Humanity vs. Nature Theme Analysis

In the Metamorphoses, Ovid portrays humanity’s attempt to wield power over nature. Significantly, this tendency to control nature seems to stem from the unique position in which human beings were created. In contrast to the earth’s landscape and animals, the gods create human beings as “holier creature[s] […] which could hold dominion over the rest.” Even so, although human beings are made to be capable of dominion over nature, they don’t wield it right away. During the Golden Age, the earth is “unscathed by the ploughshare.” However, the Iron Age soon follows, in which humanity fells trees and dares to cross the sea to explore new lands. In other words, human beings soon feel that they are more powerful than nature and attempt to control it. Yet their attempt leads to corruption and dissension, and so displeases the gods that they cause a massive flood to obliterate humanity’s creations. This flood is a reminder that nature is indomitable: the two human survivors of the flood, Deucalion and Pyrrha, are humbled by the natural disaster and supplicate the gods—forces more powerful than themselves. Near the end of the Metamorphoses, Pythagoras presents another argument for humanity’s humility in the face of nature. Pythagoras urges people not to eat meat, claiming first that nature provides sufficient resources to make killing unnecessary, and second that many animals are an incarnation of a human soul. The world Ovid presents further illustrates this claim that nature and humanity aren’t strictly separate: nature sometimes yields human beings, such as when the dragon’s teeth become soldiers, and human beings countless times become animals or elements of nature. The Metamorphoses, in both illustrating nature’s power and sometimes personifying it, provides a strong indictment of human attempts to overpower it. Instead, humans should wield their god-given dominion with humility.