"The earthly city seemed poor and contemptible to men whose eyes beheld the City of God coming in the clouds of heaven." (The Golden Bough, 415)

We will be assigned, some time in the coming weeks, a story from Ovid that hasn't been discussed in class and tell it in one minute. This will be a challenge, but a stirring one to our imaginative faculties; Ovid, after all, brings up connection between reality and the imagination.

Ekphrasis is a very interesting word, meaning to talk about one medium of art in terms of another. We beheld a singular instance of this in Titian's painting The Rape of Europa and in Velazquez' painting The Spinners, which frames the Titian painting in the background as the tapestry being woven by Arachne with an audience looking on. Neat-o. It is in the story of Arachne that we find, quite strongly, that Ovid is of the Classical secular tradition which exalts humanity over divinity. Things frequently turn out badly for mortals, but it is the passionate struggle against divine cruelty that ultimately carries more weight.

And Persian storytellers employ the phrase "It was so, and it was not so" instead of "Once upon a time". I find this strangely compelling and(pardon the pun)telling.