Roman Mythology's Original Texts 3: Ovid's Metamorphoses and Fasti

Thank you for visiting. This article is the third installment in a series explaining the original texts of Rome.

So far, I have looked at the “Aeneid” (Article 1) and the “History of Rome” (Article 2), which tell of the founding. This time, I take up another great pillar conveying Roman mythology — the two original texts of the poet Ovid, the “Metamorphoses” and the “Fasti.” If the previous two works are “stories of the state,” these are original texts conveying the stories of the gods themselves, and Rome’s calendar and festivals.

For an overview map of the original texts of Roman mythology as a whole, please see this summary article.

Roman Mythology's Original Texts: The Aeneid and the Founding Mythen.senkohome.com/myths-religions-origins-roman/

Who Is Ovid — the Exiled Court Poet

“Ovid” (43 BC – AD 17) was a representative poet of Rome, active in the age of Emperor Augustus. Having gained fame with love poetry, he undertook two great works: the “Metamorphoses,” which compiled mythology, and the “Fasti,” which sings Rome’s calendar.

But his life is known for a dramatic fall. In AD 8, Ovid was suddenly exiled by Augustus to the frontier of Tomis (present-day Romania) by the shore of the Black Sea. The reason, by his own words, was “a poem and a mistake (carmen et error).” The detailed circumstances are still a mystery, but he never returned to Rome and ended his life in a foreign land. The poet who made Rome’s myths and festivals immortal was driven out by the very Rome — including this irony, Ovid’s original texts have been read.

An Illustrated Encyclopedia of World Myths and LegendsView on Amazon → The Larousse Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman MythologyView on Amazon →

What Kind of Original Text Is the “Metamorphoses”

The “Metamorphoses” is an epic of unprecedented scale, joining together the myths handed down in Greece and Rome by a single theme. That theme is, as the title says, “transformation” — the single point of gods and humans changing form into animals, plants, stars, rocks, and so on.

At the opening, Ovid declares the aim of this work thus: “My mind seeks to tell of forms changed into new bodies.” Under this single phrase, he tells about 250 transformation myths, not as a scattered patchwork, but in a single continuous line, following a gentle flow of time, from the creation of heaven and earth to the Rome of his own age. In the point of weaving the scattered Greek and Roman mythology into one book by the thread of “transformation” lies the greatest originality of this original text.

The Famous Myths the Metamorphoses Conveys

Many of the myths contained in the “Metamorphoses” gave an immeasurable influence on the painting, literature, and music of later Europe. Much of the imagery we are familiar with as “Greek and Roman mythology” is, in fact, the form Ovid depicted. Let me list the representative ones.

These myths are all connected by the single point of “transformation.” Love, pride, sorrow — humanity’s intense emotions crystallize at the last as a change of form. Ovid retold the myths under one grand worldview: “all things in the world ceaselessly change.”

The Conclusion Connecting to Rome — the Deification of Caesar

The reason the “Metamorphoses” is not a mere myth collection but a “Roman original text” lies in its ending.

The story, while beginning from the world of Greek mythology, in the latter half gradually connects to Troy, and then to Aeneas’s coming to Italy (Article 1), flowing into Roman history. And in the final book, the “greatest transformation” is at last depicted. The assassinated Julius Caesar, by the hand of the goddess Venus, ascends to heaven and changes form into a shining star (a comet). And the poem praises the glory of his successor, the emperor Augustus.

That is, the “Metamorphoses” connected, as a chain of transformation, in a single line from “the creation of the world” to “the deification of a Roman emperor.” The time of myth flows directly into the present Rome — here the structure characteristic of Rome’s original texts, refashioning Greek mythology into Rome’s story while borrowing it, well appears. Note that the story closes at the last with the poet’s declaration of immortality: “My work cannot be destroyed by the gods’ wrath or the flow of time. By this poem I shall live forever.”

The “Fasti” — the Original Text of Rome’s Calendar and Festivals

Ovid’s other important original text is the “Fasti.” It is a unique work, in which, following the calendar of Rome’s year, the origins of each month’s festivals and anniversaries are explained together with myth.

The “Fasti” was originally planned to sing all 12 months, but because Ovid was exiled, only all 6 books from January to June were completed. Even so, here is recorded in detail what gods the Romans venerated, when, and with what origins.

For example, why January is dedicated to the two-faced god Janus, how the wolf-related festival “Lupercalia” was held, what the origin of the festival celebrating the agricultural god is. The “Fasti,” in which hymns to the gods and the explanation of the calendar and rites are united, has become an irreplaceable primary source for knowing the reality of Roman religion (Rome’s gods and cult themselves are explained in detail in the next Article 4).

What the Exiled Poet Left Behind

Ovid, who engraved both of Rome’s spiritual worlds — myth and calendar — into original texts, had a lonely later life. In the frontier of his place of exile, he wrote, in works such as the “Tristia (Sorrows),” a longing for home and words begging for forgiveness. But he never set foot on Roman soil again.

Ironically, the Emperor Augustus who exiled him, and his empire too, were things that would one day “change.” But, just as Ovid prophesied at the conclusion of the “Metamorphoses,” his poems have been read for over two thousand years, and as the “definitive version” of Greek and Roman mythology, still keep enriching cultures around the world. It can be called a fine example of the power of an original text surviving far beyond the unfortunate life of a single poet.

To Learn More

Here are some related books. Reading them alongside this series lets you savor this world even more deeply.

Greek and Roman Mythology, Explained in MangaView on Amazon → An Anatomical Illustrated Guide to the Myths That Make StoriesView on Amazon →

Conclusion

In this article, I explained in detail Ovid’s two original texts, the “Metamorphoses” and the “Fasti,” following the text. How was it?

The “Metamorphoses” was a compendium of Greek and Roman mythology, which told, by the single theme of “transformation,” in a single line from the creation to the deification of Caesar. And the “Fasti” is a primary source of religion, recording the origins of Rome’s calendar and festivals month by month. I think you have felt how deeply these original texts, left by the exiled poet Ovid, took root in the culture of later Europe.

In the next Article 4 (the final installment), I will explain Rome’s own gods and the religion that supported the state, behind such myths.

Roman Mythology's Original Texts: The Aeneid and the Founding Mythen.senkohome.com/myths-religions-origins-roman/

I hope you’ll read the next article too.