A Study of the Influence of Greek Mythology on “Ovid’s Metamorphosis”

Abstract

In the 6th, 7th, and 8th centuries BC, the beginnings of Western classical literature were marked by the Greek epic poems Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. It is a scholarly opinion that the material seeds for the creation of great poetry were provided through Greek mythology. It is due to the identity characteristics of Greek mythology. Later, the influence of Greek mythology strongly influenced mythology unique to Rome. The primary purpose of this research is to study how Ovid’s epic poem ‘Metamorphoses’ proves the contribution of Greek mythology to the creation of Roman epics. To achieve that objective,“Ovid's Metamorphoses", translated by Deegoda Piyadasa as "Yavana Purana", is used as a primary data source and many other texts are used as secondary data sources. The qualitative study method, which belongs to the anthropological research methodology, is used for this study. Mythology does not have a separately constructed theoretically significant system of rules and regulations. There is also little possibility of constructing such a fixed system of principles. There is no specific authorship, study system, or commentary on folktales, legends, and myths. Those who weave such stories are anonymous. Although these have been documented recently, they are still oral generation. Therefore, it is also subject to change. It can be identified as the research problem here whether myths with such a nature are presented in an appropriate way for the representation of events in the Roman epic. Through this study, it can be concluded that Ovid's 'Metamorphoses' is the most powerful literary work among other literary works. Furthermore, there is a deep connection between mythology and literature as mythology, which arose spontaneously in Greek society, led to the creation of epic