Read the excerpt from The Metamorphoses by Ovid. This passage is told from Jupiter’s perspective.The report of the iniquity of the age had reached my ears; wishing to find this not to be the truth, I descended from the top of Olympus, and, a God in a human shape, I surveyed the earth. ’Twere an endless task to enumerate how great an amount of guilt was everywhere discovered. . . ."Wherever the earth extends, the savage [wicked] Erinnys reigns. You would suppose that men had conspired to be wicked; let all men speedily feel that vengeance which they deserve to endure, for such is my determination.”Read the excerpt from the adaptation "The Flood” by James Baldwin.After Jupiter had bound Prometheus on Mount Caucasus and had sent diseases and cares into the world, men became very, very wicked. They no longer built houses and tended their flocks and lived together in peace; but every man was at war with his neighbor, and there was no law nor safety in all the land. Things were in much worse case now than they had been before Prometheus had come among men, and that was just what Jupiter wanted. But as the world became wickeder and wickeder every day, he began to grow weary of seeing so much bloodshed and of hearing the cries of the oppressed and the poor."These men,” he said to his mighty company, "are nothing but a source of trouble. When they were good and happy, we felt afraid lest they should become greater than ourselves; and now they are so terribly wicked that we are in worse danger than before. There is only one thing to be done with them, and that is to destroy them every one.”
Ayla is analyzing the effects of the author’s choices in an adaptation of a Greek myth. What should she do first?
What is a common element of Greek myths?
Read the excerpt from The Metamorphoses by Ovid. "You would suppose that men had conspired to be wicked; let all men speedily feel that vengeance which they deserve to endure, for such is my determination.” . . . .Soon as Jupiter beholds the world overflowed by liquid waters, and sees that but one man remains out of so many thousands of late, and sees that but one woman remains out of so many thousands of late, both guiltless, and both worshippers of the Gods, he disperses the clouds; and the showers being removed by the North Wind, he both lays open the earth to the heavens, and the heavens to the earth. . . .. . . [Deucalion said,] "Now the mortal race exists in us two alone. Thus it has seemed good to the Gods, and we remain as mere samples of mankind.”Read the excerpt from the adaptation "The Flood” by James Baldwin.No one but Deucalion, the son of Prometheus, was ready for such a storm. . . . Once every year he had gone to the land of the Caucasus to talk with his father, who was hanging chained to the mountain peak."The day is coming,” said Prometheus, "when Jupiter will send a flood to destroy mankind from the earth. Be sure that you are ready for it, my son.”And so when the rain began to fall, Deucalion drew from its shelter a boat which he had built for just such a time. He called fair Pyrrha, his wife, and the two sat in the boat and were floated safely on the rising waters.
Read the excerpt from The Metamorphoses by Ovid.Then, too, as soon as it touched the lips of the God dripping with his wet beard, and being blown, sounded the bidden retreat; it was heard by all the waters both of earth and sea, and stopped all those waters by which it was heard. Now the sea again has a shore; their channels receive the full rivers; the rivers subside; the hills are seen to come forth. The ground rises, places increase in extent as the waters decrease; and after a length of time, the woods show their naked tops, and retain the mud left upon their branches.Read the excerpt from the adaptation "The Flood” by James Baldwin.After a while the rain stopped falling, and the clouds cleared away, and the blue sky and the golden sun came out overhead. Then the water began to sink very fast and to run off the land towards the sea; and early the very next day the boat was drifted high upon a mountain called Parnassus, and Deucalion and Pyrrha stepped out upon the dry land. After that, it was only a short time until the whole country was laid bare, and the trees shook their leafy branches in the wind, and the fields were carpeted with grass and flowers more beautiful than in the days before the flood.
Read the excerpt from The Metamorphoses by Ovid.Jupiter, not thinking the punishment of Lycaon sufficient to strike terror into the rest of mankind, resolves, on account of the universal corruption, to extirpate them by a universal deluge. . . .. . . The weapons forged by the hands of the Cyclops are laid aside; a different mode of punishment pleases him: to destroy mankind beneath the waves, and to let loose the rains from the whole tract of Heaven.Read the excerpt from the adaptation "The Flood” by James Baldwin."These men,” [Jupiter] said to his mighty company, "are nothing but a source of trouble. When they were good and happy, we felt afraid lest they should become greater than ourselves; and now they are so terribly wicked that we are in worse danger than before. There is only one thing to be done with them, and that is to destroy them every one.”So he sent a great rain-storm upon the earth.
Read the excerpt from "The Flood” by James Baldwin.After that, it was only a short time until the whole country was laid bare, and the trees shook their leafy branches in the wind, and the fields were carpeted with grass and flowers more beautiful than in the days before the flood.But Deucalion and Pyrrha were very sad, for they knew that they were the only persons who were left alive in all the land. . . .And so they walked on, down the steep slope of Mount Parnassus, and as they walked they picked up the loose stones in their way and cast them over their shoulders; and strange to say, the stones which Deucalion threw sprang up as full-grown men, strong, and handsome, and brave; and the stones which Pyrrha threw sprang up as full-grown women, lovely and fair. When at last they reached the plain they found themselves at the head of a noble company of human beings, all eager to serve them.So Deucalion became their king, and he set them in homes, and taught them how to till the ground, and how to do many useful things.Read the excerpt from "Deucalion and Pyrrha” by Carla Nappi.Finally they made the future. But they pressed their backs to the windows after giving tomorrow its language, to spare themselves from knowing what would be made from "clouds of butterflies,” from "stamp on the penthouse” and "hardly all glamour,” from "not just up and down but also sideways.” From "that bullet had something to do.” From "who he was and where,” and "made of stardust,” and "scrounge through trash for materials,” and "looking for the door.” But they could hear the gentle beating of distant wings, and quiet closings, and the pulsing of blood that was where it should not have been.
Why do authors often adjust elements in modern adaptations?
Which phrase best describes an adaptation?
Angela is reading and analyzing a classical story that has been retold for children. She has identified elements of the story that are new. How could she further analyze the story to determine whether it is an adaptation?
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