How well do you think Ovid engages the reader in the telling of Scylla and Minos?
How well do you think Ovid engages the reader in the telling of Scylla and Minos? Scylla and Minos is one of the more light-hearted stories of the Metamorphoses in contrast with the previous episodes that Ovid inserts to keep the reader engaged and in the telling of the whole epic. Ovid includes many techniques to provide interest to the poem and engage the reader in the poem, all of which make the reader's experience much more enjoyable. The story is one that the reader relates with to quite and extent as the character of Scylla gets blinded by her love for Minos as the reader might have experienced themselves. Her young and childlike attitude is shown when she is idly throwing pebbles at the musical wall of the tower, thinking of her love who she has never met before. The fact that she is so innocent and does not realise what she is getting into by loving a man who is an enemy to her city engages the reader as they know that she is not thinking quite straight and may do things that she regrets later on. Scylla's description of Minos is very lengthy and in depth, showing every single aspect of Minos she adores - "How handsome that helmeted warrior looks!". The description shows how much Scylla is infatuated with Minos, thinking of the war as 'heart-breaking', not because of the fact that her city is being besieged by his army, but because it means that Minos is her
Greek Gods and Mythology
In Greece and Asia Minor around 1200 B.C.E. (before Christ existed) there was a common belief in a group of deities called the Olympians. There were twelve Olympians who were immortals (Encyclopedia of World Mythology, 128). All of the Olympians ruled special fields of the world. They all had special powers. The Greek myths have survived four hundred years of changes, finally to become authentic. The reason the myths lasted so long was because there were so many followers. If people did not believe in the myths, then it would be as if they never existed. The Olympians did not punish the pursuit of knowledge. Beauty, poetry, and creativity were considered the bodies of the immortals (Origins of Greek Mythology, Internet). The Greeks created myths to explain the unknown and free them from their fears. There was another group of gods called the Titans. The Titans were also known as the elder gods. They ruled the world before the Olympians overthrew them. The ruler of the Titans was Coronus. The Titans were thought to be very strong. There was a war between the Titans and the Olympians. The Titans lost and were banned to Hades’ deepest cave Tartarus. Greek mythology was said to be written by Homer (Mcleish, 229). Greek mythology emphasizes the weakness of humans. It was a combination of religions. Greeks did not always worship Greek gods, the sometimes-worshiped foreign gods.