Metamorphoses And Bacchae Analysis

In both the Metamorphoses and The Bacchae, there is an emphasis on the relationship between god and man. First, in the Metamorphoses, each story describes a transformation. In many of the stories, the gods are involved in the transformations of humans to animals as the result of an obstruction of power between the two (Ovid 194). Likewise, The Bacchae also exhibits physical transformations as one of its main themes. Again, this involves the power of a god being inserted over humans (Euripides 56). In each case, the gods use their power to control the humans to make them do whatever the gods desire. Overall, the gods treat the humans as beasts as a way to further their own sense of status. In the Metamorphoses, the gods transformed humans

Even though Arachne won the contest, Athena undoubtedly wanted to assert her dominance over the human, and so she transformed Arachne into an animal. Athena’s intent was clear when she said, “Though you will hang, you must indeed live on, you wicked child: so that your future will be no less fearful than you present is, may the same punishment remain in place for you and yours forever!” (Ovid 194). Basically, Athena was using Arachne as an example to the rest of humankind that gods are superior to humans, and challenging them will always result in defeat, even if the humans appear to have won. As a result, Athena’s status as a superior god was reaffirmed and with it, Athena further severed the parallels between humans and gods. In a like manner, the story “Jove and Io” relates to the gods’ hunger for prestige. Basically, the god Jove transformed Io into a cow to save himself from the wrath of his wife (Ovid 40). By doing so, Io was treated as an

By doing so, the gods are flaunting their power over humans. In particular, in “Arachne,” the human was going to kill herself after the contest with Athena (Ovid 194). As a result, it would have been simple for Athena to kill Arachne in her state of weakness. In addition, doing so would still exemplify the power that Athena had over Arachne because of the god’s capability to end Arachne’s life. However, Athena most likely chose to transform Arachne into a spider instead of killing her as a greater act of power. To explain, merely killing Arachne would be quick, so not as many people would be aware of the cause of her death. As such, Arachne’s death would not be seen as an example to not challenge the gods as much as it would be seen as an arbitrary occurrence that may or may not have been performed by a god. Conversely, transforming Arachne into a spider is a more permanent lesson of respecting Athena’s power, because when people witness Arachne as a spider, it will serve as concrete evidence of Athena’s dominance over humans, and they will be apt to recognize her power. Thus, although the gods could easily kill the humans, it is the act of transforming them into beasts that preserves their superiority and gives them a greater sense of power over the humans that they see as their