UNIT 2 LESSON 2

Magic and Ordinary Explanations: The Transformation of Arachne into a Spider (Book 6 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses)

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

Poetic devices related to Ovid’s Book 6 Plot details of Arachne myth Definition of “creation/origin myth” Characterization of Ovid’s heroines Connections to magical realism

GET USED TO THE LANGUAGE! 1. Number your stanzas (just for reference) 2. Chunk text/draw lines (page 25 SIX chunks) 3. MARK IN BLUE: Any poetic devices. . .

Iambic Meter Rhyme: Internal/External, Perfect/Slant couplet, tercet, etc. Inversion Contractions (“dar’d”=dared”) Odd spellings (“I” and “Y” interchangeable: “ty’d”) Allusion Imagery Literal and figurative (mixing metaphors) Apostrophe “In Medi Res” (begins in middle of action/narrative)

WHAT IS AN ORIGIN MYTH?

An origin myth is a myth that purports to describe the origin of some feature of the natural or social world. One type of origin myth is the cosmogenic myth, which describes the creation of the world.

Pantheism Animistic world view Cosmological views Native American origin myths Excerpt from D’Aulaires myths

BACKGROUND

The Metamorphoses (Latin: Metamorphōseōn librī: "Books of Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem by theRoman poet Ovid (43 BC – AD 17/18),  considered his magnum opus. Comprising fifteen books and over 250 myths, the poem chronicles the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar within a loose mythico-historical framework. It is one of our most abundant sources of Greek mythology.

Politics and author’s purpose?

NARRATIVE SUMMARY After hearing the three Muses warn of mortals not

giving the gods enough respect, Minerva turns her attention to Arachne, who has become well known for her pride and her skill.

Minerva approaches Arachne, who is also her rival in the art of weaving. Disguised as an old woman, Minerva advises Arachne to ask Minerva for forgiveness. When Arachne will not comply, Minerva drops the disguise and upbraids Arachne.

They compete. Minerva fashions a portrait that glorifies the gods in general and herself in particular. Her tapestry depicts the Olympian gods, her victory over Neptune, and four scenes of the gods conquering humans and turning them into animals.

NARRATIVE SUMMARY Arachne creates a flawless

portrait of gods raping and deceiving humans. Minerva is so enraged by Arachne’s skill that she begins to beat her.

Unable to endure such treatment, Arachne hangs herself, and Minerva transforms her into a spider.

FORM AND FUNCTION OF OVID’S METAMORPHOSES

Tight iambic reflects artistry of weaving

Oral form (was sung or recited)

(Sometimes) shows Athena in a favorable light, thus is a kind of dedication. However, this is interesting because a close reading reveals some anti-authoritarian politics, as well as gender politics that are sympathetic with the role women played in Greco-Roman culture.

FORM AND FUNCTION OF OVID’S METAMORPHOSES

Is part of a larger cycle of epic-styled narratives that incorporated reality with the world of the supernatural (connection to magical realism)

It begins with the ritual "invocation of the muse", and makes use of traditional epithets and circumlocutions. But instead of following and extolling the deeds of a human hero, it leaps from story to story with little connection.

FORM AND FUNCTION OF OVID’S METAMORPHOSES

“In analyzing the Metamorphoses, scholars have focused on Ovid's organization of his vast body of material. The ways that stories are linked by geography, themes, or contrasts creates interesting effects and constantly forces the reader to evaluate the connections”

FORM AND FUNCTION OF OVID’S METAMORPHOSES

By jumping from one transformation tale to another, one might say that Ovid “revises” Greco-Roman history as he retells what had otherwise come to be seen as central events in the world of Greek mythology and sometimes straying in odd directions.

From a lit-crit view, Ovid “decentralizes” the heroic narrative (think the Odyssey) to present a different picture of how history—and the cosmos—tends to work.

FORM AND FUNCTION OF OVID’S METAMORPHOSES

NOTE: This connects to assertions made in the TED “Visual History of Human Knowledge” wherein Manuel Lima suggests we adopt a new metaphor for how the brain itself works: A NETWORK, a large symphony with different instruments playing at once. He asserts that the way we acquire knowledge (epistemology) is less like a tree and more like a NETWORK: a web of collected beliefs, stories, facts, influences.

In this way Ovid’s work seems “modern”: it is more like a WEB of stories this trying to capture the greater network of life in the cosmos as he saw it: The magical and the real, the divine and the human, all woven into a web or “tapestry” of history that has multiple points of view.

Magical realism, with its origin in multicultural characters and attempts to achieve plurality (the state of coexistence between MULTIPLE sources of authority or human truth).

FORM AND FUNCTION OF OVID’S METAMORPHOSES

Ovid seemed to understand: “When everything is connected to everything else, for better or worse, everything matters.”

This is how all stories are “one story.”

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF CHARACTER

How does Ovid give BOTH Athena and Arachne complex character traits?

What are the traits?WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE FROM THE

TEXT?

THE TRANSFORMATION OF ARACHNE INTO A SPIDER

EXTEND THE DEVICES: CHARACTERIZATION

Develop Cornell Notes in which you record EVIDENCE of character motivation & classify evidence using the three categories of poetic device:

ARACHNE PALLAS ATHENALITERAL:1.2.3.

FIGURATIVE ?Language (figures of speech and poetic rhetoric) & thematic meaning

?Imagery and author’s tone concerning characters

?Symbolism and archetypes connected to characters

LITERAL:1.2.3.

FIGURATIVE ?Language (figures of speech and poetic rhetoric) & thematic meaning

?Imagery and author’s tone concerning characters

?Symbolism and archetypes connected to characters

THE TRANSFORMATION OF ARACHNE INTO A SPIDER

Close Read: Five Sections

15 minutes: Write a summary of your section. Use the SEEC formula. See below for MLA citation of poetry. Example for citing verse:

When Ovid writes “The Nymphs would quit their fountain, shade, / or hill: Thither, from green Tymolus, they repair,” he implies that the Nymphs would gather around to watch Arachne weave (22-23).