David’s Comments (group member since Apr 01, 2014)

David’s comments from the Classics of the Western World group.

Review of Metamorphosos by Ovid
This is an epic, but the translation I had was written in prose, rather than as a poem, as are most epics. I later learned that other English translations have been done in poetry form. The original language was Latin, composed by Ovid, who was born in what is now modern Sulmona, to an important family that bred horses for the chariots of the Roman army, on March 20, 43 BC. He was educated in rhetoric in Rome under the teachers Arellius Fuscus and Porcius Latro with his brother who excelled at oratory. Ovid was principally a writer of romantic poetry, but Metamorphosos is what he is known for today. It was completed by 8 AD, about 10 years before his death.
The Metamorphoses was Ovid's most ambitious and popular work, consists of a 15-book catalogue written in dactylic hexameter about transformations in Greek and Roman mythology set within a loose mytho-historical framework. Someone counted 12,000 verses, with almost 250 different myths mentioned. Each myth is set outdoors where the mortals are often vulnerable to external influences. The first book describes the formation of the world, the ages of man, the flood, the story of Daphne's rape by Apollo and Io's by Jupiter.The premise is that because the gods created the universe from chaos, they could use that same power to transform beings, i.e., humans to gods and demi-gods, and vice-versa, or plants and animals into humans and vice-versa. All kinds of beings could also be transformed into constellations of stars.
Basically, it is full of Greek and Roman Mythology, which is an effort to explain why the world is the way it is. For example, the dark skin of Ethiopians is attributed to an occasion when the god Phaebus borrows the sun chariot from Phœbus, who he thinks is his real father (he can’t be sure). Due to his inexperience, Phaebus drives it too close to the earth, thus causing the skin of the inhabitants of that part of the world to turn black. Each successive book describes the acts of the gods and demi-gods with lots of mortal characters as well. There are myths involving Phaethon, Jupiter, Callisto, Europa, Cadmus, Actaeon, Pentheus, Pyramus and Thisbe, Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, and Perseus and Andromeda, Arachne, Philomela, Medea, Cephalus, Procris, Daedalus, Erysichthon, Heracles Orpheus, Pygmalion, Myrrha, Adonis Peleus and Thetis, Ceyx and Alcyone, Achilles, Iphigeneia and Polyphemus. Towards the end, the epic turns to the history of Rome, describing the journey of Aeneas, Pomona and Vertumnus, and Romulus, and culminates in the deification of Caesar. The end of the poem praises Augustus and expresses Ovid's belief that his poem has earned him immortality.
In analyzing the Metamorphoses, scholars have focused on Ovid's organization of his vast body of material. Basically, he took most of the writings of his predecessors, such as Virgil, and links them together by geography, themes, or contrasts creates interesting effects and constantly forces the reader to evaluate the connections. Ovid also adds his own tone and some original material. In this spirit, Ovid treats the works of his predecessors creatively, carrying on the tradition of classical poetry in his own time.
My personal impression of Metamorphosos is that while you have to admire the skill of Ovid, it is difficult for me to relate to mythological characters. But if you enjoy fantasy, you may enjoy reading it, or at least parts of it.
Ovid

Virgil was referred to in his own time simply as “The Poet.” He was born “Publius Vergilius Maro” in 70 BC near Mantua, in what is now Northern Italy. His parents were landowners and as such had enough money to give him a good education. In 41 BC, the emperor Octavian confiscated his family’s property and he went to Rome to negotiate for it’s return. Not only was he successful in that endeavor, he also so impressed the emperor’s right-hand man, Maecenas, that the latter made Virgil his protégé for the rest of his life.
The Aeneid is Virgil’s great masterwork. It took him 11 years to complete, although it remained unpublished at his death. In his will, Virgil requested that it be destroyed, but the emperor intervened, and commissioned two of Virgil’s friends, Varius and Tucca to prepare it for publishing without making any substantial alterations to the text. The result is the masterpiece we have today. Such poets through history as Alfred Lord Tennyson and Dante have sung Virgil’s praises. His work influenced nearly all other poets in the western world to come after him.
What is it about? It’s an epic poem dealing with gods, demi-gods and mortals that takes place at the time of the destruction of the city-state of Troy. As the city is burning, a citizen by the name of Aeneas escapes, and travels to what is now Northern Italy, where he founds a new city on what become known as the River. It is the story of the founding of Rome, and it is a sweeping epic of arms and heroism, the portrait of a man caught between love and duty. It is filled with drama and passion that set a precedent for future masterworks.
The translation I had was done by Adam Mandelbaum, first published by Bantam Books in 1961. Mandelbaum, of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, was able to do a translation that maintains the rhyme and meter of the original. Anyone who has ever done any translating, realizes that to do this is not easy, and cannot be accomplished simply with a word-for-word translation.
All that being said, I found it difficult to keep interested in reading it. The characters were difficult to relate to, probably because they are always not portrayed as typical humans. However, you have to respect an author who can invent more than 1000 new characters and places (all described in a 50-page glossary at the end of Mandelbaum's tranlation) It consisted of more than 300 pages divided into twelve books, all written in poetic form.