#classical allusions

Allusions (5/?): Ovidian Metamorphosis

By  ANNA SOMERS COCKS

“The world may be gaping in astonishment at the mess the UK is making with Brexit, but in the arts it can still hack it. Nearly half of this week’s Emmy awards went to British TV programmes, and Mary Beard, a professor of classics at Cambridge university who is one of the UK’s most distinguished academics and a household name because of her TV programmes, has won the J. Paul Getty Trust’s highest accolade, the J. Paul Getty Medal, together with the US artists Ed Ruscha and Lorna Simpson.”

Allusions (2/?): The Heroides

Ovid, whose Metamorphoses is mentioned numerous times in Season 5, also wrote The Heroides. This is a collection of letters written by abandoned epic heroines to their absent lovers. A few worth highlighting:

Penelope, who waited twenty years for Odysseus - ten years after he should have returned from the Trojan War

Phyliss, who began her letter with hope even though the promised date of Demophoon’s return was long past, pleading for him to come back to her

Ariadne, who helped Theseus escape the Minotaur, then watched from the cliffs as his ship sailed away from her

Laodameia, who was terrified because she doesn’t know whether Protesilaus, off fighting the Trojan War, was alive or dead

Sappho, Canace, Dejanira, and Dido, who contemplated suicide

William Caxton Fan Club

Somewhat out of context quote from John Darnielle (please do click through the the original).