Reading Notes: Ovid's Metamorphoses Part A

Notes on Ovid's Metamorphoses
author: Tony Kline

Characters:

Deucalion and Pyhrra, among the most ancient humans, worshipped the gods, only humans left after the flood created by Poseidon
Deucalion: son of Titan Prometheus
Pyhrra: daughter of Titan god Epimetheus

Jupiter (Zeus): who sleeps around a LOT. God of the sky, wields bolts of lightening.
Husband of Juno, saves his many women from Hera

Juno (Hera): Queen of the Gods, wife of Jupiter and always catching Zeus in the act. She is usually angry and harms the women taken advantage of by Zeus.

Lo: innocent virgin, raped by Zeus, turned into a heifer by Zeus to keep his misconduct hidden from Hera. Lo is heart-broken and scared that she can no longer speak with her father. She bares Zeus' son once she is turned back into a woman.

Argus: protector and watcher of Lo. He has many eyes so he can see in all directions. He rests two eyes at a time. he is tricked by Mercury who puts all his eyes to rest so he can murder him.

Mercury: Jupiter's son sent to kill Argus by Jupiter. has winged sandals, wand and cap

Phaethon: son of the Sun, young, arrogant, wants to ride his fathers carriage, flies too close to the sun (like Icarus), wanted to prove he was the child of the Sun

Sun: kind, wants to give his son anything, but when he asks for the reigns to his carriage that blazed like the sun with wild horses he said anything but THAT.

Callisto: companion of Diana, another victim of Zeus, grieves and feels ashamed that she is pregnant with Zeus' child, gives birth to son Arcas, turned into a bear by Hera, miserable without son, finally reunited when Zeus sends them both to the heavens to be constellations.

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