How does Ovid weave together the different myths in Book 6 of Metamorphoses into a unified narrative?

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Hannah Crook

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 “How does Ovid weave together the different myths in Book 6 of Metamorphoses into a unified narrative?”

The Roman poet, Ovid completed his Metamorphoses (Ovid 2004) in 8AD whilst exiled in Tomis. Made up of fifteen books it covers the history of the world starting with creation through to the deification of Julius Caesar. It is poem written in dactylic hexameter and is a mock-epic. Ovid has used recurring themes to bring together the individual stories within each book, as well as throughout the whole story. This creates a unifying narrative that weaves and flows, creating an enjoyable tale that has survived over two thousand years. Book 6 covers seven tales, a fusion of those involving gods and humans and some just about humans. The first and last tales are linking stories that create a bridge to the previous or subsequent book. As with the other fourteen books, each tale within the book links into the next with relative ease via a recurrent idea.

The tale that links Books 5 and 6 is to do with competition. At the end of Book 5 the Muses punish the Pierides maidens for losing a singing competition by turning them into magpies. Minerva has been listening to the tale of the punishment when she challenges Arachne to a weaving competition; the cause of the challenge is Arachne’s hubris and her arrogance towards the Goddess (6.3-6). When humans are in competition with gods and goddesses the outcome is never a positive one for Ovid’s characters. The two tapestries show opposing views of the Gods and the world around them; Arachne’s shows the Gods bad behaviour how she perceives them, how they deceive, abduct and rape humans (102-28), whereas Minerva’s shows the Gods how she visualizes them, as triumphant, glorious and punishing humans who challenge them  (69-101). The tapestries are a representation of raw material being woven together to create a story, they are a reflection on Ovid’s skills as a poet as well as being a metamorphoses. They change from one form to another which is a theme that ties each of the stories. It is also possible that Arachne is a representation of Ovid himself, the gods and goddesses representing the establishment of Augustus and the senate whilst Ovid is the artist whose life is destroyed due to his upsetting the authorities (Feeney 1991). Even though Arachne’s work is equal to or better than Minerva’s she is punished anyway by being turned into a spider, forever to spin a delicate yet repetitive pattern. It is a very emotional punishment, as opposed to one of physical pain, Minerva has allowed Arachne to continue her art but only in the most mundane sense, there is no artistry involved and her creations can be destroyed by the gust of a breeze. The Arachne story also connects itself to Book 1 where we see creation of the world come out of the chaos and disorder.

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The second story involving competition involves Apollo’s punishment of Marsyas. It is a very different outcome for Marsyas, who is flayed alive for daring to challenge Apollo to a piping competition. Ovid gives a very graphic depiction of Marsyas being stripped of his skin until his organs lay bare (6.384-391), his screams and his cries give a very different viewpoint of gods punishing those who challenge them. This punishment is much more masculine in its execution; it is violent and painful in a way that Arachne’s punishment is not. The metamorphosis is not connected to Marsyas but rather to those ...

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