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Book 1: The Four Ages
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Metamorphoses, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Metamorphosis
Humanity vs. Nature
Love and Destruction
Gods and Humans
Time, Fate, and Poetry
Summary
Analysis
While the earth falls corrupt, giants build a stairway of mountains to the throne of heaven. Jupiter strikes Mount Olympus with lightning and it falls, crushing the giants. Mother Earth, wanting to save her creations, turns the giants’ blood into human form. However, these humans are still cruel and greedy.
The giants that emerge on earth and try to climb their way to heaven are an extreme example of a human desire for divine immortality and power that expresses itself throughout the Metamorphoses.
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