrifice at the ash- altar of Zeus Lycaios • Entrails of animals stirred together, it was said, with those of a man in a large tripod cauldron • Everyone had to fish out a piece of meat • One or more participant is struck with “wolf’s frenzy” (manipulated somehow? ) • The “wolves” had to avoid human settlement for some period • Subsequent return and re-integration into society

Myth of the Flood pp 11 -12 • Ovid and other versions of Lycaon myth connected to myth of flood as punishment of mortals • Parallels with Near Eastern myths of flood: • Sumerian myth of Ziusudra • Akkadian (Babylonian) myth of Atrahasis • Akkadian (Babylonian) myth of Utnapishtim (in Epic of Gilgamesh, earliest version may be 21502000 BC) • Hebrew myth of Noah

Deucalion and Pyrrha (Ovid, pp. 12 -16; Apollodorus, Anthology p. 23) • Myth about re-creation of man, not first creation • (Note p. 14, Deucalion refers to original creation of man from clay by his father, Prometheus, cf. Ovid’s creation account) • Ovid: Oracle of Themis (a Titan. Name = “Right, Law”: cf. Sanskrit dharma): “Throw the bones of your mother behind you” • What is different in Apollodorus’ version? Who gives this advice? • Transformation of stones into humans (cf. molding humans out of clay or mud) • Apollodorus: Hellen (don’t confuse with Helen) as son of Deucalion and progenitor of the Greeks (Hellenes)

Akkadian Atrahasis Epic (oldest known copy is 1646– 1626 BCE). God Enlil’s sleep is disturbed by the noise of humanity (created from clay to do the gods’ work for them). After trying plague, drought and other calamities, Enlil resorts to flood. The god Enki warns Atrahasis (lit. “exceedingly wise”), who builds a boat to escape the flood. He enters it with his family and animals. After seven days the flood ends and A. offers sacrifices to the gods.

The Biblical Story (Genesis 6 -9): • God is distressed by wickedness of men. • Noah is selected and instructed how to build an ark. He takes in animals. • It rains forty days. • The ark lands on top of a mountain (maybe Ararat, in E. Turkey/Armenia)