Reading Notes: Ovid's Metamorphoses, Part B

 

Peter Rubens' "Head of Medusa" (1917 - 1618). Source: Winds & Waves

Notes on Perseus and Andromeda:

• Characters:
• Perseus, Atlas
• Story
• Flying carrying Gorgon's (Medusa) head.
• the blood drops were given life as snakes
• At Atla's land
• Prophecy from themes stating Jupiters son will strip Atlas'stree of gold. 
• Locked his walls and had a dragon guard it 
• Tries to send Perseus away but he uses Medusa's head to turn him into a mountain
• Next, he flies to rescue Andromeda, a princess
• Chained to a rock and thought she looked like a statue
• She was an offering to a sea monster

Notes on Perseus and Medusa

• Characters:
• Perseus, Andromeda, Sea Monster, Cassiopeia and Cepheus, Athena
• Story
• Has to battle the sea monster and beats it
• Andromeda is released and is his prize
• Puts Medusa's head on a pile of leaves, 
• Marries Andromeda
• Tells the story of how he got Medusa's head
• Traveled to where she lived, there was stone men and animals
• Used the reflection in his shield to cut her head off
• The snakes from medusa's head were turned into Athena's breastplate

Bibliography: Ovid's Metamorphoses (Book 1 - 4) translated into English by Tony Kline