Abstract:
Identifying a clear distinction between folktales, legends and myths is difficult. The ancient society's beliefs were fundamental to the creation of such stories. Unlike today, the people of that time spent their lives abundantly in harmony with the environment. There are many occasions when ancient man became curious about various phenomena arising from the environment. Ancient people hypothesized that there was something power behind such events in the environment. This naturally led to the emergence of myths, giving a supernatural power to various emotional states and various stages, experiences, and activities of human life. This influence on the poet carried over to the creation of epic poetry. “Ovid's Metamorphoses” is one such epic literary work. The primary purpose of this study is to study the human characteristics of Roman myths. To achieve that purpose, Deegoda Piyadasa’s "Yavana Puranaya" is a Sinhalese adaptation of "Ovid's Metamorphoses" is used as the secondary data source. The research method is a qualitative study method that belongs to the anthropological research method. What kind of characters are shown in myths? Are they all-time facts? Are the research problems here? Ovid visualizes the strength and depth of human relationships through different characters, as well as in love, separation, disagreement, blindness and brutality. The book led Ronald Seth to call 'Ovid' a 'psychologist' and it is clear that the myths of “Metamorphoses” have also influenced psychoanalyst Freud's 'ego complex' and 'narcissism complex'. From this it can be concluded that even though the person physically changes with the ages, the moods highlight common characteristics for the past as well as the present and the future through myths. “Metamorphoses” is one of the strongest pieces of literature that bears witness to it.
