Metamorphosesby Ovid explains that misogynistic behavior of men are displayed during the time period. Gods and goddesses are all very flawed characters, advising us that even immortals arent perfect. The men in the book are flawed because of their morals; they are flawed because they sexual assault goddesses and they believe they are powerful. This also represents people in todays society. Ovids book reflects his opinion about men and mens misogynistic behavior back then and how it is reflected in todays society.

The gods inMetamorphosesdo not have any morals because they think they are the most powerful. The highest level of authority is the Gods, even above the goddesses.Metamorphoses doesnt really have a plot but a rather series of scenes. In these scenes the characters reflect the carelessness in society.In this scene the god decides to kill someone.

His plan was to make a sudden attack in the night on my

Sleeping.

Body and kill me. This was chosen method of

Proving

The truth. Not content with that, he applied his sword

To the throat (Ovid 16.)

This quote express that the gods show no mercy to humans and is a reflection of human behavior. There are many people who are violent and have uncontrollable behavior in todays society. In one scene a god rapes a goddess and turns into a tree, stroking her. This is also displayed in the news today. According to New York Daily News, a student recently, from Columbia was raped by her boyfriend. The student carried a mattress around campus trying to remove her rapist from campus. Even though some men dont behave morally, others do.

In the bookMetamorphosesthere are a large portion of misogynistic behaviors such as rape. In this scene Nereus is getting raped. The perpetrator is sexually aroused and wants full power over her.

When Perseus noticed the maiden tied by the arms to a

Jagged

Rock-face (but for the light breeze stirring her hair and

The warm tears

Coursing over her cheeks, he would have supposed she

Was merely

A marble statue), unconscious desire was kindled

Within him, (Ovid 164.)

In this scene Perseus gets such extreme sexual desires that he rapes her. Its in mens animalistic behavior, and strong urges arise to do this when a man is attracted to a women.This shows the behavior that still goes on today. In the past there were no rules against sexual assault, but now there are. However rape is still a huge problem around the world. There are a slew of cases, similar to this one. There is a situation where a girl from India wasgang raped and she got beaten to death. Men in certain parts of the world sometimes dont respect women.This behavior is human nature and it is dominating over women. That is what Ovid is trying to represent in the book.

In Metamorphosesmen manipulate women. Men look at women as some pretty object, with whom they can play.Men believe they have all the power. The gods in this book believe they are the most powerful. This scene explains how men dominate the earth.

So man came into the world. Maybe the great artificer

Made him of seed divine in a plan for a better universe.

Maybe the earth that was freshly formed and newly

Divorced from the heavenly ether retained some seeds of its

Kindred element-

Earth, which Prometheus, the son of Iapetus, sprinkled with

Raindrops

And moulded into the likeness of gods who govern the

Universe.

When other animals walk on all fours and look to the ground,

Man was given a towering head and commanded to stand (Ovid 8,9.)

This quote explains how man tries to dominate the world. This quote reflects what Ovid thinks of men. It shows that he thinks men have all the power over everything. Even today men seem to have more power over women. Women get less of a salary than men in certain cases.

This book,Metamorphoses,shows the opinion of Ovid and how he believes that we live in a misogynistic world, even today. Women have politically and economically less power than men. Men want to be dominant over women, they own most of the businesses and back in the book,Metamorphose, women didnt even have jobs. There was a time women didnt even go to college. Some countries such as Lebanon women cant even get a divorce. (Presentation social work) InMetamorphoses thegod and goddesses get themselves in sticky situations, reflecting human behavior and how all humans are imperfect. There really is no plot in this book but it reflects how flawed society is. This book also shows how there is no such thing as love and most men want power. The gods lust after the goddesses. Today, in society, there are a lot of relationships built out of lust. However, there are some stable and loving relationships. Overall, in the bookMetamorphoses,there is a lot of misogynistic behavior in the book. There is also much misogynistic behavior in todays society. Sometimes men would beat their wives or sexually assault them but it also can be the other way around where women can beat their husband or abuse them or sexually assault them too like Duessa from Metamorphoses. Women had less control of what was happening and what to create. In this book the goddesses were abused. The men had more power, sexually assaulted women and had flawed morals. With this kind of behavior in this world, will humans ever grow? This superiority complex some people are affecting our world from growing. This shows how flawed society is. Human behavior reflects humans intelligence. It is the time humans need to acknowledge that women and men should have equal rights. Ovids story shows that humans are flawed and society is very misogynistic.

Link:
Book Review: Metamorphoses by Ovid - Uloop News