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Metamorphoses

by Ovid, David Raeburn (Translation), Denis Feeney (contributor)

3.99 of 5 stars 3.99 · rating details · 21,504 ratings · 564 reviews

Metamorphoses (from Greek μετά meta and μορφή morphē, meaning "changes of shape"), is a Latin narrative poem in fifteen books describing the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar within a loose mythico-historical framework. Completed in AD 8, it is recognized as a masterpiece of Golden Age Latin literature.

The most-read of all classica...more

Paperback, 723 pages

Published August 3rd 2004 by Penguin Books (first published 8)

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May 13, 2013 [P] rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: modern-life-is-rubbish, bitchin

I’ve mentioned more than once, I think, that in my seminars, while at university, I tended to annoy or upset the other participants quite frequently. I don’t like haranguing people, or think that in ordinary circumstances it is justifiable, but I felt that, firstly, if you sign up for a degree in philosophy you’re fair game, and ought to be interested in challenging your beliefs and ideas, and, secondly, that the essence of philosophy is original thinking [or an attempt at it] and a questing spi...more

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May 01, 2012 Paquita Maria Sanchez rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: invisible-pink-unicorn, literature, poetry-and-whatnot

I'm re-reading this from bits I consumed throughout my youf as a mythology dork, but the use of Roman names rather than their Greek equivalents requires a lot of stopping and re-referencing to figure out who the F. is being discussed. My Roman numerals suck too, since we're on the subject. Anyway, I decided to restart this in conjunction with reading Venus in Furs because that novel brought to mind the Pygmalion myth, which brings to mind The Sea Came in at Midnight, and somehow these all conglo...more

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Apr 28, 2012 Evan Leach rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry, roman-literature, 0-999, 6-star-books

The Romans have a reputation as the great copycats of antiquity. After all, these were a people who borrowed a large amount of their culture, including most of their gods, from their neighbors. This reputation for imitation certainly holds true when looking at Roman literature. Plautus and Terence borrowed wholesale from Menander and other Greek playwrights. Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura, for all of its merits, is basically restating the views of Epicurus. Catullus and Propertius imitated Callimach...more

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Apr 25, 2011 Praj rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: ovid-lust-love

Gods and their love affairs. Gods and their love affairs with mortals. Fate, covetousness, allegiance, brutalities, treachery and chastisements metamorphosing from the cocoon of mighty love. The discordant waves of love dangerously destabilizing romantic notions; overwhelming morality and raison d'être of Gods and mortals alike. Ovid makes you want to write intense poetry and feel affectionate to the idea of love as a device of alteration for better or worse. Love does not conquer all; it destro...more Gods and their love affairs. Gods and their love affairs with mortals. Fate, covetousness, allegiance, brutalities, treachery and chastisements metamorphosing from the cocoon of mighty love. The discordant waves of love dangerously destabilizing romantic notions; overwhelming morality and raison d'être of Gods and mortals alike. Ovid makes you want to write intense poetry and feel affectionate to the idea of love as a device of alteration for better or worse. Love does not conquer all; it destroys and alters everything it touches. That is the best part in Ovid’s poems. They do not have happy endings. Lust or romantic love or ardent worship, acquired in any form changes a person, landscapes, communities mutating elements of fate and tragedies.

Metamorphoses elucidates the consequence of origin and transformation in its entirety.

My soul is wrought to sing of forms transformed to bodies new and strange! Immortal Gods inspire my heart, for ye have changed yourselves and all things you have changed! Oh lead my song in smooth and measured strains, from olden days when earth began to this completed time!

Ovid commences his poems by showing appreciation to God (which he says is yet unknown) for carving a loose mass of earth into a picturesque bounty of nature. The amorphous chaos changed into a convex ecstasy of pathless skies, terrains, rivers, the color and prototypes of birds and animals came through a process of love and hate. Ovid represents the mythical world of story telling and repeating fables with morality lessons. The justifications of rape or incest in Ovid’s works segregate the idea of faithful devotion from the viciousness of powerful acquisition that overcomes delusional love. Betrayals are penalized and loyalties are commended. The treatment of love is sagacious and didactic in this book as compared to his other works in the relating genre. It moves onto a broader scenario, becoming a defining factor in wars, altering powers between constituencies, breaking and making of civilizations. Ovid intends the reader to see the probable metaphoric significance of change as a crucial and homogeneous factor in life itself.

And now, I have completed a great work, which not Jove's anger, and not fire nor steel, nor fast-consuming time can sweep away. Whenever it will, let the day come, which has dominion only over this mortal frame, and end for me the uncertain course of life. Yet in my better part I shall be borne immortal, far above the stars on high, and mine shall be a name indelible. Wherever Roman power extends her sway over the conquered lands, I shall be read by lips of men. If Poets' prophecies have any truth, through all the coming years of future ages, I shall live in fame.

As he concludes this epic of transforming love, he credits the survival of Rome to his own prominence making it one of the most influential and renowned works over centuries. Metamorphoses is translated frequently by several modern poets and literary elites.
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Aug 23, 2012 Insania rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Le metamorfosi di Ovidio si pongono senza mezzi termini come una pietra miliare della letteratura mitologica greco-romana. Il testo segue, d'altronde, la struttura e i topoi cari al genere epico, come l'invocazione iniziale
"O dei, se vostre sono queste metamorfosi,
ispirate il mio disegno, così che il canto dalle origini
del mondo si snodi ininterrotto sino ai miei giorni".

Il progetto è ambizioso; la riuscita sorprendente. Ovidio riesce a dispiegare sul flusso narrativo, come il più avvicente e a...more

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Apr 30, 2009 Emily rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

This translation (by David Slavitt) has beautiful imagery and descriptive language. He also really captures the "read-aloud" feel of this epic poem.

Each story is connected to the one before it and after it, sometimes by the thinnest of threads, but Ovid manages to make them all flow together in a (mostly) logical order. The theme of changing (metamorphoses) shines through every tale. Most, if not all, of the stories had some unfortunate turning into an animal or a tree or turned to stone by Med...more

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Mar 11, 2009 Bruce rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What a delightful book! Most of the myths contained herein were ones with which I was already familiar, many from high school Latin, but I’d not read the work in its entirety. What a treat it was to read it from start to finish, as Ovid had organized it. Ovid is a witty and urbane Latin writer of the last half of the first century BC and the early years of the first century AD, and he creatively used the myths of Greece to create a book that is a light entertainment as well as commentary on the...more What a delightful book! Most of the myths contained herein were ones with which I was already familiar, many from high school Latin, but I’d not read the work in its entirety. What a treat it was to read it from start to finish, as Ovid had organized it. Ovid is a witty and urbane Latin writer of the last half of the first century BC and the early years of the first century AD, and he creatively used the myths of Greece to create a book that is a light entertainment as well as commentary on the evanescence of the world around him. Few modern readers probably realize how many of his stories have passed into our common heritage, not realizing that Ovid was their source.

Two themes seem to stand out, in addition to the overriding awareness that everything continually transforms: first, the Classical world was far more interested in humankind’s actions than its intentions or motivations, and so often the modern reader is left with the sense that humans are “unfairly” punished for things that they do but do not intend; second, in the Classical world, humans are routinely punished for actions of the gods, eg a human woman raped by a god is the one who undergoes sanctions for having attracted the god, albeit unwillingly and unintentionally – the god gets away without any consequences. Therefore, in order fully to appreciate Classical myths without being offended, one must suspend our modern judgments and try to assume the mindset of the Greeks and Romans.

The chapter, Book XV, is a panegyric to Roman history and especially to Augustus, best understood as Ovid’s futile attempt to convince the Emperor to rescind Ovid’s banishment from Rome to the hinterlands of the Black Sea.

A couple of comments about this particular translation and edition: Allen Mandelbaum’s translation is easy to read, very entertaining, and flows smoothly, being translated into blank verse (my Latin is too weak for me to judge the translation’s accuracy, so I can’t adequately compare this with other translations); this Harcourt edition is without notes, so it assumes that the reader is familiar with most of the characters, including the correspondences between the Greek and Latin names of the gods – if one is entirely unfamiliar with Classical mythology, one might be wise to use an edition that provides more background information.

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Jul 27, 2007 Rachel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poems, shivers

I bought this copy of Ovid's Metamorphoses when I was living in Rome. It's the book I was reading on the plane when I left Rome, as the realization sunk in that an awesome and strange adventure was drawing to a close, and it's the book I was still reading when I moved back to Minneapolis and attempted to readjust to life as a Midwestern college undergrad.

I was reading Metamorphoses at the cafe a few blocks away from my apartment when a strange man gave me that little terror of a kitten, Monster....more

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Nov 30, 2009 Keely rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: epic-poetry, short-story, roman, religion, reviewed, favorites

Sex, violence, and humor are often painted as low and primitive: the signs of a failing culture. Yet it is only in cultures with a strong economy and a substantial underclass that such practices can rise from duty to pastime. As Knox's introduction reminds us, Ovid's time was one of pervasive divorce, permissive laws, and open adultery, and our humble author participated in all of them.

Eventually, the grand tyrant closed his fist over the upper classes, exerting social controls and invoking the...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Andy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, fiction, mythology, translations-into-english, poetry, epics

In high school, like many other kids, I read "The Odyssey" as a staple classic on the English curriculum; if there's room for only one such book, I think the Metamorphoses should take its place. It's a comprehensive introduction to Greco-Roman mythology, which is frequently alluded to in other works, so it's a great literary foundation to have. Its short-story (poetry) format and rapid pace make it very readable. None of the stories are very long; no belabored plot expositions here. And they're...more

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Mar 20, 2012 John rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: readers who long for a reawakening, in every sense

Recommended to John by: Maybe... Dante? The Inferno?

Shelves: avatars-gods-energy-sources, experimental-mastery, fine-strange-foreign, fun-fanatasy-sf, thorny-lovely-poetry

The changes that teem in Ovid's rambunctious & altogether wonderful catalogue -- a reinvention of the fairytales he grew up with, at once fat & serpentine -- prompt chills of horror even as they feel off-hand. Stories spool out conversationally, each thread untangling to reveal another, & we're not reading for the reassurance of arriving somewhere, like safe at home in Ithaca, but rather for the astonishment of getting everywhere, of going magnificently gaga. Along the way, the trans...more The changes that teem in Ovid's rambunctious & altogether wonderful catalogue -- a reinvention of the fairytales he grew up with, at once fat & serpentine -- prompt chills of horror even as they feel off-hand. Stories spool out conversationally, each thread untangling to reveal another, & we're not reading for the reassurance of arriving somewhere, like safe at home in Ithaca, but rather for the astonishment of getting everywhere, of going magnificently gaga. Along the way, the transformations can wrench the heart for their utter absence of justice, but often, stranger still, we find ourselves chuckling at the imperfect humanity on display, rendered with such droll precision. How does it feel, once you've been baptized by an angry goddess, to turn into a stag? "No further warning: / the brow she has sprinkled jets the horns / of a lively stag; she elongates his neck, narrows his eartips down to tiny points, / converts his hands to hooves, his arms to legs..." & of course the wildest metamorphosis takes place in the spirit, suddenly all "trembling fear," made more shivery still by lack of language; the mortal now speaks in "a groaning," for "only his mind/ was left unaltered." Then no sooner does the poor changeling, Actaeon, register what's happened than he's aware of the "pack of hunting hounds" on his trail: his own hounds, named one by one in a lively list that details also how he knew & loved them. The dogs then do as they've been trained to; they trap their prey & dig into "the savaged body of their master." Electrifying stuff, no? Wholly alien, yet clothed in bruises & trembling we recognize? This up-to-the-minute translation by Charles Martin renders those bruises palpably, so Ovid's philosophy of eternal transience (which he credits here & there to Pythagoras) never comes across without the gut-level tug that links us to the world-as-is. We revel in the sensuality of these myriad, mind-boggling proofs that the senses can't be trusted. The soul may take on fresh shape, but it never loses its nostalgia for the lost configuration. Such ironies extend to the author's own experience, to be sure. No sooner had Ovid finished this masterpiece than he was banished to the wilderness, metamorphosed into a non-person, a non-Roman; the first decade of our so-called "Common Era" proved uncommonly bad for Publius Ovidius Naso -- & doesn't his very name suggest a family with a monstrous feature, a nose that belonged on some other order of being? All in all his sigh-stained, laugh-punctuated collection of mooncalfs proves the most contemporary of the classics. Since these bizarre critters were first herded together, culture & speech have gone through a thousand changes, but none of them could outwit the scruffy, sagacious shepherd.

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Aug 16, 2010 Mark Adderley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classical, mythology

This is a very readable translation of the "Metamorphoses."

The Romans were famous for absorbing the cultures and the religions of the peoples they conquered, so one of the interesting things about reading the "Metamorphoses" is trying to separate the native Italic or Etruscan elements in the stories from the later Greek accretions. And when Ovid tells a Greek story, how does he Romanize it? For example, Jupiter is partly derived from the Etruscan god, Tinia, a god of warning and punishment. He h...more This is a very readable translation of the "Metamorphoses."

The Romans were famous for absorbing the cultures and the religions of the peoples they conquered, so one of the interesting things about reading the "Metamorphoses" is trying to separate the native Italic or Etruscan elements in the stories from the later Greek accretions. And when Ovid tells a Greek story, how does he Romanize it? For example, Jupiter is partly derived from the Etruscan god, Tinia, a god of warning and punishment. He had three thunderbolts: the first was a warning, the second a premonition of punishment, and the third was the punishment itself. Tinia had to have the other gods' permission to use the second and third thunderbolts, which is perhaps why Jupiter seeks the counsel of the other gods before sending the flood to earth (1.163-209).

As an example of a retelling of a Greek myth in a Roman style, the story of the Four Ages of mankind is instructive. Ovid based this passage on Hesiod's "Works and Days." It describes the decline of the human race from an Age of Gold to an Age of Iron. Hesiod, incidentally, inserts a fifth age, the Age of Heroes, before the Iron Age, as it was unthinkable to him that the great heroes of Greek mythology should be considered morally degenerate. The most significant difference, though, is that Hesiod claims that the decline of the human race is the result of pride (hybris), whereas Ovid states that it is greed, which leads to violence, and thus "Justice, last of all immortals, / Fled from the bloody earth" (1.151-52). Given the imperial aims of the Roman Republic in what was, for Ovid, recent history (the Punic Wars, the Jugurthine Wars, and the Civil Wars between martisu and Sulla, then between Pompey and Julius Caesar, then between Marcus Antonius and Augustus Caesar), this might have seemed a much more realistic explanation of the degeneration of the human race's morals than Hesiod's.

Ovid is also that rare Roman, a poet of love. There were other poets, of course, like Catullus and Propertius, but it doesn't seem to have been a theme of very great importance to the Romans. Ovid's interest in love can be seen in his other poetry, Ovid: The Art of Love, for example. But his exploration of the story of Echo and Narcissus in Book 3 is also significant. This is an examination of what Shakespeare would later call “maiden pride.” Narcissus is scornful of others, and doesn’t want to be contaminated by their love. Possibly this is a disgust at the physical. He is a very beautiful youth, but the surface beauty conceals an antisocial refusal to share himself, to take responsibility by loving and procreating. His barrenness is reflected later by the pool, which is very beautiful, but which no shepherd, goats, cow or any other creature visits (409-12), and also in his final speech, which is a series of clichés from love poetry. Even the sunlight, ultimate progenitor of things, will not shine upon the pool (413-14). His revulsion at the physical is paralleled by the fate of Echo who, desiring his love, is transformed into a non-physical thing, a sound merely. She had loved talking—communication being the central function of communal life. Ultimately, then, Narcissus falls in love with a thing that has no substance: he “found a substance / In what was only a shadow” (421-22). The love he has for his own image in the pool is typical, in a way, of young lovers, who rarely love the other person truly, but only love the pleasure they derive from the beloved’s company. This type of love can transform into something more productive—the genuine love for another person—but Narcissus, loving a shadow, is trapped in this early self-absorbed stage, which is ultimately destructive.(less)

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Oct 20, 2012 شيرين هنائي rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

يكفي جدا للباحث في الميثولوجيا الاغريقية..لوحات رائعة برؤية جديدة..اتمنى ان اعطية عشرة نجوم

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Apr 06, 2012 Josh rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2012, longish-reviews

THIS PATTERN SHOWS UP A LOT. My English II class taught me that authors use repetition of themes to tell you that they're important, so, that means this pattern must be REAL important:

1. Jupiter inexplicably rapes the Fair Maiden.
2. Juno uses trickery (trickery!) to cause the Fair Maiden to unwillingly screw everything up.
3. The Fair Maiden cries so much, she makes this river!
4. The Fair Maiden inexplicably turns into a tree. Usually some sort of soliloquoy about the unfairness of the situation...more

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Jan 30, 2010 max rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: myth-and-religion

Here's my Amazon review posted in August 2003:

Okay, so you're looking for a copy of the Metamorphoses in English, and are bewildered by the variety of translations which are widely available today -- Slavitt, Melville, Mandelbaum, Gregory, Humphries, and now Simpson. Translations are a tricky thing, especially translations of ancient authors, whose unique styles and literary conventions are next to impossible to convey in another language. Any translator of Ovid can only rarely hope to convey th...more Here's my Amazon review posted in August 2003:

Okay, so you're looking for a copy of the Metamorphoses in English, and are bewildered by the variety of translations which are widely available today -- Slavitt, Melville, Mandelbaum, Gregory, Humphries, and now Simpson. Translations are a tricky thing, especially translations of ancient authors, whose unique styles and literary conventions are next to impossible to convey in another language. Any translator of Ovid can only rarely hope to convey the most distinctive qualities of his verse -- the rapid hexameters, colorful diction, word play, shifting narrative tone, and cleverly rhetorical phrasing. In Latin, the Metamorphoses is a vivid and swiftly-paced poem, a richly-textured mix of stories that are amusing, witty, and always entertaining. Getting some of this -- indeed, any of this -- into English is a tall order.

The best translation is one that is highly readable and yet accurate, a faithful rendering of the most distinctive qualities of the original and not an exercise in the free invention of ideas and expressions that are nowhere to be found in the Latin. Verse translations frequently capture, at least somewhat, the feel and flow of classical poetry, and I confess that I am partial to them. On the other hand, prose translations of geat poetic works -- I am thinking especially of Vergil's Aeneid -- often fail utterly to convey the spirit of the original. However, upon reading this translation of the Metamorphoses I am beginning to reconsider this view.

Simpson's Metamorphoses is a triumph of the translator's art. In language that is clear, direct, and highly faithful to the diction and syntax of the original Latin, he has turned Ovidian verse into highly readable English prose. I am quite familiar with the Metamorphoses in Latin, and read it comfortably in the original. However, I often have a need to read the poem in English and am familiar with a wide variety of translations. Each has its own shortcomings, and some are frankly annoying to read at all. Simpson has managed to steer clear of the pitfalls waiting to trap those who seek to render Ovid into English, offering a version that should satisfy the needs of many different readers.

The value of this edition is greatly enhanced by over 200 pages of in-depth notes, a full bibliography of major scholarship on the poem, and a highly useful index.

I strongly recommend this version of the Metamorphoses, which will likely be the only one that I turn to for the indefinite future. (less)

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Sep 11, 2009 James rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, fiction, lincoln-park-group, poetry, u-of-chicago, mythology

The Metamorphoses is a poem in fifteen books by the Roman poet Ovid describing the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar within a loose mythico-historical framework. Completed in AD 8, it is recognized as a masterpiece of Golden Age Latin literature. The recurring theme, as with nearly all of Ovid's work, is love—be it personal love or love personified in the figure of Amor (Cupid). Indeed, the other Roman gods are repeatedly perplexed, humiliated, and made r...more

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Jul 20, 2008 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: culture, classics, mythology

I've always been interested in Greek mythology. In fact, it kind of ruined other mythologies for me, because none of them seem quite as dramatic or detailed. I mean, these are epic stories where every river, reed and tree is a character. There are stories involving men, spirits and gods, some of them funny, most of them tragic and all of them pertinent to the human condition.

That's what mythology does, really - it explains not only the natural world, with its many interesting insects and flowers...more

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Jan 08, 2009 Joe rated it 5 of 5 stars

Oh, Ovid. What I wouldn't give to travel back in time and make sweet love to you on an island in the middle of the Mediterranean.

No, I don't think it's unhealthy to have lustful fantasies about Ovid. I don't care what you think! I do very much care that his work was lush, provocative and unforgettable in its revolutionary translation (often taking liberties) of what was at the time contemporary folk literature. A treasury of verse!

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Nov 21, 2008 Joseph added it

I read (about 1/3d) in a library hard back copy.

Clicking on the book icon will expose a fair description of the book. I gave it up because I have scant knowledge of the gods of ancient Greece and Rome.

My impression is that Ovid aimed to entertain with stories about the (familiar to the Romans) human like gods as celebrities. His stories range from Uncle Remus origin tales, like Jove's illicit amours; like Narcissus; tragic romances like Pyranus and Thisbe (later Shanespeare's Romeo and Juliet);...more

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Apr 01, 2013 John rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

. . . . The breadth of poetic tones Humphries confronts in his translations and the apparent effortlessness of his execution is nothing short of breath-taking. From the high dignity of Virgil, through the hilarious vulgarity of Martial and back to the Wordsworthian philosophizing (without the Wordsworthian pomposity) of Lucretius. From Ovid’s serious and finally tragic playfulness to all the well-placed grumpiness of that curmudgeon Juvenal. Humphries achieved a feat of poetic translation I woul...more

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Mar 26, 2013 Kristen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library, z-list-1001-books-to-read

I didn't get along well with the translator, I think. The stories themselves border on the absurd and hilarious, but the writing itself was dry and tasteless. Tasteless as in bland, although it was also lacking in some tact (that I attribute to the Romans though).

There was a jilted lover who took revenge on her rival by turning her limbs and body into dogs. Not her into a dog. Her body into dogs, plural. She became a pack. Pause for a second and imagine that. Ridiculous, right? Now imagine that...more

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Jan 03, 2013 T.P. Williams rated it 5 of 5 stars

Having "successfully" avoided reading this oft-recommended (by teachers and professors) book in high school and college, I finally got around to it and enjoyed it immensely. The theme, of course, is change, and I have to think if I had read it when I should have, it might have helped to change me, too. But it's never too late, so reading it now will, I suspect, be beneficial. The stories segue (to use current jargon) beautifully into each other, seamlessly, really, and you find yourself reading,...more

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Dec 19, 2012 Mika rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: the-trashy

I read the Charles Martin translation, which apparently this is it? IDK, whatever, the only reason I remember this guy's name is due to his sheer, old white man clusterfuck of translating the singing competition between the Muses and these mortal sisters.

Now, I don't know about you, but for some reason Mr. Martin decided to translate the Muses' song extremely formally and poetically, which, whatever good for him.

When it came to the mortal sisters, however, HE TRANSLATES IT TO RAP.

REALLY BAD, WHI...more

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Oct 07, 2012 Denae rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well, the translation I read was by Charles Martin, but I could not find it.

Anyway, this is a rather long and disconnected set of tales with tons of excitement and battles and rapes and, above all else, transformations. Or, more precisely, metamorphoses. Rocks, a statue, stones, and other become humans. Humans are often half transformed (Scylla), or wholly transformed: to a cow, owl, ravens, streams, statues, ponds, swans, a falcon, trees, more streams, more statues, more trees, a spider, and a...more

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Sep 19, 2012 Tiredstars rated it 3 of 5 stars

Metamorphoses: it does go on a bit. To make it more difficult, one of Ovid's greatest skills is blending stories in to one another - so that Minerva's petition to the Muses leads to their telling a story about being challenged, which contains within it the competing stories told in that challenge. This makes it hard to break your reading, and difficult to follow exactly what's going on. It was probably easier for the Romans, who would have known the characters already, and not have to try and re

...more

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Sep 09, 2012 John rated it 2 of 5 stars

I have to admit that two years ago I did not know Ovid was a person. When I saw Ovid listed in a reference, I thought it was something that meant “ancient, but anonymous or unknown author.” Ovid came up so often it seemed to fit. But one day I realized he was one person responsible for so many citings.

When I visited The National Gallery in London this year, many of the paintings were inspired from Ovid, mostly from The Metamorphoses, so I decided I should give it a read. The paintings were much...more I have to admit that two years ago I did not know Ovid was a person. When I saw Ovid listed in a reference, I thought it was something that meant “ancient, but anonymous or unknown author.” Ovid came up so often it seemed to fit. But one day I realized he was one person responsible for so many citings.

When I visited The National Gallery in London this year, many of the paintings were inspired from Ovid, mostly from The Metamorphoses, so I decided I should give it a read. The paintings were much better than the reading. I chose a translation by Frank Justus Miller which is said to keep closely to the native style. It pains me to admit, but I think I may have been better served by one which breaks up the stories into more identifiable pieces and uses more names instead of often using “son of….” Or “daughter of….” I was very excited by the long intro, I thought the book was going to be something I enjoyed, (Like Gilgamesh) but I never got in pace with it.

I found the creation story very interesting. The belief that the earth has 5 climate zones (arctic at either pole, hot around the equator, and 2 temperate zones in between) surprised me. It made me wonder what kind of knowledge the Romans had of the Southern Hemisphere. Did they really know much about the land south of the Sahara, or was it speculation? And along with that, Ovid briefly throws out the belief that before people settled into cities, and civilization was established, that people were peaceful, content and well behaved. This surprised me. I had no idea that the belief in the “noble savage” went so far back.

Of the mythological stories, Narcissus & Echo were my favorite. The footnotes indicated that it was Ovid who first paired the two, and it is brilliant and wonderful. I also thought the description of Rumor’s palace was tremendous.

Pythagoras’s speech in the final book also was very interesting. Ovid spends a long time making Pythagoras’s case for vegetarianism. This was surprising to me. The mix of sound science and complete silliness in Pythagoras’s views is fascinating. Clearly he had an observational mind and looked for patterns of explanations. Some of them are spot on, but some are so far off.

I have read a fair amount of Norse mythology in the last year or so. I think in the upcoming year I will try to read more Greek/Roman. Even though this was a bit of a disappointment, it is still an area of interest.
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Mar 21, 2012 Nikki rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: greek-roman, medieval-literature, myth-legend-saga-etc

I used this translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses when I was doing my GCSEs, and I've looked out for it ever since. The current poetic translations irritated me, I wanted the version I remembered. Well, lo and behold, my university's library delivered.

Don't read Ovid's Metamorphoses expecting a novel, or even a single coherent story. It's a series of stories, woven together in a highly flexible framework, which results in some stories being examined at length and others skipped over. There are sto...more

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Nov 08, 2011 Sophia rated it 4 of 5 stars

I had to read this for ENG150Y1Y, The Literary Tradition, and let me tell you, I've waited the whole term to read this book. It's just the whole mono thing impeded my progress...but I caught up. I tried, anyway.

Why do I love this so much more than the prior books? Well, unlike the other 'poets,' Ovid's seems so much more poetic. It's - to be blunt - less boring, and the subject matter is inherently so interesting. It's about change, constant flux, stuff turning into other stuff.

And how does he t...more

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Jul 18, 2011 Matt rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ovid falls in line with Lucretius and Virgil as one of Rome’s greatest poets. Metamorphoses compiles the myths inherited by the Greeks that helped define Roman culture. The focus, as one can tell by the title, is on change. Story after story details the transformation of one being in another. It is in change that Ovid finds his truth:

Nothing remains the same; the great renewer,
Nature, makes form from form, and, oh, believe me
That nothing ever dies. What we call birth
Is the beginning of a differe

...more

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Sep 04, 2012 samar salman rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

-

التحولات هي حكاية طويلة عن الميثولوجيا الرومانية
كتبها أوفيد بلسان شاعر و قلب إنسان . و بالرغم من الميتافيزيقيا و اللامعقولية
التي ستواجه بها اليوم إلا أنها تحضى بكم لا محدود له من الجمال والروعة
اللذان كتبتا بها ، فهي وبالرغم من الأساطير الغارقة في الخيال إلا أن
لغتها و حبكتها تصر على جعل روح القاريء شغوفاً بها طوال مدة قرائته و ربما
حتى بعد انتهائه منها . التحولات تزخر أيضاً بكم هائل من الحكمة من خلال قصصها
التي تدور حول الآلهه الرومانية و أنصاف الآلهه و البشر .

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About Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso (March 20, 43 BC – 17 AD) was a Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, who wrote on many topics, including love, abandoned women and mythological transformations. Ranked alongside Virgil and Horace as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature, Ovid is generally considered a great master of the elegiac couplet. His poetry, much imitated during Late A...more

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Books by Ovid

Tales from Ovid: 24 Passages from the Metamorphoses

Ovid III: Metamorphoses: Volume I, Books I-VIII

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Quotes from Metamorphoses

“Fas est ab hoste doceri.
One should learn even from one's enemies.” — 149 people liked it

“I grabbed a pile of dust, and holding it up, foolishly asked for as many birthdays as the grains of dust, I forgot to ask that they be years of youth. ” — 118 people liked it

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