Metamorphosis
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Revision as of 09:19, 15 April 2010 Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) ← Previous diff |
Revision as of 22:05, 30 August 2012 Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) Next diff → |
||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
+ | [[Image:Les Poires.jpg|200px|thumb|right|''[[Les Poires]]'', as sold separately to cover the expenses of a trial of [[Le Charivari]]]] | ||
[[Image:Danae.jpg|thumb|right|200px|''[[Danaë (Klimt painting)|Danae]]'' ([[1907]]-[[1908|08]]) by [[Gustav Klimt]] depicting [[Zeus]], the master of [[metamorphosis]], as a [[golden shower]].]] | [[Image:Danae.jpg|thumb|right|200px|''[[Danaë (Klimt painting)|Danae]]'' ([[1907]]-[[1908|08]]) by [[Gustav Klimt]] depicting [[Zeus]], the master of [[metamorphosis]], as a [[golden shower]].]] | ||
[[Image:Heliades's metamorphosis into a tree.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Heliades]]' metamorphosis into a [[tree]]. [[Metamorphosis]] is a common [[horror|horror trope]].]] | [[Image:Heliades's metamorphosis into a tree.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Heliades]]' metamorphosis into a [[tree]]. [[Metamorphosis]] is a common [[horror|horror trope]].]] |
Revision as of 22:05, 30 August 2012
Related e |
Featured: |
Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops after birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's form or structure. Some insects as well as other species undergo metamorphosis, which is usually (but not always) accompanied by a change of habitat or behaviour.
In mythology
- As gathered by Edith Hamilton, in her book Mythology introduces the following characters as a handful of those going under metamorphosis: Arcas, Dioscouri, Orion, Philemon and Baucis, daphne, Heliades, Myrrha, Adonis, Hyacinthus, Narcissus, Actaeon, lycaon, Midas, Battus, Anaxarete, Cycnus, perdix, Cadmus and Harmonia, Tithonus, Alcyone, Arethusa, Atalanta and melanion, Cephalus, Ceyx, Clytie, Daphne, Glaucus and Scylla, Hephaestus, Lichas, Leucippus, Laius, Lycius, Melanippe, Munichus, Menippe, Minthe, Neophron, Nemesis, Oenoe, Pandareus, Periclymenus, Philyra, phineus, Polyphonte, Philomela, polytechnos, Alope, Ambrosia, Theophane, Vertumnus and Zagreus.
Metamorphosis as a trope
Metamorphoses of any kind have been popular since Ovid's Metamorphoses. Metamorphosis is a frequently used horror trope which can take many forms: crosses between humans and plants, objects and humans, etc…
A particular variety of metamorphosis is people turned into furniture. Two stories in which humans transform into chairs make use of this plot device: the French libertine novel The Sofa (1742) by Crébillon fils and the Japanese short story The Human Chair (1925) by Edogawa Rampo. In both stories a man becomes a sofa, in the former quite literally so (by a curse), in the latter, a man hides in sofa to feel the persons who sit in him.
In cinema it has remained a popular trope, for example in The Little Shop of Horrors (1960) by Roger Corman a plant becomes a carnivore, and after it has eaten a number of people, the last buds of the plant open and reveal the faces of the people it has eaten.
See also
- Shapeshifting
- Transmogrification
- Metamorphoses
- Pygmalion (mythology)
- The Metamorphosis by Kafka
- List of films about possessed or sentient inanimate objects