Book club selection (via Nicole; session held (via Zoom) October 2021).
Another book I was interested in, but wouldn't have picked up absent a book club assignment. Ovid's masterpiece; weaves in lots of myths.
Creation story right upfront - even in Roman times (and before), an Eden myth. Things were great! Then humans screwed things up! Then a Flood.
Echo, Narcissus. Phaethon has trouble with chariot - Phaeton automobiles. Orpheus. Orpheum theaters worldwide. That aspect goes on and on - interesting.
Things we see in art galleries: Andromeda's rescue; Rape of Europa; etc.
Jove a bit of a roustabout. Not alone.
Lots of violence, but how about Book 6, p. 144, Tereus - takes wife's sister, cuts out her tongue, his son pays, he dines - even by standards of all these stories, this was most graphic so far
What does this tell us about the listeners? Meaningfully different than today's common TV fare?
Made me muse about a world where almost no one could read, and even fewer could own a manuscript (book). Does predominately oral delivery encourage this type of literature?
And how widely were these stories known? Perhaps locals just knew their local stories? Did the stories spread in the same form, or did [central] government have the tools to make things universal? (Thinking of Discovery of France - centralized control of schooling for propaganda; printing.)
Triumph of Christianity concepts about ethics not connected to religion - and how. (so many examples incl. rape, incest). How the time was ripe for a new religion - these stories were old; Ovid's retelling masterful yet backward-looking and servile; not inspirational!
So many folks turned into birds or rocks or whatever - seemed odd. I started wondering whether this was related to their view of the afterlife. Even good folks could only foresee a dismal life as a "shade". Perhaps virtuous victims were getting a good deal by living on as an animal or rock (avoiding both the rest of their now-unhappy life and also afterlife as a "shade")? Unvirtuous victims get stuck as some undesirable animal or rock? What is this metamorphosis business?
Ajax's debate with Ulysses was entertaining - classic brawn v. brain
I liked when the stories had more length - this happened toward the end, with Troy, Aeneas
Kind of odd how quickly things are skipped through - necessity, I suppose - Achilles death doesn't even mention his heel. Dido just a line or two (she has her own opera!)
Fascinating to me that regimes controlled artists even 2000 years ago (and no doubt much farther back than that).
