1.

A significant number of stories in the Met. involve artists and/or poets. Consider, for instance, the stories of the Pierides competing in song against the Muses (book 5), Arachne, Marsyas, the weaving of Philomela (book 6), Daedalus (book 8), Orpheus (book 10-11), and Pygmalion (book 10). What are the common links between these stories? What sorts of challenges do these figures face? Where are their successes and failures? What sorts of dangers attend the artistic life? Is there a common view of the role of artists in society that emerges from these stories? How might Ovid’s own role as poet of the Metamorphoses be reflected in any or all of these stories?

2.

The Met. features a number of dramatic stories with women at their center, such as those of Medea (book 7), Althea (book 8), Byblis (9), and Myrrha (10). How are these figures characterized? What is the general nature of the situations they find themselves in? Does the poem seem sympathetic to their plights or condemnatory? How do these stories compare to other familiar heroines of epic, such as Apollonius’ Medea, Catullus’ Ariadne, and Virgil’s Dido?

3.

A number of stories in the poem are narrated by characters within the fiction rather than strictly by the poet. Some of these include Arethusa in book 5, Pyramus and Thisbe in book 4, Baucis and Philemon and Erysichthon in book 8, Atalanta and Hippomenes in book 10, and the battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs in book 12. Can you see any ways in which these stories are shaped by the outlook and interests of their represented narrators? Does the poem specifically signal a particular interpretation for any of these stories, and if so what is the nature of that interpretation?

4.

What is the tone and intent of Ovid’s specifically Roman stories? How does he relate events and stories that have political aspects? How in particular does he present the emperor Augustus? In a serious light? Critical? Fawning? Satirical? How do Ovid’s scenes involving Augustus compare to those in Virgil’s Aeneid, for instance the shield of Aeneas?

5.

As the poem draws to a close, a number of stories are linked by metamorphosis of men into gods; the technical term for such a change is "apotheosis." The change from human to divine status may be signaled through the presence of a new star in the sky, that is a "catasterism." Among those so treated are Hercules (book 9), Aeneas (book 14), Romulus (book 14), and Julius Caesar (book 15). What do these figures do, if anything, to earn their elevation to divine status? What role is played by the gods in apotheosis? What physical details of the process are represented? Again, is Ovid’s presentation generally serious, satirical, or somewhere in-between?

6.

Books 13 and 14 feature Ovid’s version of events involving the Trojan War and the flight of Aeneas from Troy to Italy. Where does Ovid’s "Little Aeneid" differ from Virgil’s Aeneid? What does Ovid leave out and what does he add to Virgil’s narrative? When they are relating the same events are there differences of tone or emphasis in Ovid’s account?

7.

Is the Metamorphoses epic? This is a serious question. In what ways can the poem be classed as epic and in what ways does it resist, and even confound, such a classification?

8.

Do you think the Metamorphoses means anything? That is to say, is there some core belief at its heart? Is it simply a concatenation of pleasant tales, or does it organize human experience in some way that conveys a truth about the world? How does the nature of this question with regard to the Metamorphoses relate to similar questions about the other epics we have read in this course?