Gaze, movement and gender in Ovid’s story of Atalanta and Hippomenes (Met. 10.560-707)

Abstract

In his Metamorphoses, Ovid created a world of alternating images that reflect both the significance of visual communication and the importance of movement. In these stories, vision and movement are closely related to the characters’ genders, the plot, and the final transformations. The relationship between Ovid’s literary text and a movie as a narrative, wherein the medium of storytelling differs, allows for the application of feminist film theory, especially that of Laura Mulvey. This approach can be applied to the Metamorphoses, Ovid’s piece of art that combines both text and image in an exemplary manner. Atalanta’s story, which will be discussed, is chosen precisely because it highlights the multidimensional function of vision and movement, combined with the gender of the observer and the object of the gaze, as well as the transformation process.