OVID Flashcards
The flood
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Lycaon
(from Lycaon’s feast) Jove calls together all the gods after the four ages and the human race is fighting and there is much bloodshed. Jove goes down to earth to try to fix things. He stops at Arcadia where the tyrant Lycaon does not believe that he is a god and tries to kill Jove. To punish Lycaon, Jove flattens his palace with a lightning bolt and changes him into a wolf. Jove later sends the flood to rid the earth of the horrible human race.
Deucalion And Pyrrha
When Jupiter gets angry at Lycaon, he decides to punish all of humanity by creating a flood. Due to their piety, Deucalion and Pyrrha survive but no other human beings do. Themis steps in to give the two of them advice on how to repopulate the earth but it is very confusing. He tells them that they must cover their heads, let their clothes loose, and cast the bones of their great mother behind their backs. Pyrrha is very upset by this task because she thinks it is disgracing to their mother. Luckily, Deucalion steps in with the interpretation that it does not mean to cast the bones of their actual mother behind, but to cast the actual earth behind. They throw stones behind their backs and the stones form into human beings.
Io
young nymph, daughter of the river Inachus; catches Jupiter/Jove’s eye while walking from her father’s banks, so he comes down and rapes her cuz he’s a two-timing sicko; gets turned into a beautiful…cow…by Jove when Juno becomes suspicious of where her husband is; given as a gift to Juno and put under the watchful eyes of Argus; this poor girl/nymph/cow is fed and admired by her own father and naiad sisters who don’t even know it’s her until she writes out the story in the ground with her hoof; is set free by Juno when Jove feels bad, gets Mercury to kill Argos, and begs Juno to let her go; turns back into a human and gives birth to Jupiter’s son, Epaphus
Phaethon
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Callisto and Arcacs
Callisto is one of Artemis/Diana’s nymphs sworn to virginity. Jove disguises himself as Artemis and rapes her when she is bathing. She gets pregnant, and tries to hide it, but is found out when she is bathing with the other nymphs. Artemis gets angry and turns her into a bear. When Callisto gives birth to Arcas, he is taken from her and raised in the court of King Lycaon. One day, when he is out hunting, he almost kills her, not realizing who she is. At this point, Jove feels bad, and turns them both into constellations, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor.
Aglauros
The greedy sister of Herse. Minerva gets angry at Aglauros for helping Herse and goes to Envy. Envy fills Aglauros with so much envy that she cannot bear anyone’s good fortune and happiness that she eventually turns to stone.
Europa
is the daughter of King Agenor. When Mercury returns to the heavens, Jove orders him to drive Agenor’s cattle to the shore. While Mercury drives the cattle, Jove turns himself into a bull and heads to the shore to be by Europa. Europa pets Jove and feeds him flowers, then sits on his back. Jove takes off with Europa and heads to Crete, where he reveals his true form to her. Once Agenor realizes his daughter Europa is missing, he sends his son Cadmus to bring her back. Cadmus never finds Europa.
Cadmus
King Agenor’s son. His sister, Europa, was kidnapped by Jupiter and he was sent to go find her. When he can’t find her he asks the oracle of Apollo what he should do and he said to find a female cow and follow it to wherever it stops to rest. Cadmus is instructed to call the region Boeotia. He follows these orders and knows the appropriate thing to do is to offer a sacrifice to Apollo. He sends his men to find fresh spring water but they are all killed by a snake. Cadmus goes to look for his men and finds the snake which he kills. Then Minerva appears and tells him to plow the ground and plant the snake’s teeth. They grow into a giant army of warriors that kill each other until 5 are left. The last five make peace with one another. Ovid says Cadmus ends up having a great life after all that happens with a wife and kids.
Diana and Actaron
Actaeon, grandson of Cadmus who founded Thebes, was out hunting one day when he got lost. He stumbled upon a grove where the virgin Goddess Diana and her nymphs were bathing. Actaeon accidently saw Diana naked, even though the nymphs tried to hide her body from his view (however, she towered over them, so it was no use). Though it was an accident, Diana was enraged by what happened and turned Actaeon into a stag. Actaeon was deeply saddened and ran away from Diana towards where his men and hounds were. When the hounds noticed Actaeon, they began mercilessly tearing him apart. Oblivious that the stag was actually their leader, Actaeon, turned into a beast, the men cheered the hounds on. In the end, Actaeon is killed by the hounds.
Semele
lover of jupiter, mother of Bacchus
Juno tricks her into asking Jupiter to make love to her with his full power as a god
Juno asks Jupiter to grant her an unspecified request and he promises to follow through
Jupiter can’t go back on his words and makes love to her with all his power
she dies pregnant with Bacchus and Jupiter brings Bacchus to full term in his thigh
Teiresias
When Jove and Juno fight over the issue of who has more pleasure in sex, man or woman, they ask Teiresias because he is transsexual. He lived life as a man, but after attacking two serpents he was transformed into a woman. When Teiresias goes back to the snakes, he is transformed back into a man. Anyway, Jove believes that women have more pleasure and Juno says that men do. Teiresias takes Jove’s side, with women having more pleasure. Juno is upset with his decision and turns him blind. Because of Juno’s actions, Jove gives Teiresias the power of foresight.
Narcissus and Echo
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Pentheus And Bacchus
Pentheus mocks the gods and Bacchus is coming to his kingdom and the people in the kingdom are rejoicing. Pentheus thinks Bacchus is ruling Thebes badly and dislikes him. So Pentheus sends out his slaves to capture Acoetes, Bacchus’ companion. They capture him and he tells a tale of when he was out sailing and took aboard a young boy who they thought was a god. It ended up being Bacchus. The men on the crew tricked Bacchus so he killed them all except Acoetes, who then worshipped Bacchus. Pentheus gets mad at the story that wasted time, orders Acoetes to be chained up, but the chains fall off, women chanting and worshipping Bacchus enter and rip Pentheus’ body apart.
Arethusa
is the goddess of a spring in Sicily. There are two different stories involving Arethusa. (1) While Ceres is frantically looking for Proserpina (See Ceres & Proserpina), Arethusa tells her that she saw Proserpina in the underworld and that Proserpina is now Pluto’s queen.
(2) After Ceres settles the situation with Proserpina, Ceres goes back to Arethusa to talk to her. Arethusa tells her the story of why she left Achaea and how she turned into a spring. Originally, Arethusa was a nymph living in the woods of Achaea. She was not interested in men and loved walking through the woods and hunting. After Arethusa went hunting one day, the god Alpheus saw her and fell in love. He chased after her and Arethusa eventually collapsed from exhaustion. Arethusa prayed to Diana to protect her, so Diana turned her into a mist. As Alpheus inspected the mist, Arethusa got so nervous that she started to sweat, which turned her into a puddle. Alpheus transformed himself into a river so he could mingle with Arethusa. Diana split the earth open and the two (both water) trickled down through the cracks and traveled until they ended up in Ortygia. There, Arethusa became a fountain.
Pyramus and Thisbe
the couple falls in love but their marriage is forbidden by their parents; kept their love a secret, listened and spoke to each other through the wall between their houses and planted a kiss on the wall every night; decided to sneak out and meet in the tomb of Ninus; Thisbe arrives first but sees a lioness from far away, so she runs off and drops her cloak in the process; the lioness mangles the cloak with her bloody jaws and leaves, so when Pyramus arrives he thinks the lioness has eaten Thisbe; Pyramus thrusts his sword into himself in grief; Thisbe returns and sees him dying, so she positions the sword beneath her breast and falls on it
Salmacis and Hermaphroditus
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Perseus and Andromeda
Perseus sees Andromeda (daughter of Cepheus, king of Ethiopia) chained to a rock on the beach. She is being offered up as a sacrifice to Poseidon, so that he doesn’t send a monster to destroy the land (Poseidon is angry because Andromeda’s mother said she was more beautiful than the Nereids). Perseus kills the monster and rescues Andromeda, and then marries her. However, Andromeda was already engaged to a man named Phineus. Phineus comes into their wedding feast, and there is a big fight. Phineus is angry at Perseus for stealing his fiancé, but Perseus tells Phineus that he didn’t deserve her anyway because he was the one that ended up rescuing her. Perseus then turns Phineus into stone by using Medusa’s head.
Crese and Proserpina
Mother and daughter respectively. Pluto falls in love with Proserpina and takes her to the underworld where they are married. Ceres, as the goddess of nature and Earth, refuses to let plants grow and people begin to die. When Proserpina is found, Ceres asks if she had eaten anything in the underworld. If she hadn’t, Proserpina could come back and be with her mother. However, she ate 6 seeds from a pomegranate, so she has to be in the underworld for half the year (fall, winter) and with her mother for the other half (spring, summer).
Arethusa
In the second tale of Arethusa, she tells the story of the river Alpheus’ passion. Arethusa was a nymph who was on her way back from hunting in the Stymphalian forest when she came upon a stream which she waded into. She strips off her clothes and enters the water when suddenly she hears a murmur come from the bottom which turns out to be Alpheus. She tries to flee but Alpheus pursues her and they embark on a cat and mouse chase over mountains and through fields. He finally chases her down and she prays to the goddess, Diana, who hears her cries for help and hides her in a dense cloud of fine mist. Alpheus tries to find her but he cannot until she starts to leave puddles where her footprints should be. Soon after, Arethusa turns into complete liquid and sinks into the earth’s crust where she was first swept off to Ortygia and then rose up again as a fountain.
Arachne
She is from the land of Lydia (modern Turkey) and is from a humble background and famous for her knitting. She boasts that she could beat Minerva in a weaving contest. Minerva shows up at Arachne’s house disguised as an old woman and urges Arachne to honor the goddess. Arachne refuses so Minerva reveals her true self and challenges her to a contest. Arachne weaves scenes of Jupiter, Neptune, Apollo, Bacchus and Saturn seducing women. Everyone (Including Minerva) agrees her work is flawless. Arachne hangs herself after Minerva tears her work to shreds. Minerva then turns her into a spider.
