William Shakespeare's The Tempest draws on source material from Ovid's Metamorphoses to develop the character of Prospero as a powerful magician who commands the natural and supernatural elements. Both texts emphasize the ability of their respective protagonists to manipulate nature and harness mystical forces—Medea through her enchantments and Prospero through his mastery of magic—highlighting themes of transformation and control over fate.
The Metamorphoses by Ovid [Medea] says, “O Night, most faithful to these my mysteries, and ye golden Stars, who, with the Moon, succeed the fires of the day, and thou, . . . too, Earth, that dost furnish the enchanters with powerful herbs; ye breezes, too, and winds, mountains, rivers, and lakes, and all ye Deities of the groves, and all ye Gods of night, attend here; through whose aid, whenever I will, the rivers run back from their astonished banks to their sources, and by my charms I calm the troubled sea, and rouse it when calm; I disperse the clouds, and I bring clouds upon the Earth; I both allay the winds, and I raise them them. . . . Now there is need of juices, by means of which, old age, being renewed, may return to the bloom of life, and may receive back again its early years; and this ye will give me.”The Tempest by William Shakespeare PROSPERO. Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves; And ye that on the sands with printless foot Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him When he comes back; you demi-puppets that By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make, Whereof the ewe not bites; and you whose pastime Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid, Weak masters though ye be, I have bedimm’d The noontide sun, call’d forth the mutinous winds, And ’twixt the green sea and the azur’d vault Set roaring war: to the dread rattling thunder Have I given fire, and rifted Jove’s stout oak With his own bolt; the strong-bas’d promontory Have I made shake, and by the spurs pluck’d up The pine and cedar: graves at my command Have wak’d their sleepers, op’d, and let ’em forth By my so potent art.Use the excerpts from Metamorphoses by Ovid and The Tempest by William Shakespeare to answer the question. Select Passage 1 and Passage 2. In 1–2 sentences, analyze how William Shakespeare’s The Tempest draws on source material from Ovid’s Metamorphoses to develop the character of Prospero.
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