Extra Reading Diary: Ovid's Metamorphosis Book II

I enjoyed reading Ovid's Metamorphosis Book I so much, that I chose Book II for my extra reading this week!

Ovid's Metamorphosis Book II
Reading A:

1. Cupid and Dis
2. Dis and Proserpine
3. Ceres and Jupiter
4. Persephone's Fate
5. Arachne and Minera
6. Minerva Weaves a Web
7. Niobe Rejects Latona
8. The Death of Niobe's Children
9. Latona and the Lycians
10. Marysas

(Apollo and Marsyas, Liss)

• I found this section to be quite difficult to read, and more so than the other book. I'm not sure why that is? So, if I get anything incorrect, that is why.
• Proserpine was kidnapped by Dis and taken the the Underworld. I really like that concept. A more modern adaptation would be a demon kidnapping someone to Hell.
• In her search for her daughter, Demeter halts all harvests. This was a neat concept too, the Gods taking it out on the world, and therefore on the humans who inhabit it.
• Sort of a fiddle contest with the Devil sort of motif with Minerva weaving the web
• The punishment to Arachne explains why spiders weave webs (also why her name sounds a lot like arachnid)
• Arache's suicide was peculiar. It seemed like an odd response to what happened. It didn't feel very plausible or believable to me
• Theme: Pride as a sin, contesting the Gods
• Latona and the Lycians uses a first person point of view, which is a point of view shift, as the rest of the works have been in third person point of view.
• Yet another story were the Goddess is insulted. Now, the peasants are turned into frogs as a punishment
• The last story was just bizarre. It was so grotesque and didn't really seem to have any rhyme or reason! However, I did like that it involved satyrs, as those are a favorite mythological creature of mine.
• This entire section felt so different from his first books! It almost felt like a different writer. The themes and delivery of it felt so different.