Classics and the Western Canon discussion

I don't even want to think about (but know I should) the psychological meaning behind Scylla's genitalia turning into gaping mouths as of rabid beasts. What would Freud make of that? What do YOU make of it?

We get a very shortened retelling of some of the main elements of the Aeneid. (I assume that Ovid was familiar with the Aeneid; it was finished about 25 years before the Metamorphoses, and surely was known to the literary establishent.) But do I misremember, or was Dido falling on Aeneas's sword not in the Aeneid? It shows how these myths morph and -- well, metamorphose. But Ovid does seem to have Freudian instincts; a woman falling on her departed lover's sword certainly has phallic implications, doesn't it?

And the deification of Aeneas is also an addition of Ovid. I'm not familiar with the source, if any, that Ovid got that from. Does anybody else know?

We seem to be returning to some earlier characters, revisiting Cyclops whom we saw back in Book 1; Circe is back after her first appearance in Book 4

Everyman wrote: " But do I misremember, or was Dido falling on Aeneas's sword not in the Aeneid?..."

That actually is in the Aeneid. Dido climbs upon her pyre and falls on Aeneas's sword at the end of Book 4. I'm not sure if Ovid's brief account is a nod to Virgil, or if its brevity is meant as a slight. Perhaps neither, but it doesn't seem possible that he he had no thought of Virgil when he was writing this.

Romulus is also deified, and we are treated to a magnificent description of the process:

"his mortal parts dissolved
as he was borne up through the air,
as a leaden bullet fired from a sling
is worn away as it traverses the sky;
and now a beauty that is heavenly,
more worthy of the couches of the gods,
transforms him as he turns into Quirinus..."

But there is no mention of Remus, unless I missed it. I wonder why Ovid skips over the traditional Romulus and Remus story?

Everyman wrote: "But Ovid does seem to have Freudian instincts; a woman falling on her departed lover's sword certainly has phallic implications, doesn't it?..."

Since Freud it is hard to escape such an association. But it feels like an irritating tune one can't get out of one's head. It does not add anything to the story.