Metamorphoses (poem)
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Cover of George Sandys's 1632 edition of Ovids Metamorphosis Englished. |
The
Metamorphoses by the
Roman poet
Ovid is a poem in fifteen books that describes the
creation and history of the world in terms of
Greek and
Roman mythology. It has remained one of the most popular works of
mythology, being the work best known to medieval writers and thus having a great deal of influence on medieval poetry.
Ovid takes as his main tales of transformation so often found in myths, in which often a person or lesser deity is permanently transformed into an animal or plant. The poem begins with the transformations of creation and
Prometheus metamorphizing earth into Man and ends with the transformation of the spirit of
Julius Caesar into a star. Ovid goes from one to the other by working his way through mythology, often in apparently arbitrary fashion, jumping from one transformation tale to another, sometimes retelling what had come to be seen as central events in the world of Greek myth and sometimes straying in odd directions. There is perhaps little depth in most of Ovid's portrayals. However, if others have written far more deeply, few have written more colorfully.
The poem is often called a mock-epic. The entire poem is written in
dactylic hexameter meter, the form of the great heroic and nationalistic
epic poems both of the ancient tradition (the
Iliad and
Odyssey) and of Ovid's own day (the
Aeneid). It begins with the ritual "invocation of the muse", and makes use of traditional epithets and circumlocutions. But instead of following and extolling the deeds of a human hero, it leaps from story to story with little connection, with little more than token attention to the epic themes of great deeds, national glory and religious observance.
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Titian's Danaë, one of innumerable paintings inspired by the Metamorphoses. |
Instead, the recurring theme, as with nearly all of Ovid's work, is that of love -- personal love or love personified as Amor (
Cupid). Indeed, the other Roman gods are repeatedly perplexed, humiliated, and made ridiculous by Amor, an otherwise relatively minor god of the pantheon who is the closest thing this mock-epic has to an epic hero. Apollo comes in for particular ridicule as Ovid shows how irrational love can confound the god of pure reason. While few individual stories are outright sacrilegious, the work as a whole inverts the accepted order, elevating humans and human passions while making the gods and their desires and conquests objects of low humor.
The
Arthur Golding translation of
1567 influenced
William Shakespeare (it is believed that the famous play
Romeo and Juliet was greatly influenced by the story of
Pyramus and Thisbe, Metamorphoses), and was characterized as "The most beautiful book in the English language" by the poet
Ezra Pound.
Composer
Benjamin Britten wrote a 1951
piece for solo
Oboe incorporating six of Ovid's mythical characters. In 2002, Author
Mary Zimmerman adapted some of Ovid's myths into a play by the same title.
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List of characters in Metamorphoses*
Ovid - for links to other text and translations not duplicated here
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Tales from Ovid -
Ted Hughes' poetical work
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Latin text with English translation**
Ovid Illustrated: The Renaissance Reception of Ovid in Image and Text (An elaborate environment allowing simultaneous access to Latin text, English translations, commentary from multiple sources along with wood cut illustrations by Virgil Solis.)
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Latin text**
University of Virginia: Metamorphoses**
The Latin Library: P. OVIDI NASONIS OPERA*
English translation** By A. S. Kline, 2000
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Poetry in Translation: Ovid: Metamorphoses. (Enhanced viewer with links and notes. Can be downloaded in different formats.)
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Mythology: Metamorphoses ** By Sir Samuel Garth, John Dryden et al., 1717
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Internet Classics Archive: Ovid's Metamorphoses***
Globusz Publishing: Ovid's Metamorphoses** By Others:
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Elizabethan Authors: Ovid's Metamorphoses, trans. by Arthur Golding, 1567.
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Ovid's Metamorphoses trans. by George Sandys, 1632.
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Ovid's Metamorphoses trans. by Brooke Moore, 1922.
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TextKit: Ovid's Metamorphoses, Books I–IV, trans. Rev. Dr. Giles, a learning translation/crib in PDF graphic format.
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Insight and commentary**
The Ovid Project: Metamorphising the Metamorphoses (Illustrations by Johann Whilhelm Baur (1600–1640) and anonymous illustrations from George Sandy's edition of 1640.)
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A Honeycomb for Aphrodite by A. S. Kline**
Ovid's Metamorphoses, An introduction and commentary by Larry A. Brown.
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An Analytical Onomasticon to the Metamorphoses of Ovid (Concordance and narrative index.)
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Metamorphoses outline (This is an outline - NO DETAILS PROVIDED)
