SOURCE: Segal, Charles. “Narrative Art in the Metamorphoses.” The Classical Journal 66, no. 1 (October-November 1970): 331-37.

In the following essay, Segal demonstrates Ovid's narrative technique of presenting typically real human responses inside the context of the artificiality of his stories as evidenced in the Metamorphoses.

What makes Ovid such a successful teller of tales? One essential quality will concern us here. Ovid is able to cast his mythical material, no matter how remote or fantastic, into clearly framed, vivid human situations. Ovid has a fine sense for the characteristic responses to be expected in the basic situations of life. By putting these into his tales of far-off times and places, he also obtains another effect, also pervasive in the poem: a sparkling juxtaposition of incongruities. Much of his wit lies in this irreverent mingling of tones, the mythical and the commonplace, bizarre fantasy and typical humanity.

After the flood, for...