Ponytail Press drops an excerpt from Ovid's Metamorphoses (translated by Anthony S. Kline) every Monday morning. We all chew on it throughout the week and then discuss it on the weekend under the post that drops the following Saturday. Sound fun?
This week, we met our wet end. Only two of us remained after Jupiter and Neptune’s water fight was over. If you missed Monday’s excerpt from Metamorphoses, click the button below to get up to speed.
"Well I walked in the pouring rain And I heard a voice that cries "It's all in vain" The voice of doom Was shining in my room I just need one day Somewhere far away Lord I just need one day" - David Bowie, Kingdom Come
Waterworks From the God-Brothers
The first link I made between this week’s excerpt and our world today was, obviously, the environmental angle. It seems like not a lot has changed since Ancient Rome—nature’s most formidable threat to us is still water. Back in the day, they assigned this power to the gods. Now, we blame ourselves for the rising sea levels.
But I don’t know what else to say about that, so I thought I’d do some light research on what water tends to represent. Here’s what I found out:
Archetypally, water symbolizes the cycle of life—the mystery of creation; birth, death, and resurrection; fertility and growth; that kind of thing.
Carl Jung, the father of archetypal psychology, said that water is the most common symbol of the unconscious.
Historically, water has also been used to represent wisdom, grace, power, music, and chaos.
Today, we tend to use aquatic metaphor to discuss economics: the flow of money and trade, etc.
The irony of Jupiter and Neptune using a natural force normally used to symbolize new life was not lost on me. It actually reminded of a worship song I heard a few years ago, Jenn Johnson’s “Over My Head (Crash Over Me).”
I know the Evangelicals who wrote this song were trying to describe the sensation of being overwhelmed by the presence of the divine. But when I first heard it, it filled me with the kind of horror you feel after thinking too long about Flood Stories like this one—all that water and nowhere to go; an all-powerful god out to kill you dead.
In a similar way, the connection Jung made between water and the unconscious can make you stand back in awe once you try to hold all of those connotations together: it breeds life, you need it to survive, but it can also destroy you, and you have no power over it. It makes me feel small and vulnerable.
The introduction of Deucalion and Pyrrha felt sudden to me, didn’t it? Ovid jumps from Jupiter and Neptune wielding the forces of nature to two little people in a little boat. We still have most of their story to come, but two images stuck out to me in this last bit: Neptune’s “dripping beard,” and the tree tops with “slime still clinging to their leaves.” There’s something about both of those descriptions that I can’t quite put my finger on.
What do you think?
What does water represent in your mind? Does it apply to this story in an way you find interesting?
What do you make of Jupiter and Neptune collaborating to bring about our demise? Does it remind you of any projects you’ve worked on with siblings?
I didn’t get into the economic metaphor I listed. How does that sink in with regards to this story?
Anything else jump out at you after this week’s reading? Songs? Movie scenes? Memories?