Tales from Ovid comprises of twenty four passages from Ovid’s Metamorphoses that came out of Hughes’s translations. In his understanding, Hughes’ reasoned that myths are our ancestors attempt to civilize the human emotions. His view of myths was like a collective dream. Similar to a dream, the characters in a myth are not presented in some form of facts or coherent arguments, but are portrayed in subjective terms in some form of theater that is entirely imaginative and visceral in being. Hughes’s continues to say that for the most part, myths were records of visionary experiences. His understanding of myths was that of a relationship between the two worlds of objectivity and subjectivity, and posited that each variant or an adaption of particular story was an attempt to grapple with the idea of reality in contrast to imaginations of the time, place, and culture. It would be important to examine some of the most poignant themes in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
First, it must be understood by all readers that metamorphism is not only realized through poetry, it is the very essence of poetry and its composition. Poetry premises on the ideas of humidification, defamiliarization, and reshaping of objects, events, and people by the use of metaphors. With this understanding, we reckon that the metamorphosis that occur in Tales from Ovid become ingredients of the very drama. In “Death of Cygnus”, Achiles gets the description of “groaning with anger/ like the bull that pivots in the arena” (line 17). The point of this is creating a connection between people and painting a picture that many readers of that time would understand.
Perhaps other important elements of the stories stem from the myths and the coolness of the idea of transformation. In the poems, there are many levels of change in the poem. One would not be wrong to say that in Metamorphoses, almost everything changes. In most cases, when there is some sort of unchallenged chaos, transformation becomes the window for realization of order. In many cases, chaos become universe, rivers and springs are created from nothing, islands are formed from real land, and people change into animals, even as gods takes shape. Could one say that the transformations are diversionary to the main themes? Are they developers of main ideas or merely comic reliefs?
It is arguable to make the argument that the title Metamorphoses is just a tool used for tying up the main ideas of together. I would say that Ovid uses the metaphor of transformation as a way of unifying the whole poem together by adding up elements of Roman history which was rapidly changing with time and was never stable at any time in its history. Allow me to use the example of the character Cygnus and the ideas of the swan to illustrate the argument about change in the story Metamorphoses. I think that the understanding of the story would be shaped after seeing how the same object has played different roles in different stories.
In many constellations, there are a number of many explanations for the presence of the swan in the heavens perhaps symbolizing the swan’s special role in Greek mythology. While some myths write that the Swan was the pet of Queen Cassiopeia, others have indicated that the Swan was the reincarnation of Cionus who the son of Neptune. Cionus had been wrestled and smothered by the warrior king of the Trojan Achilles. As an attempt to save his son, the god Neptune metamorphosed Neptune into a Swan.
In another version, Swan is indicated as the Orpheus who got killed by the Thracian women when he was under the influence of Bacchus. Here the version says that the slain musician takes a place in the heavens spending eternity by its harp called Lyra. Some version also indicates the swan as the transformation of Jupiter after deceiving Leda and fathering Pollux.
Perhaps the most poignant analysis of the swan comes from the writings of Ovid. While Jupiter was mourning, his voice grew thinner and thinner, and white fathers covered over his hair. Similarly, his neck grew long as it stretched from his chest. His fingers became red as a membrane joined them together transforming him into a bird. His sides were clothed with wings as his mouth was replaced by a beak. Overtime, Cygnus became a bird of a special kind with limited trust on the skies or the god Jupiter. The reason for his mistrust sprung from the way the god Jupiter had unfurled the flaming bolt leading to that almost fatal accident. He transformed himself to become a swam that took refuge in the waters, broad lakes, swamps, and hat a dire hatred for anything firelike (Metamorphoses, 11, 374-382).
Ovid writes that the Swan was once Cygnus who was the son of Sthenele, a confindant of Phaethon. Phaethon had died in a river called Eridanus when he attempted to drive the chariot of the sun. Cygnus was overcome with so much grief because he assumed that Jupiter could have easily harmed his friend.
In conclusion, transformation is name of the short stories and the engine that drives the whole story.
Work Cited
Hughes, Ted. Tales from Ovid. London: Faber and Faber, 1997. 105.
Supple, Tim and Reade, Simon. Ted Hughes’s Tales from Ovid: Twenty Four Passages from Ovid’s Metamorphoses Play. London: Faber, 1999.
