In the second half of Ovid’s book “Metamorphoses,” he stated that the worst curse someone can have is eternal life. The gods are cursed with this, which may be the cause of their cruelty. To punish humans, the gods burdened them with the uncontrollable emotion of sexual passion. Jupiter was continuously unfaithful to his wife and was a rapist, causing him to lose favor with the other gods. Apollo also taunted Cupid because he had no real power. 

Ovid wrote that at the beginning of time there was a set hierarchy: that gods would always be over men. Two women rebelled against this hierarchy, which caused the gods to place negative sanctions on mankind. These sanctions shaped nature and the gods were changed into a fixed, inhuman nature. 

Ovid claimed that man has total pride against the gods and that the fall of man will be because of his pride. The gods, especially Apollo, will punish man ruthlessly for this. Men are under the gods’ authority, since nature is seen as reflecting the sovereignty of the gods. Some will rebel and will be crushed. 

Aeneas was made a god, as were Romulus and his wife. The gods later made Julius and Augustus Caesar divine, as a reward for making the empire strong. Julius and Augustus would become gods after their death because of their fame and fortune. Ovid was confident that his poem “Metamorphoses” would live on as long as Rome survived. He concluded that gods turn people into natural objects and turn great men into gods.