Blog post Ovid’s Metamorphoses #001/111: “Invocation”
What this project is about.
This one is from Book 1.
How long it took to read this (aloud): 28 seconds
What it’s “about”: Ovid setting the scene, asking ‘God’ to help him out
Words I didn’t know: none
Quotable quotes:
“Now I shall tell of things that change”
How it lands to my eco-sensibility: Heraclitus and that river
Obvious allusions, ways it was used (that I am aware of already) : Nowt
What I know I didn’t ‘get’: Nowt
To my knowledge, who’s used it why/how (RACC): Nowt
Further research questions: Nowt
Anything else: Nowt
Blog post Ovid’s Metamorphoses #002/111: “Chaos and Creation” – “Then careless things took shape”
What this project is about.
This one is from Book 1.
How long it took to read this (aloud): 5mins 36seconds
What it’s “about”: The Before Times (before time)
Words I didn’t know: Nowt
Quotable quotes:
“When God, whichever God he was, created/The universe we know” – You just know that Ovid’s sardonic little mouth is gonna get him in trouble….
“Yet world was not complete/It lacked a creature that had hints of heaven/And hopes to rule the earth.” (The hairless murder apes should get over themselves)
“The new creation gazed into blue sky; Then careless things took shape…”
How it lands to my eco-sensibility: Idk – compare and contrast with the two versions of the creation in Genesis? Typically anthropocentric (obvs)
Obvious allusions, ways it was used (that I am aware of already) : Nowt
What I know I didn’t ‘get’: Nowt
To my knowledge, who’s used it why/how (RACC): Nowt
Further research questions: Is there an Ur-text Ovid and the Genesis folks were cribbing from? Did Milton crib from Ovid for Paradise Lost at all?
Anything else:
That word careless!
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness” Chapter 9 of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Paul Kelly song Careless from 1989’s So Much Water So Close to Home
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