The Power of Art: Ovid's Metamorphoses

As shown in the Oxford Dictionaries, art can be defined as the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.  Art is a self-expression of emotions, these emotions range from pure joy to deep sorrow or grief and many others in between.  In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, artistic expression is an ongoing theme.  Ovid strongly portrays the importance of art within these stories and the characters self-expression.  They are able to portray their thoughts and feelings in a way that is everlasting.  Art is a form of expression that freezes that moment in time even after the character him or her self has continued on.  It is a way to go back to that exact moment in time, and for the audience to feel what they were feeling at this time.  Orpheus and Eurydice is one of the many stories that carries out this idea of art as expression and just how strong that expression can be when it comes to getting what one wants.          

Orpheus finds himself caught in a very unfortunate predicament as his wife Eurydice has met an untimely death after she is bit on the ankle by a serpent.  Orpheus not ready for this nightmare to become a reality goes after Eurydice to the underworld where he uses his song to make his plea.  Singing his heart wrenching melody and plucking the strings of his lyre he gains the sympathy of all those residing in the underworld including King Pluto and his Queen Proserpina.

“Orpheus has learned Ovid’s lessons well.  In order to achieve his goal of regaining Eurydice from death, Orpheus sets aside the poetic skill he will display so vividly later in book 10, and delivers to his royal audience exactly what he determines they want to hear: a concise, encomiastic and rousingly pathetic entreaty.  The aesthetic cost of success for an artist in the face of power is high induced verbatim.” (Johnson 119)

Orpheus does this by connecting personally with Pluto and Proserpina “if the story of that long ago abduction is not false, Love joined the two of you as well.” (Ovid 165)  Orpheus plays on the Kings good graces and praises him, as he is the ultimate king, for he holds the eternal resting place for the human race.  “You own us, entirely, and though we may delay a little, sooner or later as we hurry on we come to this one place.  We are all heading here, this is our final home, and your reign over the human race is the longest reign of all.” (Ovid 166)  By not only telling the King what he wants to hear, but by using the power of his words, Orpheus is able to have one last chance with Eurydice.  Only through his exquisite execution of song and lyric he is able to successfully state his claim and appeal to everyone in the underworld. 

            Throughout Ovid’s Metamorphoses, we see that art and the power that it holds is very relevant to the stories and the characters within the stories.  Even after the passage of time this art still lives on, much like Ovid’s words live on, Orpheus’s words will also live on.  Although he was had to accept the fate of his beloved Eurydice, through his art he was able to have a chance at saving her.  His passionate love for her was ultimately her demise, when it was that as well as his expression of pure grief that had the opportunity to save her, all through the power of art. 

             

Works Cited

"Art." Oxford Dictionaries: Language Matters. Oxford University Press, 1 Jan. 2015. Web. 1 Apr. 2015. <http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/art>.

Johnson, Patricia. Ovid before Exile: Art and Punishment in the Metamorphoses. University of Wisconsin, 2008. 200. Print.

Trans. Simpson, Michael. The Metamorphoses of Ovid. University of Massachusetts, 2001. Print.