Essay: Roman Gods and Greek Stories

The reading unit I chose for this week was Ovid's Metamorphoses (Books 1-4). Overall I really enjoyed this reading unit. The information about the story at the top of the pages was really helpful. In these stories the gods are called by their Roman names but since their Greek names are more widely known I thought it was helpful that the Greek names were always listed in parentheses next to the Roman names.

For the most part my favorite stories came in the second half of this reading unit. In the first half I liked the story of Callisto. I liked this story because the ending was different and wasn't necessarily bad or sad like many of the others. I also really liked the story of Deucalion and Pyrrha. For me this was a new story that I hadn't heard of before and it's always fun to read something new. In the second half of the unit I liked the stories of Narcissus, Mars and Venus, and Perseus and Medusa. I liked the story of Narcissus because for once someone actually got what they deserved. I liked Mars and Venus because in this story we got to see more of the gods interactions with each other that weren't Jupiter impregnating a girl and Juno cursing her. I liked the story of Perseus and Medusa because it's one of the ones I had read before and remembered. It was always one of the stories I liked from Greek mythology and so it was fun to read it again.

Overall I think this unit met my expectations. There were some stories I already knew and there were some new ones that I was able to read for the first time. With this unit I feel like I was able to meet some of my goals in reading more stories with some Roman aspects.

(Athena's aegis from the story of Perseus and Medusa)