Peter Reading: Perseus and Andromeda

Relationship to Classical text Based on classical hexameters ('Aeolius stilled the winds, and the dawn star rose up refulgent). Mixture of formal semi-classicized language and epithets with semi colloquial idiom and rhythm that gives the classical hexameter an almost musical-hall impact. ('Being a virgin, she wouldn't presume to / speak to a stranger'; Athis renowned for hunting The javelin / famed as an archer';  'Baying for spilt guts, the rest of the rabble look up their weapons, / Some of their yowling….'). Mediating source is Ovid Metamorphoses 4.664-5.235. Narrative with authorial interpolations: links in the story signalled by brackets.

Comment  Second of two sections of  'Ovidian' (First ‘Ovidian (p.254) ‘from beginning to 'Now on her corselet, Minerva still wears the / likeness of  serpents; / still on the goddess's breastplate are etched these terrible emblems' Ovid Metamorphoses 4. 663-803; Second 'Ovidian' based on Ovid Metamorphoses 5. 1-234).