Menu Close

Articles on Ovid

Displaying all articles

John William Waterhouse, Echo and Narcissus, 1903. Wikimedia Commons

Who was Narcissus?

The myth of Narcissus – the beautiful youth who fell in love with his own reflection – has inspired poets, artists and psychoanalysts.
Surrounded by what resembles a Zoom chorus, lovers Orpheus and Eurydice descend into a digital hellscape, and later try to navigate a ‘new normal’ in their relationship. (Nanc Price/Edmonton Opera)

Live performance meets digital to create a powerful love story in the opera ‘Orphée+’

After COVID-19 closures, Edmonton Opera presented a contemporary telling of the Greek myth of lovers separated by death.
Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi) Italy 1571–1610. The Musicians 1597 Oil on canvas 92.1 x 118.4cm Rogers Fund, 1952 / 52.81 Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

European Masterpieces from the Met demonstrates art’s power to speak to the human condition

None of us are going to be able to travel with ease to New York any time soon but this exhibition showcases the quality and depth of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection.
In Ancient Greek texts, the king Lycaon is punished for misdeeds by being turned into a wolf. Wikimedia

The ancient origins of werewolves

The earliest surviving example of man-to-wolf transformation is found in The Epic of Gilgamesh, from around 2,100 BC. But the werewolf as we now know it first appeared in ancient Greece and Rome.
One of the most famous attempted rapes in literature: the nymph Daphne turns into a tree to escape the god Apollo. Apollo chasing Daphne, Cornelis de Vos, 1630.

Guide to the classics: Ovid’s Metamorphoses and reading rape

There are calls for Ovid’s Metamorphoses to be taught with a trigger warning. This 15-book epic is a rollercoaster of a read, with moments of both delicious joy and abject depravity. Like much great art, it was not created to please.

Top contributors

More