92: Ovid: Metamorphoses - 2. Chaos and Creation

The theme today is Chaos and Creation.

The color is Pantone 19-4052 Classic Blue and the fragrance Byredo’s Mojave Ghost. Tree is Oak. Art work is The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai (1831). Novel is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

In this session, we examine Ovid’s depiction of creation, chaos, and the ordering of the cosmos. Ovid’s universe begins in a state of primordial disorder, which the gods transform into an organized and structured world. Yet, throughout Metamorphoses, chaos returns in various forms, often breaking into the ordered world to disrupt, reshape, or recreate. By examining these cyclical tensions between chaos and order, we gain insight into Ovid’s view of the universe as inherently dynamic and unpredictable.

Read these key passages related to the theme

• Book 1 up to line 447
• The story of Phaethon (end of Book 1 and beginning of Book 2)
• The Transformation of Iphis (Book 9, lines 720-873)
• The poem about Pythagoras's teachings (in Book 15)

Pantone Color

• Pantone 19-4052 Classic Blue
• This rich blue reflects the depths of the cosmos and the serenity that emerges from ordered creation, capturing the contrast between chaos and structure.

Fragrance

• Byredo’s Mojave Ghost
• This fragrance evokes a balance of earthy and floral notes, symbolizing the natural harmony that emerges from primal chaos, much like the ordered world created by the gods. Get a sample.

Tree

• Oak Tree
• Symbolizing strength and stability, the oak represents the enduring balance and order in nature that emerges from chaos, resonant with Ovid’s portrayal of the world’s creation.

Artwork

• The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai (1831)
• Hokusai’s wave embodies the power and unpredictability of nature, echoing the chaotic forces present in Ovid’s work that continually reshape the world.

Literature

• Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) examines creation from chaos.

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We're using a new translation of this wide ranging masterpiece that covers the history of the world, from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar in 42 BC in a mythico-historical framework comprising over 250 myths, 15 books, and 11,995 lines. The translation is by Stephanie McCarter, a Classics professor at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee: Metamorphoses (A Penguin Classics) – Published November 8, 2022.

This will take us well into 2025. BCE read the Metamorphoses before in 2020/2021.

A Latin text is online at https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.02.0029 (Hugo Magnus. Gotha (Germany). Friedr. Andr. Perthes. 1892).