Minerva/Athena

Ovid was a Roman, so in the Metamorphoses he used the Roman names for the gods, even when his story took place in Greece. Minerva is the Roman name for the Greek Athena. Neptune is the Roman name of the Greek Poseidon. In case you were wondering what was going on there.

The title of Ovids poem, Metamorphoses, comes from a Greek word meaning transformations. The focus of the poem stories of changes. In the tale of Medusa, for example, her petrifying gaze changes sticks into coral, and her...