Reading Period 25: April 27 - May 3: Metamorphoses

Medea's back, y'all.

Long Read:

Metamorphoses by Ovid, books 6-8

Poetry: 

Ode IV, 7: Diffugere Nives
by Horace
translation by Samuel Johnson

The snow dissolv’d no more is seen,
The fields, and woods, behold, are green,
The changing year renews the plain,
The rivers know their banks again,
Hippolytus unjustly slain
Diana calls to life in vain,
Nor can the might of Theseus rend
The chains of hell that hold his friend.

Od IV, 7: Diffugere Nives
by Horace
translation by A.E. Housman

The snows are fled away, leaves on the shaws
And grasses in the mead renew their birth,
The river to the river-bed withdraws,
And altered is the fashion of the earth. 

The Nymphs and Graces three put off their fear
And unapparelled in the woodland play.
The swift hour and the brief prime of the year
Say to the soul, Thou wast not born for aye. 

Thaw follows frost; hard on the heel of spring
Treads summer sure to die, for hard on hers
Comes autumn with his apples scattering;
Then back to wintertide, when nothing stirs. 

But oh, whate'er the sky-led seasons mar,
Moon upon moon rebuilds it with her beams;
Come we where Tullus and where Ancus are
And good Aeneas, we are dust and dreams. 

Torquatus, if the gods in heaven shall add
The morrow to the day, what tongue has told?
Feast then thy heart, for what thy heart has had
The fingers of no heir will ever hold. 

When thou descendest once the shades among,
The stern assize and equal judgment o'er,
Not thy long lineage nor thy golden tongue,
No, nor thy righteousness, shall friend thee more. 

Night holds Hippolytus the pure of stain,
Diana steads him nothing, he must stay;
And Theseus leaves Pirithous in the chain
The love of comrades cannot take away.

What I say, Medea IS BACK. 

Creative Assignment:

Write a three minute script for four characters, for two of the three stories your group chose for the Metamorphoses skit festival. If your group has five people, make it for five characters. Some of the stories lend themselves obviously to two or three characters, so you'll need to add parts here and there -- someone can be a vase or a horse or something. You can rotate who plays the "extra" parts across the three plays. Your skit must NOT be longer than three minutes! Bring your scripts, printed on paper to class on Thursday. You will be collaborating on writing this project, but one person should be "lead" writer for each skit.

AND

Submit your poem that you wrote last week to the poetry contest, using the form!

Writing Assignment:

In your two-person debate team, decide who will give the opening statement and who will give the closing statement. Your writing assignment this week is to write that opening or closing. Bring this printed document to class on Thursday so you can collaborate.

Quiz:

Book 7 of Metamorphoses is particularly of interest to us because we know Medea so well from the play by Euripedes. Ovid was a fan, and in fact wrote his own tragic play called Medea, which is unfortunately lost. For your quiz this week, first read this famous invocation, which Medea makes in Book 7 and which Shakespeare honored (plagiarized) in Prospero's "this rough magic" speech in The Tempest.

Shakespeare:

Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves,
And ye that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him
When he comes back; you demi-puppets that
By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,
Whereof the ewe not bites; and you whose pastime
Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid,
Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimmed
The noontide sun, called forth the mutinous winds,
And ’twixt the green sea and the azured vault
Set roaring war—to th' dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire, and rifted Jove’s stout oak
With his own bolt;

Ovid (from a 1567 translation):

Ye Ayres and windes: ye Elves of Hilles, of Brookes, of Woods alone,
Of standing Lakes, and of the Night approche ye everychone.
Through helpe of whom (the crooked bankes much wondring at the thing)
I have compelled streames to run cleane backward to their spring.
By charmes I make the calme Seas rough, and make the rough Seas plaine,
And cover all the Skie with Cloudes and chase them thence againe.
By charmes I raise and lay the windes, and burst the Vipers jaw.
And from the bowels of the Earth both stones and trees doe draw.
Whole woods and Forestes I remove: I make the Mountaines shake,
And even the Earth it selfe to grone and fearfully to quake.
I call up dead men from their graves: and thee lightsome Moone
I darken oft, though beaten brasse abate thy perill soone.
Our Sorcerie dimmes the Morning faire, and darkes the Sun at Noone.

RAWR MEDEA

Now answer these questions about Medea in book 7:

1. What does Jason want from King Aeëtes?
2. What are the three tasks that the king lays out for him?
3. How does Jason cleverly deal with the warriors that sprung up from the teeth?
4. How does Jason cleverly deal with the dragon that protects the golden fleece?
5. What mythical creatures pull Medea's totally awesome chariot?
6. Describe Medea's treatment procedure for Aeson's potion of youth.
7. How does Medea prove to Pelias' daughters that she can indeed make people young?
8. Who actually kills Pelias?
9. What poison does Medea use to try and poison Theseus?
10. Why does it not work?