This document summarizes two works of art related to the ancient Greek poet Homer and Roman poet Ovid. It describes a 2nd century BCE bust of Homer that depicts him as old but vital, reflecting the power of his writings. It also analyzes Diego Velazquez's 17th century painting "The Tapestry Weavers" which depicts the complex interactions between weavers, their audience and the characters in the tapestry, reflecting the layered stories and relationships found in Ovid's work.

1. Bust of Homer, Capitoline Museum. Homer, the ancient Greek poet, lived so long ago that no one knows what he looked like. This bust from the 2nd c.
B.C.E. shows him as old, but infuses him with a vitality attributable to the power of his compositions.

2. The Tapestry Weavers or The Fable of Arachne, by Diego Rodriguez Velazquez. This 17th-c. painting reflects some of the complexity of Ovid’s
world. Velazquez represents the diverse interactions between the weavers, their audience, and the characters in the tapestry being woven. There is
humor in the ways the gestures of the weavers both resemble and contrast with those of their subject, and the way the audience in the middle ground
observes the weavers as well as their creation. These sorts of relationships are also found in the tale of Arachne, and throughout his Metamorphoses.
Such ironic interplay of stories interested Ovid much more than the exact rendition of scientific principles or religious values.