Ovid’s Metamorphoses provides it’s readers with stories reflecting the personalities of Roman gods and goddesses. Through Ovid’s perspective we can judge whether a god or goddess was noble and honorable. Many stories of the gods and goddesses told by Ovid portray them in a negative light; telling about their scheming and unjust cruelty. To choose one god or goddess that Ovid chose to write favorably about, it would have to be Minerva. Minerva is the goddess of art, wisdom, and science; qualities that we see Ovid deem as revered and admirable. Minerva is not a character that comes up frequently in the Metamorphoses which may be in her favor. More frequent characters, such as Jupiter, Juno, Orpheus, and Apollo, are characterized as foolish…show more content… Characters who do not appreciate the beauty of art often perish. Take Phaeton for example, in Book II, Phaeton is unable to see the beauty of the art featured on the Sun palace’s door. Ovid writes Phaeton’s character as ignorant and has him foolishly fly of the tower to his death. It is because of Phaeton’s lack to see the beauty of art that he is foolish and ignorant. Not only did Phaeton risk the life of himself, but the lives of all humans. Ovid brings artistic characters good fortunes. For example, Pygmalion, in Book X, creates a beautiful sculpture of a woman and he falls in love with her. Ovid writes that the gods answer his prayers by making the statue come alive. It is because of Pygmalion’s artistic capabilities to create such a lovely and accurate sculpture that the gods allowed the statue to become real. Another example of the importance of art seen in the Metamorphoses is in Book XIII when Ulysses and Ajax fight over who should have Achilles' armor. Ovid writes Ulysses being much more fluent in the art of rhetoric than Ajax, because of this, Ulysses ends up with Achilles’ armor. Minerva is the goddess of art, wisdom, and science. These are qualities that Ovid obviously praises and finds in himself. In the last line of the Metamorphoses, in “The Epilogue”, Ovid states that even after his death that his artistic work of the Metamorphoses will allow him to live on forever.…show more content… Minerva, in comparison to other gods and goddesses, is forgiving and does not cause wide chaos as the others do. The majority of Ovid’s stories in the Metamorphoses hold unjust cruelty from the gods and punishments that can be reflected amongst all of mankind. Minerva only has one Book that she is largely prevalent in, and that is Book VI. This can be seen as a positive for Minerva, showing that she has not done any significant cruelty to mankind or other gods. In Book VI, Minerva is challenged to a weaving competition by Arachne. Minerva can be seen as noble because before they compete, Minerva disguises herself as an old woman and tells Arachne to ask for Minerva’s forgiveness for claiming to be a better weaver, giving Arachne another chance before Minerva defends Arachne’s claim. After the competition, when Minerva sees Arachne’s beautiful creation, Minerva begins to beat her and Arachne tries hanging herself because she was upset with herself for challenging a goddess. Minerva shows mercy to Arachne and turns her into a weaving spider. This mercy that Minerva showed Arachne is unseen among the other myths in the Metamorphoses. No other god or goddess would show mercy to an inferior that made them look like a fool. For this reason, Minerva is honorable and