Metamorphoses: The New, Annotated Edition

by Ovid

The Story of Pyramus and Thisbe*

Arachne,

The Story of Caunus and Byblis*

Why was I so foolish To give my wound away, in such a hurry To get things down in writing I had better Keep to myself? I should have tried, before this, To test, with more ambiguous talk, his feeling. Now I have spread my sail, and never noticed Which way the wind was blowing, and run before it, And I am dashed on rocks or drowned in ocean, My ship has no retreat.

The best thing, surely, If I had power of changing things, the best Would be, not to have started: the second best Is to go on and finish. Caunus

But how am I To blame? Where is my guilt, except in playing With you, in loving you? I cannot die For you, or with you either; the law of Fate Keeps us apart: it shall not!

And Midas, never too judicious, answered: “Grant that whatever I touch may turn to gold!”

And now he is a hawk, vindictive judger, With charity to none,* for, having suffered, He must make others suffer.”

together, Can fear what we endure, and shall not need To fear what we imagine.

Bones may not lie with bones, but name and name Will touch each other.”

Kept out of shining palaces, a dweller On far-off mountains and in country places Where no ambitions grew;

If I speak With any eloquence, and plead my cause As I have pleaded yours, envy me not My talent; a man must use what power he has.

Now, as to race and ancestry and deeds That men have done before us, those I call No merit of our own.

What a woman, scorned in love, can do, that woman Being Circe, loved and scorned!” Twice

For the Venus who looks out the window.

was not enough for him to know the customs Of Sabines only, for his generous spirit Sought wider fields, the general laws of Nature.*

There was a man here, Samian born, but he Had fled from Samos, for he hated tyrants And chose, instead, an exile’s lot. His