Calasso’s The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony makes a perfect companion to Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Calasso examines primarily Greek myths deeply looking at their symbolic significance, comparing different versions, and seeking out existential meaning in the lives gods and heroes. His work reads like an extended lecture with stories of myths interspersed throughout. Calasso’s writing is fascinating and very thought provoking, but it is hard to identify a strong narrative structure.
Loosely, the book is arranged by the happenings before and after the marriage between Cadmus and Harmony. Calasso describes the banquet at that marriage as the first and last time gods sat down to dine with mortals. After that meal, gods were involved in our lives in complex ways, causing us a lot of hassle. Differently from Ovid, Calasso puts the focus on gods and goddesses, instead of on humans. It is more difficult to identify with the people in these stories since they are divine. It is also difficult to follow the happenings as a sequence of events; there are so many backstories, and different versions of stories, that the stories appear less as narratives and more as metaphors and symbolic myths.
This is Calasso’s purpose entirely: to bring back these ancient stories as metaphors, full of symbolism and meaning. This work, while being an extremely complex example of narration, is an excellent interpretation and analysis of Greek mythology. Putting the focus on gods, instead of humans, Calasso’s work complements Ovid’s and examines deeply the meaning and significance behind these ancient myths
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