The age of heroes passed and paved the way for that of the age of courtiers. Within the age of heroes stories took a lot of time to be written down, that changed for the most part during the age of courtiers. Three stories from the age of courtiers are Metamorphosis by Ovid, Medea by Euripides, and Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection by Kalidasa. Although these stories come from a different time than those from the age of heroes there are still some similar features amongst them such as imitation of context, religious commentaries, and the idea of pilgrimage.
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness,” said by Oscar Wilde translates what was done with these three texts. From Metamorphosis the imitation was the clearest to notice compared to the other two. A lot of Rome’s culture is traced back to the Greeks and thats shown in this story. The use of gods in the short stories is just like stories like The Odyssey. Within the Roman culture theres a shared knowledge of who each of the gods are. The twelve Greek gods and goddesses were replicated in Roman culture with the same powers. In the section with Apollo, Cupid, and Daphne, Roman Ovid keeps Cupid with his love arrows just as he would be in the Greek stories. Although Ovid uses this story to show the abuse of power from the government he still showcases the gods as beings that are viewed as supreme. In addition to the copying of mythology the story trope was similar. The story follows that of a single hero and his trials and tribulations. This resembles that of The Odyssey where the focal character is the hero Odysseus.
In the story Medea the imitation is within one culture. The story was written simply written in a different time period of Greece’s history. Euripides as a classical greecian writer copied from the ancient period. This story used characters that would be known to the audience to reel them in. The character Jason was originally from the story Jason and the Golden Fleece. His story was popular enough that it would add depth to the play of Medea without taking over the plot. Another “famous” character was King Creon. Creon is also seen as a king, or becoming a king, in Sophocles’ works Antigone and Oedipus Rex. The audience watching the play would already have an idea of who Creon is and how he got to assume the throne. By using known characters Euripides was able to focus on developing his characters for the play.
Sakuntala was originally a secondary character in the Mahabharata and was given dimension by Kalidasa. She was the mother of the Bharata, the man would would later go onto building the Gupta Dynasty. In the Mahabharata Sakuntala wasn’t seen as an important character and Kalidasa shifts her role. Rather than being used as an auxiliary character there’s a sense of agency of female characters in this story. This was a shift from ancient to classical Hinduism.
In the age of courtiers the work changed within the context of the story. Now the stories would contain political shade and undertones.They also made religious commentaries through their stories. Within the Metamorphosis Ovid is not afraid to let it be detected that he really and truly doesn’t care for Caesar Augustus. He talks about sexual assault, abuse of power and tries to delegitimize the entire Juli Family. The Juli family were known for making claims to be related to the gods and used that to be viewed as being superior. By making Apollo extremely lusty and take part in sexual abuse Ovid states that the connection between Caesar Augustus and Apollo goes beyond supposedly being good. Ovid is telling his audience that Caesar Augustus’ bloodline is tainted and that he could wrong the people just as easy as Apollo did Daphne.
Like that of older times Medea still pays respect to the gods. Euripides didn’t stray from the idea that gods are seen as supreme beings. He actually used them to essentially Mae everything better at the end. He made the end a deus ex machina ending. Even after all the bad that Medea did her godly part was able to carry her away to safety.
In Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection, Kalidasa takes this time to make commentary on the way things were organized in India. He specially deals with the caste system and how it imposes limits on its people. The lovers of the story Sakuntala and King Dusyanta were from different caste levels and that dimmed their chance at love a bit. They needed to receive permission from Sakuntala’s adoptive father in order to become official. Even though there came another obstacle in their love story their differing caste levels was an initially troubling thought for the King. Another example of the caste system getting in the way was the scene with the fisherman and the police. Had the fisherman not be of a lower standing there would be no mistrust when he told his story as to how he came into possession with the ring. Kalidasa notes that the caste system at times got in the way of justice prevailing.
Within the story Metamorphosis there’s a section surrounding the characters Iphis and Isis. Rather than being a walk this pilgrimage is one of change. This section is an example of a pilgrimage that a character had to go on to become the opposite sex. This journey was mostly aided by the gods. Ovid used the gods to make he change permanent. In Medea, the titular character was almost always on a pilgrimage for safety reasonings. From the story of the Golden Fleece she's running away from home after betraying her family and people for her new love interest. Then she had to leave again once she killed her children and royal family members. In Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection she also had to make 2 main journeys. One was to go to the king and have him reclaim her and her baby as his. The other journey was to the magical place where she was able to raise her son away from the rest of the people she once knew.