Study Questions & Essay Topics
Study Questions
1. What do Minerva's and Arachne's tapestries
tell us about the women's perspectives?
2. Should we consider Orpheus a failed
artist?
3. Why should Ulysses, rather than Ajax,
win Achilles' arms?
Suggested Essay Topics
1. Is Jupiter justified in destroying the world with
a flood? Why or why not?
2. Compare and contrast the two wedding brawls in the Metamorphoses:
the one at the wedding of Perseus and Andromeda in Book V and the
one at the wedding of Pirithous and Hippodame in Book XII. Are these
epic battles? What is their importance to the narrative?
3. In Book VIII, how does Daedalus succeed as an artist?
How does he fail?
4. Compare the soliloquies of Medea (VII.11–71),
Scylla (VIII.44–80),
Byblis (IX.487–516),
Myrrha (X.320–355), and
Atalanta (X.611–635).
Does Ovid invite us to form opinions about each character's morals?
5. Compare and contrast the love triangle in Book XIII
between Acis, Galatea, and Polyphemus with the one in Book XIV between
Scylla, Glaucus, and Circe.
