Ovid's Metamorphoses - The Creation Story

Last updated over 3 years ago
9 questions
INSTRUCTIONS:
Read the creation story told by Ovid in Metamorphoses, Book I: lines 1-88.

Answer the following questions. Use evidence from the text in your answers.
2

What is an invocation? What is Ovid asking of the gods?

1

How does Ovid describe the world at the beginning?

3

Look up the identity of the following and relate what part they play in the creation story.
1. Titan
2. Phoebe
3. Amphitrite

2

What are the four elements? How were they separated?

3

What shape did the god make the earth? Does it strike you as odd that this fact appears in a poem which was produced around the time of Ovid's exile in 8 CE? What might account for the image of an earth shaped like a sphere showing up here?

2

What are the five zones? How well does this reflect the actual climate zones of the earth as we know it today?

2

What does Ovid mean when he says the winds are like “the discord between brothers”? How does the god solve this problem?

2

What two explanations does Ovid give for the creation of humans?

1

How are humans different from other animals?