Metamorphoses: A New Translation, Contexts, Criticism (Norton Critical Editions) by Ovid (19-Jan-2010) Paperback

by Ovid

Paperback

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

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an American, my education was thin on Greek and Roman classics. I chose this book because my classics book club was reading it and I just read some Greek myths with my students. I did not expect this to be my favorite book so far this year. Funny, elegant, touching. The translation is poetic and well reviewed. I read it slowly and was surprised to find myself at the end. It was a reading adventure. All I can say is it was one of those times of unexpected joy. I loved this as a summer read, enjoying the magic of summer and being immersed in the magic of classic myth.

[The Literary Jedi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compared with Stephanie McCarter and Horace Gregory translations