Ovid Day two

The myths about Tereus and Medusa are very similar because they both seem to represent going against authority or their family due to only seeing their way as the right one, and then receiving punishment. In Tereus's story, he is a tyrant. He marries Procne, the daughter of the king of Athens, after he and his people take over. A few years into their marriage, Tereus allows Procne to see her sister, Philomela. However, when his soldiers bring back her sister, Tereus rapes her over and over again. Philomela then says "Now that I have no shame, I will proclaim it. Given the chance, I will go where the people are, and Tell everybody". To make matters worse, he then cuts off her tongue so she can't tell anyone what happened. It is a very gruesome scene to read, nonetheless, and his morals clearly are not in touch with himself. Revenge gets him back though when Philomela made a picture for Procne. Procne then killed her only son and served him as a MEAL to Tereus. Tereus eats him and finds out he just ate his son. The three of them then turn into birds. Researching this further, I found that Procne was turned into a nightingale, a bird that sings a sad song, Philomela into a swallow, a bird with no song, and Tereus was turned into a hawk, a very violent predator. Even though the story is not directly related to going against the gods, this part of the book shows a side of deception. Tereus went against his own family and raped his wife's sister and then mutilated her to ensure silence. However, Procne committed sin as well by killing her only son and having Tereus eat him, unknowingly he became a cannibal. These things all relate to the fact of deception and ultimately, going again the gods. I know they went against the gods because I'm pretty sure the Gods wouldn't want a family to rape, mutilate, and cook/eat each other.

The story of Medusa tells a story of deception but not towards family, instead, towards the Gods. Medusa was portrayed as a very pretty woman. This made her have her heads in the clouds and think she is above everyone else. She even thought she was above the Gods, and they knew this. Obviously this angered them. The Gods made Athena talk to her. This only egged on Medusa, because Medusa then went on a whole rant saying how Athena was jealous of her beauty. Since Athena was a God and Medusa was dumb, Athena took away Medusa's beauty and made her into a disgusting creature. This creature is the one we typically see as having snakes for hair. This story was relating to deception because if Medusa was humble and respected her Gods, she would have been able to keep her beauty. However, since she was arrogant and ignorant, she caused her own pain.