Ovid’s Tales of Warning: Erysichthon

A Warning Against Wronging Nature

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Behind the Holy Bible, Ovid’s Metamorphoses has inspired the most art in human history. Much of what we know of mythology that we consider correct comes from this Epic poem, though there is a certain irony to this given that Ovid’s interpretations were often different from the others being told at the time.

Roman Epic as a genre of poetry was usually used for political purposes, as a means of inspiring patriotism and loyalty to the emperor and empire. Part of this was from the way that stories would instruct its listeners on how to be model Roman citizens, with characters who deviate from this expectation being punished.

An example of this comes in the form of the story of Erysichthon, whose tale we find in Book VIII of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. It is an embedded narrative, in that Ovid is telling a story of Theseus being told the story of Erysichthon (a technique Ovid often employs to link together myths that are otherwise not associated to maintain the pretence of one continuous poem).

The Tale of Mestra (VIII. 725–740)

Theseus asks for a story about gods transforming mortals, a fitting desire for a poem about metamorphoses, and it is this request that prompts Calydon to tell Theseus about Mestra, the…