Amores & Metamorphoses: Selections

by Ovid, Phyllis B. Katz, Charbra Adams Jestin

The source of Ovid’s enduring appeal is his Amores are written with the wit and humor—and sometimes the regret—of one who has seen love fi rst hand. His Metamorphoses, an epic tale of transformations, is the sparkling work of a consummate storyteller. This edition is organized to facilitate reading, comprehension, and enjoyment of a poet whose sometimes startling voice rings as clear and true today as it did in his own day. This edition • introduction to each passage • unadapted Latin texts of six Amores and fi ve selections from the Metamorphoses • samepage grammatical/syntactical/vocabulary notes • translation questions and answers, to prompt reading comprehension • glossaries of metrical terms and fi gures of speech • high-frequency vocabulary list • translation tips for reading Ovid • topical bibliography

Genres: Poetry, Classics

224 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1998

About the author

Publius Ovidius Naso (20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horatius, with whom he is often ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love elegists. Although Ovid enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime, the emperor Augustus exiled him to Tomis, the capital of the newly-organised province of Moesia, on the Black Sea, where he remained for the last nine or ten years of his life. Ovid himself attributed his banishment to a "poem and a mistake", but his reluctance to disclose specifics has resulted in much speculation among scholars.
Ovid is most famous for the Metamorphoses, a continuous mythological narrative in fifteen books written in dactylic hexameters. He is also known for works in elegiac couplets such as Ars Amatoria ("The Art of Love") and Fasti. His poetry was much imitated during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and greatly influenced Western art and literature. The Metamorphoses remains one of the most important sources of classical mythology today.

Reviews

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The summer session of 2005-2006 at my study centre remains etched in my memory not just for the humidity or the heady smell of old books, but for the electric brilliance of the students I had that year. It was in that vibrant classroom, with a batch of exceptionally sharp minds, that I revisited the Roman poet Ovid—not through idle curiosity, but as part of a structured dive into European Classical Literature. The edition we studied included selections from Amores and Metamorphoses, and to this day, that summer feels drenched in the playful mischief and tragic beauty that only Ovid can offer.

Amores is a wink and a smirk in the world of Latin poetry—a youthful, flirtatious, and clever series of elegies that twist the conventions of love poetry with satirical brilliance. I remember reading those lines aloud in class, sometimes blushing, sometimes laughing, as Ovid mocked the very literary traditions he was part of. His love for Corinna—so exaggerated, so theatrical—was a delightful gateway for my students to explore irony, persona, and the fluid nature of poetic identity. For some, it was their first real encounter with a classical voice that didn’t feel dusty or remote, but alive and wickedly funny.

Then came Metamorphoses—an altogether different beast. The selections in our edition took us from the cosmic opening lines ("In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas corpora...") to myths that twisted human fate into trees, birds, rivers, and stars. Each story was a universe, and yet all of them spun a single grand tapestry. My students devoured the tales of Daphne and Apollo, Pygmalion, Narcissus, and Orpheus—not as quaint myths, but as profound meditations on desire, transformation, and loss.

What made that summer unforgettable wasn’t just Ovid’s brilliance, but the conversations he sparked. I still recall a classroom debate about Narcissus and self-love, which segued into a discussion about modern celebrity culture. Or how a student linked Pygmalion to Shaw’s play and even My Fair Lady. There was a certain magic in watching classical literature come alive in real time, in real minds, under a sweltering Indian sun.

Ovid, for all his wit, was also deeply philosophical. Metamorphoses isn't just a parade of stories—it’s a worldview. Everything changes, nothing stays. Gods become animals, humans become constellations, grief becomes song. In a way, that echoed the session itself—students transforming before my eyes, learning to think across languages and centuries.

Reading Ovid in that context gave me something deeper than a teaching experience—it gave me a mirror into how timeless stories continue to breathe, twist, and metamorphose in every generation. That edition, now frayed at the corners, still sits on my shelf, its margins crowded with my students' scribbles and my own. A testament not just to a poet, but to a perfect summer of literary alchemy.

[Yiara]

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