Ovid (Books 1 and 3)

1. The first book of Ovid was very very confusing to me. I was very lost because I did not get any background information such as characters, location, time, and everything like that. I felt that I could not even understand the text or even the foundation of the text for that matter. I felt like I was just thrown into a random page of a book and know nothing about it. I had to read the first book about 5 times to finally start getting it. I know the title of the book was about the creation of the world, which was the ONLY reason I started to understand my analysis of the first book/song. Therefore, I feel Ovid's story about creation is very similar to the first stories we read in the beginning of the semester, Genesis. For the first example, they created the Earth, land and water, as one. So, the stories of creation of the world were very similar. However, the biggest similarity between the two was the fact that both "authors" feel the human race was a huge mistake and road block for the world. In Genesis, God tried to flood the earth. In Book 1 of Ovid's Methamorphoses, he floods the earth to. However, both stories leave a couple survivors in hope of changing the course of creation.

5. In Book 3, Narcissus falls in love with "someone". However, this person technically is not real. Narcissus's true love is...actually himself. He sees his reflection all the time in water and that's when he sees the person he loves. His deepest desire was to have someone to love but when he tries to reach for this loved one, the person/image is disturbed due to splashing the water around. It's a bit sad actually. I like what Emily said on her blog about people generally falling in love with people who are similar to themselves. People try to find a lover with similar interests so Narcissus goes to the extreme, obviously, and falls in love with himself. Maybe he can't love others because he can't love himself? As you can see in the third book, there is an underlying self-hatred going on with Narcissus.