Metamorphoses in Ovid's Metamorphoses and Further Metamorphoses

Jun 16, 2011 Jan-Maat added it · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry, 1st-century, italy, classical-and-late-antiquity

Now since the sea's great surges sweep me on,
All canvas spread, hear me! In all creation
Nothing endures, all is in endless flux,
Each wandering shape a pilgrim passing up
And time itself glides on in ceaseless flow,
A rolling stream- and streams can never stay,
nor lightfoot hours, as wave is driven by wave
And each, pursued, pursues the wave ahead,
So time flies on and follows, flies and follows,
Always, for ever new. What was before
Is left behind; what never was is now;
And every passing moment is ren Now since the sea's great surges sweep me on,
All canvas spread, hear me! In all creation
Nothing endures, all is in endless flux,
Each wandering shape a pilgrim passing up
And time itself glides on in ceaseless flow,
A rolling stream- and streams can never stay,
nor lightfoot hours, as wave is driven by wave
And each, pursued, pursues the wave ahead,
So time flies on and follows, flies and follows,
Always, for ever new. What was before
Is left behind; what never was is now;
And every passing moment is renewed (p.357)

The Melville translation was recommended to me. I have not read any others and have no idea how varied the field is. In this epic around the theme of metamorphoses Ovid weaves a continuing narrative of classical myth, each one transforming into the next, it could be a good book to read for an introduction to the ancient myths of classical Greece, but really maybe more as a companion to European renaissance art, or occasional operas like Handel's Acis and Galatea

It is an impetuous, non-stop rush from creation - here an act of division and separation - from adventure to adventure and narratives nesting inside each other down to the apotheosis of Julius Caesar and the triumph of his (adopted) son Augustus.

In places as Ovid rushes through time and space he alludes through people and places to other stories, not included in Metamorphoses giving a sense of a universe of narrative that Ovid's poem is relentlessly driving through.

The unifying theme is of change - people becoming trees, or rocks, women becoming monsters (or men), people becoming birds and other animals, frequently as a result of contact with gods or semi or demi divine beings, often as a result of the lust of said divine persons, repeating the subversive message of Ovid's love poems that desire is the driving force of history.

It is often violent - retelling sections of the Trojan war for instance and the centre of the poem is the hunt for an epic boar in Scilly when Nestor was a young man and helpfully for him still capable of vaulting into a tree, toward the end of the poem is the really grisly and horrifying battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs which I hope was not based too much on Ovid's personal experience of weddings. And yet in the final of the poem's fifteen books we have the figure of Pythagoras, not telling us about triangles, but promoting vegetarianism - because of, as he also taught, the transmigration of souls which feeds back to the poem's theme of change, it is not just that arbitrary gods may turn us from ants into unusually hard working men, or from men and women into snakes, but that changes is part of the nature of existence in a fundamental way, in this life we may be humans, in the next life we may be chickens or sheep.
Although the poem ends with the triumph of Roman power and the deification of Rome's rulers, the poem has a subversive energy. Earlier great powers had fallen, even gods have been toppled, while new gods and new great powers rise and have their day too, why then will Roma and its Caesars be any different?

Jupiter decries disorder and sin, but he overthrew his father and pursues girls and boys insatiably (view spoiler). The victims are blamed, persecuted and then left voiceless - but here Ovid memorialises them in to a fabric as complex as Ariadne wove, or now might still weave in her transformed state.

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Dec 31, 2019 Peter added it · review of another edition

Shelves: classic

There is no rating with my review for a reason. I simply do not dare to assess such a masterpiece of literature. What I can write about, however, is my own experience with this “universal poem” as it is called in the epilogue. My first encounter with the Metamorphoses was back at grammar school, when we read and translated a few fragments. I remember that, after Caesar and Cicero, this was a wholly new experience. For the first time I realized the beauty of the Latin language and enjoyed what I ...more

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Mar 01, 2018 Czarny Pies rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: greek-and-roman

This book should be an absolute delight to anyone interested in European literature or art. Written in the first century AD it represents the first effort to anthologize Greek mythology and integrate the whole into the history of the Roman empire. I only regret that as undergraduate I never took a course with this work on the program.

Having read the Metamorphoses without the benefit a classics professor to guide me I am quite glad that it was not the first collection of Greek myths that I read. ...more

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Sep 07, 2013 Caroline rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry, classical, philip-ward-500-books

Second reading completed Nov 17, 2023. This time I read the new Stephanie McCarter translation. I liked it. She uses a flexible blank verse, which moves along nicely. She also worked hard to keep the text concise, to echo Latin's compactness, and to employ Ovid's poetic devices where compatible. As others have noted, she has a strong commitment to name rape and violence as such. Reading the text with that in mind, it seems clear that Ovid too was calling on the reader to see it for what it was. ...more

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Jul 20, 2011 Yann rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: antiquité, contes, italie, épopée, religion

Souvent il s'approche, ses mains palpent son œuvre, ne sachant
si elle est de chair ou d'ivoire. Et il ne dit plus qu'elle est en ivoire ;
il lui donne des baisers, et pense qu'elle les lui rend ; il lui parle,
l'étreint, croit sentir ses doigts presser les membres qu'ils touchent
et craint que les bras ainsi serrés ne soient marqués de bleus.
Tantôt il lui dispense des caresses, tantôt lui offre des présents
appréciés par les filles : coquillages, beaux galets, petits oiseaux,
des fleurs de mille cou ...more

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May 17, 2018 Quiver rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: p-poetry-plays, f-in-translation, a-english

For anyone in love with Greco-Roman myths, Ovid's Metamorphoses is a treat. It starts with the creation of the world (Before the sea and lands began to be) and ends with the deification of Julius Caesar (he may forever be the deified / Caesar who contemplates our Capitol). The grand scope covers all the relevant myths. It also includes a brilliant debate between Ulysses and Ajax, listing their deeds in the Trojan war, for the purpose of decided who is the better man to inherit Achilles armour af ...more

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Nov 10, 2019 Beth rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: own, classics, rfp-classics-challenge, ancient-literature, poetry, 1001-books, classics-club

In 15 books and more than 200 stories, with transformation as his unifying theme, Ovid chronicles the history of the world from its creation to the time of Julius Caesar. I have read some of these before, in Tales from Ovid: 24 Passages from the Metamorphoses by Ted Hughes.

I read the Horace Gregory translation. From the translator's introduction:

It can be said that The Metamorphoses, written at the beginning of the Christian era, was the last long-sustained major work of a great age in Latin ...more

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Nov 08, 2018 Jim Puskas rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

Having worked my way through Mary Innes' prose translation and found it less than satisfying, I've now selected this version, which immediately on opening it sings a great deal better tune in my ear.
But for sheer enjoyment and colorful phrasing, there's nothing to match the sprightly fourteeners of the Golding of 1567, never mind the bizarre English words and archaic spelling. Golding has been roundly criticized for his wordiness (adding 2500 lines to Ovid's 12,000); personally, I care not a wh Having worked my way through Mary Innes' prose translation and found it less than satisfying, I've now selected this version, which immediately on opening it sings a great deal better tune in my ear.
But for sheer enjoyment and colorful phrasing, there's nothing to match the sprightly fourteeners of the Golding of 1567, never mind the bizarre English words and archaic spelling. Golding has been roundly criticized for his wordiness (adding 2500 lines to Ovid's 12,000); personally, I care not a whit, it's simply fun to read! So now I'm reading the Mandelbaum and the Golding simultaneously, while keeping the Miller translation with its Latin at hand for reference.
Having just finished Book I, a couple of thoughts: One is constantly reminded that this is simply a collection of linked short stories, all of them colorful, many of them able to stand on their own. Constructing a cohesive story arc out of all this must have presented quite a challenge. I found that Book I in fact breaks down into three separate story arcs, with only the flimsiest of bridges connecting the first to the second and the second to the third.
It's the recurring themes rather than a cohesive narrative that actually holds the stories together. In addition to the transformation motif, there is a pervasive rivalry among the gods and the gods' resentment of mortal impiousness or disrespect. There's one additional emerging theme that I plan to explore further as we move along: The complexity of parent-offspring relationships. That's a topic that offers a wealth of dramatic possibilities and one that I've often encountered in the world of opera.
Over the 15 months that we've taken to read, discuss, deconstruct, extrapolate and ruminate upon the Metamorphoses, we've ventured far afield; our collective commentaries range far beyond any evaluation of this (or any) particular translation. And each of the many translations bring into the discussion unique insights into the original work, coloring the end product with the translator's interpretation of Ovid's spare Latin verse. Further, our modern day images that we retain have been further modified, elaborated, enriched by the many thousands of artworks inspired by Ovid's words.
In the end, I've come to a view that no single version can ever be considered definitive, while each has its own merits. For me, this translation by Mandelbaum has proven the most satisfactory. For much expanded comments, go to https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...
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Jul 19, 2011 David rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: greek-roman

Ovid is truly one of the great master poets and the tales here are remarkable in scope and imagination.

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Sep 06, 2018 Jim Puskas rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, folklore-mythology

I've refrained from commenting directly on this book until now, having been part of a group reading Ovid for the past 15 months. This can hardly be chosen as one's primary version of Ovid, several excellent modern translations being available. That said, what an entertaining treat this one is, swinging along rhythmically in 'fourteens' meter, gaily decorated with whimsical Shakespearean-era language! Golding seems to have felt no compunction in adding little details (some researched from other s ...more

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Aug 30, 2020 Jon rated it it was amazing

I Never Metamorph I Didn’t Liken

Chaos was formed by unknown gods to gold dawns decayed down
To clay feet that Augustus had retouched to renewed gold
Age of epics, poets, and myths smelt to an aurum crown
Exiled for a pun by the sun worn upon so we were told.

Poetic license was silenced like nymphs made less than by gods;
Ovid conversely like Pygmalion scrimshawed his art to life,
Much as Calliope mused Kores’ crops grew as Death drops facades
Like Pythic priestesses eclipsed by mists from Bacchic Orph ...more

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