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Ovid’s Tales of Warning: The Raven and the Crow
The Dangers of Gossip
Behind the Holy Bible, Ovid’s Roman Epic poem the Metamorphoses has inspired the most art in human history and has had a significant impact on Western culture.
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 and those meeting it being rewarded.
An example of this comes in the narrative of the Raven and the Crow in Book II of the Metamorphoses, the narrative of which is somewhat twisted and seemingly in the wrong order, but I hopefully I have set it out in a way that it will make sense!
Prior to this tale, the peacock has just been given the eyes in its tail feathers, and Ovid then shifts from that bird’s transformation to another: that of the raven and how it became black (much like a Rudyard Kipling’s “Just-So” story).
The White Raven (II. 531–546)
When it was created, the chattering raven had been as spotless as the dove, with silver-white wings and plumage that were the envy of the swans. However, Ovid warns us…
