For The Love Of The Gods

An exhibition in Naples examines the timeless power of Greek myths, which are as vibrant today as when the Roman poet Ovid penned his Metamorphoses 2000 years ago.

- Dalu Jones 

Metamorphoses was the original title of an exhibition now called Amori divini (The Loves of the Gods) on show at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples but, although the title was changed, references to the Roman poet Ovid’s famous Classical compilation of mythological stories of love and seduction are many. As well as reading Ovid, visitors to this exhibition might also like to look at The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony (1988) by one of Italy’s leading literary figures, Roberto Calasso (b 1941), as it will help them to make sense of the complex dynamics of action and reaction, cause and effect, that characterise the erotic activities of the gods, demi-gods and heroes of Greek mythology. For, like Ovid, Calasso is fascinated by the changes of shape and the shift of status that occur among gods and mortals when they are attracted to each other and mate. His premise is that myths are a living force today just as much as in the past.

In his re-telling of the Greek myths, crude physical desire is the driving force behind their most significant actions. He makes it clear why the king of the gods, Zeus, was attracted to beautiful young girls like Danae, Europa and Leda, and boys, such as Ganymede, all of whom he seduced under various guises. Like their male counterparts, both the goddesses and women in the stories are equally possessed by passion, and they pursue the objects of their desire with reckless abandon. So seduction and, very often, abduction and rape are recurrent themes that trigger each mythical episode, which can be found in various local and chronological variants.

However, unlike Ovid, Calasso often provides several different versions of each myth, using many diverse existing sources and their continuous, complicated intermingling, so that we can understand the layered and complex hidden meanings underlying each episode and see how they are related.