In this course we are working with the idea that myths are stories told for a point, tailored with a specific audience in mind. And we have used this idea over and over while reading the Odyssey by Homer, Theogony by Hesiod, and other texts. For the previous essay, you responded to a fellow committee member's harsh critique of the Theogony by arguing that the poem is in fact not a waste of time - read sensitively, it can bring hopeful release to a suffering person. This committee member was so impressed by your answer, that she admits confusion on another famous ancient poem: Metamorphoses by Ovid. "That text, too," she says, "seems to be one bad story after another. Just jealousy, rape, and rage, over and over. What's up with that?!" You agree, that much of the poem does feature stories with those elements. But you better understand why based on how the poet describes, in the poem's first pages, the principles at work in the distinctive world that is the Metamorphoses. Just as importantly, you know there are exceptions to these elements. In your conversation you talk about a few of these exceptions. Your fellow committee member then asks, "which of those exceptions is the most important?"
In this essay, you must answer the person's questionby arguing that of all the episodes in Metamorphoses that don't seem to end in the typical way (i.e., with rape, oppression, or a violent change) the most important is the poet's change at the poem's end.A complete thesis will list at least three stories of this type and then argue for the poet's metamorphosis as the most important.