Essay on Metaphysics of Ovid and Dante - 742 Words

Ovid wrote the Metamorphoses nearly two thousand years ago and Dante wrote Purgatorio 1600 years after that - two pieces of literature that dealt with topics which transcend humanitys perceived reality. Each piece of literature attempts to arrive at a truth concerning the essence of human existence, Dante seeks answers within the confines of Catholic dogma while Ovid approaches existence from a paganistic perspective. This demonstrates two very different approaches to the same exact query. Mankind has questioned the existence of a metaphysical realm for generations and consequently shapes the nature of the supernatural world. The complex pagan religious system of the Romans mirrored that of the Greeks, but what Ovid sought to create†¦show more content†¦The two survivors of this flood, Deucalion and Pyrrha, then spawn the rest of humanity. Jupiter and Neptune eliminated all of mankind because they did not actively worship the gods or remain true to the laws of the gods. Ovid advocates the active participation of the gods in the physical world; so, at this point the supernatural and the physical become intertwined. The Roman gods and humans have a definite connection to one another. They are very similar in making and reacting to situations, however, they still retain a quite different nature as the gods are immortal and humanity is mortal. In fact, the gods actively participate in the occurrences on earth and thusly help to explain natural phenomena. Dante Alighieri, on the other hand, takes separating the supernatural world from the physical world to great lengths. Simply the setting of the book in a place which does not physically exist anywhere on earth, but solely in a metaphysical plane, makes the reader aware that purgatory has nothing to do with earth. This differs greatly from the viewpoint of the Greeks and consequently the Romans where the gods resided in actual places the can be seen such as the `Milky Way (Ovid, 6) or Olympus (Ovid, 7). Dante stresses that he and Virgil are `pilgrims in Purgatory - their being in