Anthropomorphism In Virgil's The Natural History

The Roman civil wars, the assassination of Caesar, and the rise of Octavian’s empire led to hostilities and discords among the Roman Republic. The consequential political oppression brought by the Augustan Principate encouraged writers to utilize different literary devices to express their political ideologies about current events and the future of Rome. In this paper I will discuss how Augustan writers, Virgil and Ovid, utilized animal anthropomorphism as means of political expression in order to criticize Rome’s broken and divided state. Furthermore, I will discuss the use of anthropomorphism in Pliny the Elder’s The Natural History, who was writing years after the Roman Empire had been established. Although far removed from the turmoil, Pliny lived with the consequences of these …show more content…
Metamorphoses’ Book 7 relates the myth of king Aeacus and his Myrmidon army. This myth contains the only instance of an insect to human metamorphosis throughout Ovid’s poem. The story begins with Cephalus seeking for king Aeacus’ help in the Athenian war against Crete, while Aeacus agrees to help him, he narrates how not long ago a plague sent by Juno had consumed his city and people. Thus Aeacus begins to narrate the creation of the Myrmidons, ants who were transformed into humans by Jove. Throughout Aeacus’ story, many parallels with Virgil’s Georgics begin to emerge. For example both poems contain a plague that devastated the city and both characters –Aeacus and Aristaeus– sought for divine help and were recompensed. Ovid also states that once ants had transformed into men, they still prevailed some of their animalistic qualities: “Their build you saw; their traits they keep, a thrifty toiling lot, grasping their gains and hoarding what they’ve got” (7.658-60). However, Ovid did not see this loss of self as a solution for reuniting Rome. Gardner explains in greater