Metamorphoses of Ovid. 3 of association, sometimes by what seems merely the poet's artifice, aiming to make a coherent tale out of the vast miscellany at his command.* With the primitive (fetichistic) notion of a separate life in every object, and the human soul differing in no essential regard from the life that dwells in things, it was easy to imagine the spirit of man, beast, or plant as passing from one dwelling to another, for a longer or shorter stay. Such a transmigration was, in fact, taught as a creed by the school of Pythagoras (see Metam. xv. 1-487). But, as against the Hindoo doctrine of transmigration into the very life of other animals, the Greeks held to the identity and continuity of the human soul, which after death had its abode assigned in the Lower World. The metamorphosis, therefore, is only an occasional miracle, not a real metempsychosis; † it did not alter essentially the ordinary course of human life, but only marked the intimate connection between that and the life of external nature; or, in a certain wild, pictorial way, showed the workings of human fancy, to account for the first creation of plants and animals, or other striking phenomena of the natural world, clear water-spring in a little island (Arethusa), a mountain ridge of peculiar shape (Atlas), a bird of plaintive note (Philomela), or a rock weeping with perpetual springs (Niobe). a To give something like system, order, and development to this world of fable seems to have been a favorite aim of poetical composition with the ancients. This aim is partly religious, and partly scientific, if that can be called scientific which only fills with fancies a void that no science yet exists to fill. Thus the "Theogony "of Hesiod groups together the myths relating to the birth of gods and heroes - making a sort of pagan "Genesis"—in a form partly chronological, partly picturesque and poetical. This *The connecting links between the several narratives, contained in the present Selection are given, bracketed, in the headings, thus presenting the entire argument of the Metamorphoses as a connected whole. †Thus the princess Io is changed into a heifer (Met. i. 611). She retains her human consciousness, deplores the change, and writes her own name on the sand, to inform her father of it. This is metamorphosis, or change of form. According to the oriental doctrine taught by Pythagoras (Met. xv. 459), the heifer in your stall was doubtless once a human being, perhaps your own mother or sister: it would be wicked to kill her, and impious to eat her flesh. But she has only a brute consciousness; and simply shares the universal life of man and brute. This is metempsychosis, or change of soul. is apparently the first attempt of human thought to deal systematiIcally with the phenomena of nature -so as, in a manner, to account for things before men were sufficiently free from superstition to reject the early fables. The titles of several Greek works of the same kind are known; and Virgil, in the Sixth Eclogue, puts a similar song into the mouth of Silenus. Any thing like a real belief in these fables had passed away long before the time of Ovid. He was the popular poet of a sensual and artificial age, who found in these creations of ancient fancy a group of subjects suited to his graceful, ornate, and marvellously facile style of narrative, and who did not hesitate to alter or dress them up to suit his purpose. The "Metamorphoses - Libri xv. Metamorphoseon (a Greek genitive) —is the most abundant and rich collection of these fables that exists. They are told in a diffuse, sentimental, often debased way, which contrasts strongly with the serious meaning that originally belonged to these myths; but are wonderfully fluent, easy, and melodious in their language, and show a skill of versification which seems never to halt or weary. The poem begins with the first origin of things from chaos, the four ages of gold, silver, brass, and iron, the deluge, followed by the graceful and picturesque version of the tales of gods and heroes, through a long narrative, about 12,000 verses in all,-ending with the apotheosis of Cæsar, as the sequel of the tale of Troy. The series purports to be chronological; but the order is often arbitrary and the connection forced or affected, as would naturally be the case with an author res diversissimas in speciem unius corporis colligentem (Quint. iv. 1, 77). The mythology of Ovid and the other Roman poets was Greek mythology dressed up in Roman names. It is not necessary to remind the reader that the stories here told related to Zeus, Athene, Artemis, and the other members of the Greek Olympus, and could never have been attributed to the sober abstractions of the Roman Pantheon. Nevertheless, in commenting upon Ovid, it is impossible to avoid making use of the names in the same sense that he did, the names long familiar in modern literature, which took them from the Romans and not the Greeks. METAMORPHOSES. I. THE CREATION AND THE FLOOD. [Book I.—1-415.] PROEM (1-4). Description of Chaos (5-20). The Creator assigns the elements to their places, and divides the land from the waters : the zones and climates (26–58). The heavens are clear, and living things come forth upon the earth: lastly man, fashioned by Prometheus in the image of the immortals (69-88). The Four Ages: description of the Golden Age (89-112). The Age of Silver, Brass, and Iron: Astræa quits the earth; the Giants, and men of violence that sprang from their blood (113-162). Jupiter recounts the crimes of Lycaon, and his transformation to a Wolf (163-243). He resolves to drown the world with a Flood rather than destroy it by Fire: description of the Deluge (244-312) The righteous Deucalion with his wife Pyrrha: when the waters are abated, they behold the earth desolate, and beseech aid at the shrine of Themis (313-380). Instructed by the oracle, they cast stones above their heads, which are miraculously converted into human beings, and thus repeople the earth (381-415). N nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas IN corpora. Di, coeptis (nam vos mutastis et illas) adspirate meis, primaque ab origine mundi ad mea perpetuum deducite tempora carmen. ANTE mare et terras et (quod tegit omnia) caelum, unus erat toto naturae vultus in orbe, quem dixere Chaos: rudis indigestaque moles, nec quicquam nisi pondus iners, congestaque eodem non bene junctarum discordia semina rerum. nullus adhuc mundo praebebat lumina Titan, nec nova crescendo reparabat cornua Phoebe, IO nec circumfuso pendebat in aëre Tellus ponderibus librata suis, nec brachia longo margine terrarum porrexerat Amphitrite; quaque fuit tellus, illic et pontus et aër. Sic erat instabilis tellus, innabilis unda, lucis egens aër: nulli sua forma manebat, obstabatque aliis aliud, quia corpore in uno frigida pugnabant calidis, humentia siccis, mollia cum duris, sine pondere habentia pondus. Hanc deus et melior litem natura diremit. nam caelo terras et terris abscidit undas, et liquidum spisso secrevit ab aëre caelum. quae postquam evolvit caecoque exemit acervo, dissociata locis concordi pace ligavit. Ignea convexi vis et sine pondere caeli emicuit, summaque locum sibi fecit in arce. proximus est aër illi levitate locoque ; densior his tellus, elementaque grandia traxit et pressa est gravitate sua; circumfluus humor ultima possedit, solidumque coërcuit orbem. Sic ubi dispositam, quisquis fuit ille deorum, congeriem secuit, sectamque in membra redegit, principio terram, ne non aequalis ab omni parte foret, magni speciem glomeravit in orbis. tum freta diffudit, rapidisque tumescere ventis jussit, et ambitae circumdare litora terrae. addidit et fontes et stagna immensa lacusque, fluminaque obliquis cinxit declivia ripis, quae, diversa locis, partim sorbentur ab ipsa, in mare perveniunt partim, campoque recepta liberioris aquae pro ripis litora pulsant. 15 20 25 30 35 40 jussit et extendi campos, subsidere valles, fronde tegi silvas, lapidosos surgere montes. Utque duae dextra caelum totidemque sinistra 45 I. 79.] The Heavens: Creation of Man. 7 ។ . parte secant zonae, quinta est ardentior illis : sic onus inclusum numero distinxit eodem cura dei, totidemque plagae tellure premuntur. quarum quae media est, non est habitabilis aestu; nix tegit alta duas; totidem inter utramque locavit, 50 temperiemque dedit, mixta cum frigore flamma. Imminet his aër: qui, quanto est pondere terrae pondus aquae levius, tanto est onerosior igni. illic et nebulas, illic consistere nubes jussit, et humanas motura tonitrua mentes, et cum fulminibus facientes frigora ventos. his quoque non passim mundi fabricator habendum aëra permisit: vix nunc obsistitur illis, 55 cum sua quisque regant diverso flamina tractu, quin lanient mundum; tanta est discordia fratrum. 60 Eurus ad auroram Nabataeaque regna recessit, Persidaque et radiis juga subdita matutinis; Vesper et occiduo quae litora sole tepescunt, proxima sunt Zephyro; Scythiam septemque trionem' horrifer invasit Boreas; contraria tellus. 65 nubibus assiduis pluvioque madescit ab Austro. 70 75 Sanctius his animal mentisque capacius altae deerat adhuc, et quod dominari in cetera posset. natus homo est: sive hunc divino semine fecit ille opifex rerum, mundi melioris origo, |