Ovid's Metamorphosis: Exploring Roman Foundation Legends and Myths

This essay provides an analysis of Roman foundation legends as depicted in Ovid's Metamorphosis, exploring literary parallels with works by Virgil, Livy, and Plutarch. It discusses unique elements of the Romulus and Remus legend, examines the influence of Greek mythological motifs, and outlines the 'Ages of Man' according to Ovid, comparing it to Hesiod's version. The essay further analyzes Ovid's treatment of Rome's destiny and his view of Augustus' role, supported by specific references to the text. Finally, it delves into Ovid's version of the Apollo and Daphne myth, shedding light on his perspective on the relationship between humans and gods. The document includes references to relevant academic sources.

Running Head: OVID’S METAMORPHOSIS
Ovid’s Metamorphosis
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Question 1) Discuss literary parallels for elements of the legend of the founding of Rome. Are
there any unique elements to the Romulus and Remus legend?
Ans: The literary parallels for the elements of the legend of the founding of Rome are the works
of Virgil and Ovid, Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita, Plutarch’s Life of Romulus and Dionysius’s
Halicarnassus’s. These works are the most read versions of the Roman myth. The legend of
Romulus and Remus is unique because of the element of fratricide, fraternal symbolism, violent
conflict and cooperation (Bowersock 2016).
Question 2) Are there any significant differences in Plutarch and Livy, from Virgil & apos’s
account in Aeneid Book 6?
Ans: No, all of these historians might have different foundations for the Roman foundation myth
or the legend of Romulus and Remus. The foundation mythology is by nature highly aetiological.
This means that they provide a reason for the historical happenings. Through the ages, there have
grown various stories on Rome’s foundation (Adelman 2016). Some stories have similarities
with little distinctions. Some stories also coexist alongside of one another.
Question 3) Outline briefly the story of the founding of Rome in Livy and Plutarch. What
sources do they cite?
Ans: Plutarch and Livy both describe the most accepted foundation story of Rome as being
founded by Romulus and Remus. The work of Plutarch that is Life of Romulus outlines other
versions too prior to beginning. He cites Diocles of Preparethus and Fablus Pictor for the
references. On the other hand, Livy recites the similar story in “Early History of Rome” having
cited the “traditional story” as the primary reference. An outline of the story suggests that the
foundation of Rome is a legend of twins who were sons of the Roman god of war, Mars and a

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mortal priestess, Rhea Silvia. The twins were abandoned after birth and drowned into the Tiber
river (Cowan 2017). A she –wolf rescued them and made them suckle on her milk. A shepherd
Faustulus found the babies and looked after them After they grew up, thought of building palace
where the wolf had nursed them. The twins argued about who should be the king who had the
support of gods , and in this combat Romulus killed Remus. After that, Romulus became the
king and started stealing women especially from the Sabine Tribe to build the population of the
city.
Question 4) To what extent is the Roman foundation legend shaped by Greek mythological
motifs?
Ans: The Roman mythology is the collaboration of traditional stories which are from the ancient
legendary origins of Rome and the religious system. The Roman mythology contains the
influences of Greek mythology. As far as theology is concerned, the Romans identified their
gods with the Greeks and accepted the stories of Greek deities covering the names with the
Roman counterparts (Hunsucker 2018). The Roman mythology might lack an extensive range of
divine narratives like the Greeks, the founding legend of Rome is highly influenced by the Greek
mythology. The suckling image of Romulus and Remus is famous in the Greek mythology. The
Trojan Prince Aeneas from the Greek heroic legend has been casted as the husband of Lavinia in
the Roman legend. Lavinia was the patronymical ancestor of Latini and the daughter of King
Latinus.
Question 5) What are the 'Ages of Man' according to Ovid? How closely does Ovid
follow Hesiod’s version of the different races?
Ans: According of Ovid, the Age of Man are the phases of human existence in the world as
accounted in his Metamorphoses. He talks about the four ages which includes the Golden Age,

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the Silver Age , the Bronze age and the Iron Age. Hesiod has similar accounts regarding the age
of Man but hi version includes the Heroic Age too. Ovid says that in the Golden Age , men did
not explore the broader world as they did not know the strategy of navigation. In the Silver age,
men learn the agricultural skills and the architecture too. In the Bronze age, men conducted
warfare whereas in the Iron Age, nations were demarcated with boundaries. From this age, men
lost loyalty, modesty and truth (Lanoue 2017). The different ages contained different races of
man too. In his poem ‘Works and Days’, there is heroic age too that does not stay in
correspondence with any metal. This is an age where the heroes were born who fought at Troy
and Thebes. Notably, this age had human who died and entered Elysium.
Question 6) How does Ovid treat the idea that Rome is destined to last forever? Is he being
ironic?
How does he view Augustus' role? Support your discussion with specific references to the
Metamorphoses.
Ans: The concept that Rome had been founded to last forever in evident both in the Augstan
writers and the Roman Calender. As far as Ovid treatment of Rome’s destination to be lasting
forever is concerned, he is concerned with noticing the unchangeable substance under the
changeable appearances. He stresses on the notion that Rome is subject to change because she
will grow. No, he is not being ironic. He relates Rome with the fallen cities of the world like
Sparta, Troy, Athens and Mycenae with Rome. With the permanence of Rome, Ovid symbolizes
the permanence of the virtue of his poetry. On a concluding note to Metamorphoses, he
emphatically says “I shall live” (Albright 2017).
Question 7) What does Ovid version of the Apollo and Daphne myth suggest about his

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view of the relationship between humans and gods?
Ans In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the lives of Gods are shown in a grotesque way. Their
relationships are dramatic and often ends with a happy note. It is because Gods are passionate by
nature and prone to be revengeful and egoistic. The mythological story about Apollo and Daphne
is used as the first erotic metamorphoses (Albright 2017). Cupid has been provided with the line
of the story He is the God of Love symbolized as a boy with wings who shots the arrows to the
hearts of people and gods.
Question 8) What does Apollo want from Daphne in Ovid's version of this myth?
Why does she refuse him?
Ans: In the myth, Apollo falls in love with Daphne who is Peneus’s daughter. It is by the rage of
Cupid that he falls in love with her. Apollo wanted the love of Daphne throughout his life but
could never achieve it. Daphne on the other hand, preferred to live the life of eternal innocence
(Anderson 1997). Daphne refused Apollo because she wanted to live another kind of life. She
asked her father to transform her into something else so that she can disappear. She became a
laurel at the end.

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Reference
Bowersock, G., 2016. Old and New Rome in the Late Antique Near East. In Transformations of
Late Antiquity (pp. 57-70). Routledge.
Adelman, J., 2016. Shakespeare’s Romulus and Remus: Who Does the Wolf Love?. In Identity,
Otherness and Empire in Shakespeare's Rome (pp. 33-48). Routledge.
Cowan, R., 2017. A Stranger in a Strange Land: Medea in Roman Republican Tragedy 1.
In Unbinding Medea (pp. 39-52). Routledge.
Hunsucker, R.G., 2018. Maxentius and the aeternae urbis suae conditores: Rome and Its
Founders from Maximian to Constantine (289–313). In Imagining Emperors in the Later Roman
Empire (pp. 83-112). BRILL.
Lanoue, G., 2017. Rome Eternal: The City as Fatherland. Routledge.
Albright, C.L., 2017. Ovid's Metamorphoses: a reader for students in elementary college Latin.
Routledge.
Anderson, W.S. ed., 1997. Ovid's Metamorphoses. University of Oklahoma Press.