Though earth may not have willed catastrophe The latest of new creatures was the serpent.
Even you, great Python of hillside and valley
Who haunt the deepest shadows in men's hearts !
Wherever the monsters turned, green darkness fell
In winding paths through sacred grove and briar.
Then bright Apollo with his sun-tipped arrows
Whose swiftness stilled the flight of goat and deer
Aimed at the beast with darts that fell in showers.
So Python perished, but not until his wounds
Were black with blood and God Apollo's quiver
Almost spent. That is the reason why
Apollo's games are called the Pythian Feast,
In memory of the serpent's golden death,
In honor of the god's swift victory ---
The Feast that brings fleet-footed, swift-riding
Youth garlands of oak leaf as they win the race.
This was before the laurel wreath became
Apollo's gift of grace in shrine and temple
Before he twined the green immortal laurel
Within the sunlight of his golden hair.
Read this excerpt from the introduction to Metamorphoses-Book I, “Apollo and Daphne" by the Roman
poet Ovid and answer the question.
Does Ovid's treatment of Apollo's triumph over the python change the reader's understanding of Apollo's
character? Include one detail from Ovid's excerpt and one detail from “Daphne and Apollo-Getting What
We Ask For or What We Deserve" in your answer.
Click here to read "Daphne and Apollo-Getting What We Ask For or What We Deserve."