Reading Diary B: Ovid's Metamorphosis Book I

Ovid's Metamorphosis Reading B:

1. Echo
2. Narcissus
3. Pyramus and Thisbe
4. Mars and Venus
5. Perseus and Andromeda
6. Perseus and Medusa

(Echo and Narcissus by: John William Waterhouse)

• Reading B was a lot darker, which I did enjoy! There was more tragedy, and it felt more like stories than myths rather than how Reading A felt. 
• I really liked the story of Echo and Narcissus, especially how tragic it was. I love tragic stories, with loves that are not meant to be. I also liked how Echo can only echo words, and in the end became nothing but a literal echo with her body wasting away.
• Narcissus falling in love with his own visage. He tries to hug himself, and kiss himself, to no avail.
• He thinks that the man in the water and himself are divided by water
• He killed himself, saddened by his image leaving him
• The story of Narcissus could translate well into being about vampires, or also about the "big man on campus" at a high school (you know the guy who rejects all the girls).
• When Narcissus died he became a flower, which is an interesting concept. People turning into flowers when they die--I like this concept, I might use that for a story.
• Star-crossed lovers, divided by a wall--this image is great! An interesting concept for a story. Lovers who cannot be together, but live next to each other, with just a wall between them. They can hear each other breath they're so close--yet so far away.
• How Shakespearean! He thought that a lioness kills his girlfriend (when she had, in fact, ran away, safely,) so he stabs himself--his blood soaking her already blood-soaked garments.
• His blood stained the mulberries on the trees (I won't look at a mulberry the same way!)
• She stabs herself, and they are put into a single Urn.
• Literally catching the lovers in the act
• Damsel in distress motif, kill this beast and you can marry the girl (How very Arthurian!)
• Medusa's head on Athena's breastplate