Monday, March 30, 2009

Retelling of Arethusa


So my story is the story of the woman Arethusa. Arethusa is a very beautiful woman, but she hates that her beauty attracts men. She is in to much more manly things like hunting. One day she is out hunting and its very hot. She sees this amazing pool of clear water and decides to go for a swim. She strips down and enters the cool water. After swimming for awhile she sees a ripple in the water and runs to the bank. The god Alpheus comes out of the water and asks her where she is going. Her clothes are on the opposite bank of the stream so she decides to abandon them and runs away from Alpheus. He chases for a very long time, but he won't give up so Arethusa calls on Diana for help. Diana creates a fog to cover Arethusa, but Alpheus still won't give up looking for her. He is about to find her when Diana helps one more time and turns Arethusa into a stream. However, Alpheus returns to the form of a stream as well and mixes with Arethusa's water. Diana once again intervenes and opens a gorge for Arethusa who enters it and is free of Alpheus finally. She travels underground for a while before returning to the world again.


The transformation of course is the change of Arethusa into a stream. We have talked a lot about the extremes of human emotion that Ovid includes in his stories. In this story the extreme emotion is lust. A lust that consumes Alpheus so that he will not give up having Arethusa.

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