As a little girl one of my favorite movies was the Wizard of Oz. I loved the idea of a magical land filled with magical creatures, but one scene that still sticks with me today is the scene where Dorothy and her friends enter into the woods on their trip to Oz. They are terrified of doing so because of the unknown creatures (lions, and tigers, and bears!) and the things it may hold. Similar to Wizard of Oz depiction of the woods/forest, Ovid’s Metamorphoses portrays the woods as an uncivilized and scary place because people fear the unknown of what it may hold. In Metamorphoses, Ovid symbolizes settings in a few different ways but one of the most prominent is when a mortal leaves civilization and goes into the woods/forest. Entering the woods also symbolizes leaving humanity and therefore it makes mortals subject to the inferiority and ultimately the punishment of the gods.…show more content… The myth goes that Actaeon (grandson of Cadmus) wanders into an unfamiliar forest while taking a break from hunting and unknowingly roams into Diana’s sacred grove. He unassumingly stumbles upon her bathing in her pool of water with her nymphs unrobed. Sadly for him, Diana feels offended that he saw her naked because she is known as the virginal goddess and she splashes water onto his face, which then transforms him into a stag. Diana does this to inhibit him from telling anyone about his encounter with Diana because he can no longer speak and also just to overall punish him. Actaeon flees the scene and laments on his unfortunate situation. Soon enough his hunting dogs smell his scent of a stag and start chasing him, unknowing that they are actually hunting down their master. The dogs catch up to him and maul him until he dies from the wound inflicted upon by his own
