Ovid's Metamorphoses: Achelous
'Why must you continue to pester me about stories of the past?' said Achelous. 'Yes, child, I have changed my form many times, but those days are long behind me. I could transform into a snake or even a bull with powerful horns, at least when I still had two. Now that form is weak, as I lack both horns,' he said with anger.
Neptune's son and well known hero, Theseus, questioned why he was so angry and what happened to his horn. Achelous. the Calydonian river-god, looked much differently than he once did. Now with long, dreaded hair, he responded, 'How dare you ask something so tragic in my life? How dare you bring such painful memories back to my mind?' screamed Achelous. Theseus now felt terrible, and pleaded for his forgiveness.
Reluctantly, Achelous said, 'Fine, I will tell you the origin of my anger and the story of how I lost my horn:
My lost battle was a fluke and the hero deserves no credit. Deianira was her name. She was beautiful, and her hand desired by many men. Being one of those men, I went to her father, Oeneus, and exclaimed for him to accept me as his son-in-law and wed Deianira.
I had a contender, scion of Alceus, Hercules.
He walked in, confident and proud, bragging about his many labors. I didn't believe they were very impressive, but that's beside the point.
You see Theseus, I was a god and Hercules was not. Hercules responded to this shouting, "You may be a god, but I bet I can beat you in a fight. Let's fight for her." Without a doubt in my mind, I accepted.
The fight began and I quickly realized his power. He was overtaking me and I knew I couldn't hold off much longer, so I changed into a snake. Hercules then laughed saying, "I defeated snakes as a baby!" He was right and quickly grabbed a hold of me.
I quickly slipped out of his hands and turned into my most powerful form, the bull. "You may have been stronger than my weaker forms, but you stand no chance now" I proclaimed.
So we wrestled, slipping and sliding everywhere. There was no clear leader in the fight now and I was beginning to get tired. Back and forth it went for hours until I made a mistake. I lost focus for a second and lost my position. Hercules took advantage, grabbing me by the horns. I was doomed from my own mistake. Trying to get away, he ripped my horn right off of my head. I had lost.
He held my horn in the air as I fell to the ground. I was sick to my stomach at the loss of the fight and my horn. The Naiades took my broken horn from Hercules' hand, filled it with fruit and flowers, and made it sacred. Telling you this story, Theseus, caused me great pain. I hope you are happy, goodbye.'
Reluctantly, Achelous said, 'Fine, I will tell you the origin of my anger and the story of how I lost my horn:
My lost battle was a fluke and the hero deserves no credit. Deianira was her name. She was beautiful, and her hand desired by many men. Being one of those men, I went to her father, Oeneus, and exclaimed for him to accept me as his son-in-law and wed Deianira.
I had a contender, scion of Alceus, Hercules.
He walked in, confident and proud, bragging about his many labors. I didn't believe they were very impressive, but that's beside the point.
You see Theseus, I was a god and Hercules was not. Hercules responded to this shouting, "You may be a god, but I bet I can beat you in a fight. Let's fight for her." Without a doubt in my mind, I accepted.
The fight began and I quickly realized his power. He was overtaking me and I knew I couldn't hold off much longer, so I changed into a snake. Hercules then laughed saying, "I defeated snakes as a baby!" He was right and quickly grabbed a hold of me.
I quickly slipped out of his hands and turned into my most powerful form, the bull. "You may have been stronger than my weaker forms, but you stand no chance now" I proclaimed.
So we wrestled, slipping and sliding everywhere. There was no clear leader in the fight now and I was beginning to get tired. Back and forth it went for hours until I made a mistake. I lost focus for a second and lost my position. Hercules took advantage, grabbing me by the horns. I was doomed from my own mistake. Trying to get away, he ripped my horn right off of my head. I had lost.
He held my horn in the air as I fell to the ground. I was sick to my stomach at the loss of the fight and my horn. The Naiades took my broken horn from Hercules' hand, filled it with fruit and flowers, and made it sacred. Telling you this story, Theseus, caused me great pain. I hope you are happy, goodbye.'
 |
| (Achelous) |
Author's Note:
This story is about the battle between Achelous and Hercules. It begins with Achelous expressing to Theseus his sadness about the loss of one of his horns. Curious to know the story behind the loss of his horn, Theseus asks Achelous. Achelous tells him that it was from a fight with Hercules for a beautiful girl named Deianira's hand in marriage. Hercules is much stronger than Achelous, however Achelous thinks his intelligence and ability to transform his shape will give him the edge. He is wrong. Even in his strongest form, a bull, Hercules overpowers him, taking him by the horns, and ripping off one of his horns, thus defeating him. I chose this story because Hercules is my favorite hero and the original story made him look poorly. His character was the complete opposite of humble and disrespectful to Achelous' abilities. This often happens when a story is told from another point of view, Achelous in this case. Achelous was accepting of his failure to defeat Hercules, but I thought it would be more realistic for him to have sour grapes about it. So I portrayed him as the grumpy old man and Theseus is the annoyingly curious child. I just used the image from the original version because I thought it was a good picture of Achelous. Here is a link to the original, Ovid's Metamorhoses: Achelous.
Bibliography:
Book: Ovid's Metamorphoses (Books 8-10)
Chapter: Achelous
Chapter: Achelous
Author: Tony Kline
Year: 2000
Web Source: Mythology and Folklore UN-Textbook
Micheal,
ReplyDeleteI liked your story a lot! Hercules is definitely one of my favorite Greek mythological characters as well. Outside of enjoying the Hercules movie when I was younger, I also had 4 different Hercules plates with all the major characters from the movie! I never actually saw the Hercules film with real characters, but it didn't seem like it would be particularly good. I think point of view is really important in all of the Ovid's Metamorphoses stories because of how biased and borderline crazy the Gods are. When you think you're all powerful and can do whatever you want, it kind of hard to have a realistic and unbiased view on your interactions with mortals.
I wanted to mention, with "Achelous. the Calydonian river-god, looked much differently than he once did." in the second paragraph, I think you want to change that period after Achelous to a comma. Other than that everything looks good though!
Micheal,
ReplyDeleteI liked your story a lot! Hercules is definitely one of my favorite Greek mythological characters as well. Outside of enjoying the Hercules movie when I was younger, I also had 4 different Hercules plates with all the major characters from the movie! I never actually saw the Hercules film with real characters, but it didn't seem like it would be particularly good. I think point of view is really important in all of the Ovid's Metamorphoses stories because of how biased and borderline crazy the Gods are. When you think you're all powerful and can do whatever you want, it kind of hard to have a realistic and unbiased view on your interactions with mortals.
I wanted to mention, with "Achelous. the Calydonian river-god, looked much differently than he once did." in the second paragraph, I think you want to change that period after Achelous to a comma. Other than that everything looks good though!
Hey, Michael! I was very impressed by your writing style – it included a helpful amount of dialogue while also including a great amount of detail and made the story easy to understand. The picture also fit the story very well and helped give a visual image in my mind of Achelous. As for suggestions, I would maybe put the picture closer to the beginning of the story so I have a face to image when reading along. Besides that, I can’t really think of anything to improve on – you are clearly a very talented writer. Great work!
ReplyDeleteI am very intrigued by this story! I love the way you put your own spin on the story, by making Achelous a grumpy old man. The fight scene between Hercules and Archelous was funny. I like that you made Hercules relatable to anyone who has ever seen the Disney movie of Hercules when you referred to him defeating snakes when he was a baby. Thought that was really cool. I also like that you told a story within a story by Archelous telling a story of what happened to him in the past.
ReplyDelete