Ovid's Metamorphoses: Books 1-5

by Ovid, William Scovil Anderson (Editor/Introduction)

One of the most influential and popular works in all literature, Ovid’s Metamorphoses is a weaving-together of classical myths, extending in time from the creation of the world to the death of Julius Caesar. This volume provides the Latin text of the first five books of the poem and the most detailed commentary available in English for these books. In his introduction to the volume, editor William S. Anderson provides essential background information, discussing Ovid’s life, the reception of the Metamorphoses during Ovid’s day and after, and the poem’s central issues. The Latin text of the five books is Anderson’s own edition, based on years of study of the surviving manuscripts. In the extensive notes that follow the text, Anderson offers both useful summaries of the stories and detailed line-by-line comments. Unlike other epic poems, which concern wars and heroism, the Metamorphoses centers on ordinary human beings, women as well as men, who live in a world of continuous change. The first five books, which include such well-known stories as Apollo and Daphane, Diana and Actaeon, and Narcissus and Echo, deal especially with the relationship between human beings and the gods. Arrogant and lustful, but all-powerful, the gods of Ovid’s universe selfishly pursue their own pleasures, frequently at the expense of their human targets. Yet these gods escape unscathed, while the humans, unjustly, are punished. Helpless to defend themselves, they are changed into animal or nonhuman forms. A resource for students and scholars of Latin, this volume enhances understanding and enjoyment of Ovid’s changeable poem about our changeable existence.

Genres: Classics, Poetry, Mythology, Fantasy, Literature, Ancient, Fiction

584 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 8

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

[Owen Weitzel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Only book I ever read in Latin. Never again tbh. But also some funny stories.

[Fred Jenkins]

I am finally recognizing that I am not likely to go back to this. I read the first book and part of the second. I didn't particularly like Ovid when I was a student and going back to him after many years, I found that hasn't changed. Ovid is an important author, but he just doesn't work for me. His version of the myths tends to be too prettified and his Latin a bit too ornate.

[Faith B · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used this in my Metamorphoses class, and we used this book to supplement Jones' book of the Metamorphoses. Anderson's notes are not nearly as thorough as Jones', causing us to groan every time my professor assigned a reading from it - it was definitely the "hard" text. However, the notes are fairly helpful: I just wish there were more of them... but then I suppose Anderson expects us to be grownups and be able to translate the Latin on our own. :P

[sophie :D · Rating 4 out of 5]

would've been five if it didn't ruin my life

[gabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it in 2013, a Penguin Classics edition, but only now I found the book again. I remember thinking you have to read this if you want to understand the world.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good mythical book.

I thought the metaphorical narration on transformation was pretty interesting.

Deep book!

3.6/5

[Evi · Rating 4 out of 5]

de stress die ik hiervan kreeg

[Robyn Lowrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this review of Ovid's Metamorphoses, I will be highlighting Echo and Narcissus, Book III lines 350-500. In Metamorphoses, Ovid uses these stories to show the transformative power of love, loss, and grief. In many of these stories, the characters are transformed physically or emotionally through the intervention of gods, the uncontrollable power of desire, or natural causes of time.

For this blog, I am referencing a very fragile 1858 edition of The Metamorphoses of Ovid: Literally Translated into English Prose, with Copious Notes and Explanations, by Henry T. Riley, B.A. of Clare Hall, Cambridge. Much appreciation to the SMU Fondren Library for loaning this treasure from your Permanent Collection! [ I recently discovered from the Librarian that once I return this book, they will classify it as “recycled”, fate unknown. Unfortunately, Patrons cannot purchase “recycled” books from the Library. This made me very sad. I will continue to enjoy these stories from the few remaining pages of this treasure that have not been torn or cut—who cuts pages of a book?—and I’m very grateful that the Fondren Library kept this book in their permanent collection, thus far!] On to Echo and Narcissus.

Echo

Echo has been described as a very “talkative” nymph who caught the favor of the goddess Venus for her magnificent voice and song. Was she garrulous or loquacious, just chattering of trivial matters with wearisome persistence [thank you Merria-Webster] ? Or was she an articulate and cogent communicator that was misunderstood? I take issue a little here as I am also “talkative” and see her punishment as very harsh!

Ovid describes Echo as “a nymph whose way of talking was peculiar in that she could not start a conversation nor fail to answer other people talking”(line 360). She liked to chatter and would stall the goddess Juno off by talking until the other nymphs had fled. Therefore, Juno punished her:

“The tongue that made a fool of me will shortly

Have shorter use, the voice be brief hereafter”(366-368).

Consequently, Echo was not just talkative, but basically inept, and rude! Also I sense a narcissistic behavior, as she liked to hear the sound of her own voice! This is one clue, perhaps, to her attraction to Narcissus.

Now Echo “says the last thing she hears, and nothing further”(370). In modern day, this is part of reflective listening… “So I think what you’re saying is…I hear you and I understand you”.

Echo, in her newfound silence [think of Ariel],

Saw Narcissus roaming through the country and

Saw him, and “burned, and followed him in secret,

Burning the more she followed, as when sulphur

Smeared on the rim of torches, catches fire. (370-371).

Love at first sight. Unfortunately, due to her curse, she can only respond to Narcissus “Is anybody here”? “Here”, said Echo. “Come to me!”, Narcissus beckons. “Come to me”, is Echo’s reply.

What to do? Words are not helping here so the next best thing is to fling your arms around his neck! No, not a good move. Narcissus orders, “Keep your hands off and do not touch me! I would die before I give you a chance at me.”(382-395).

This devastates Echo. She suffers. She cannot sleep. She frets and pines and becomes gaunt and haggard and her body dries and shrivels till voice only and bones remain. Her bones turn to stone. She hides in the woods and no one sees her now along the mountains,

“But all may hear her, for her voice is living” (396-403).

Theme: Echo’s unfulfilled love, or unrequited love, can be devastating and lead to painful consequences—sometimes for life!

Other Lessons to be learned here: Do not anger the gods and do not fall in love with a Narcissus. Thank you, Ovid.

Narcissus

Narcissus was a prideful, handsome, slender, stripling young lad of sixteen who was sought after by boys and girls (343-350). The god Nemesis (enemy) lured Narcissus to a solitary pool, silver with shining water in which no shepherds came, no goats, no cattle. This pool was so serene and still that it appeared as glass. No bird, beast, sunlight, or falling leaf “had ever troubled it”(410). Very isolated, very intriguing.

Narcissus was famished from thirst after many days of hunting and approached the delightful spring to quench his thirst. Suddenly, “a thirst deep inside him, deep within him, was growing, for he saw an image in the pool and fell in love”(424).


Narcissus Meets Himself

As he looked in the calm spring, a natural mirror, he saw his face and was charmed by himself, spellbound…”his eyes, twin stars, and locks as comely as those of Bacchus or the god Apollo, smooth cheeks, and ivory neck…

Everything attracts him that makes him attractive (love that line)”(426-429).

Narcissus tries to kiss the image in the water, Dips in his arms to embrace the boy he sees there, not knowing what he sees, but burning for it…No thought of food or rest can take him away from this image. He is vain and illusive and he almost drowns in “his own watching eyes” (440). The only thing that separates Narcissus from his newfound love is a “thin film of water” (445).

“You reach out your arms when I do and your smile follows my smile”, Narcissus cries to his lover. “Your lips answer when I am talking through what you say, I cannot hear”(462).

Soon, Narcissus discovers the truth: “He is myself…I burn with love for my own self; I start the fire I suffer” (465).

His sorrow takes all of his strength away as he realizes that “the boy I love must die; we die together”. Narcissus tears his garments and beats his bare breast with his hands, and the image in the water disappears. “Alas, farewell dear boy, Beloved in vain”, were his last words. His weary head sank into the greensward and death closed the eyes that once had marveled at their owner’s beauty” (471-473).

Even in Hell, he finds a pool to gaze in and watches his own image in the Stygian water.

Theme: Just as Echo, Narcissus ends up isolated and lonely as he cuts himself off from the outside world. In addition, this is also a story that explores the theme of unrequited love and affection–in a strange way!

I was thinking about how this story of Narcissus’ obsession with his own image relates to the impact of social media today with the constant sharing of self-images or “selfies” on platforms and the pursuit of validation through likes and comments. We have become a very self-obsessed society, and the term “narcissism” is widely used and is even recognized as a psychological condition (NPD-Narcissistic Personality Disorder). Ironically, Ovid wrote this story (43-17 BCE )before mirrors were manufactured. Instead, people had to use polished metals as reflective surfaces. Ovid was very creative in using the image of the calm pool in this story for Narcissus to reflect on.

“A cautionary tale: 1. Focus more on the inside beauty of our soul and being rather than the outside beauty which fades. 2. There is an important distinction between being in love with yourself as a narcissist versus self-love. “

A cautionary tale: 1. Focus more on the inside beauty of our soul and being rather than the outside beauty which fades. 2. There is an important distinction between being in love with yourself as a Narcissus versus self-love–“Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin, as self-neglecting” (William Shakespeare (Henry V) and Andre Gide said, “Loving yourself isn’t vanity, it’s sanity”.

Work Cited

Henry T. Riley. The Metamorphoses of Ovid. H.G. Bohn, York Street: Covent Garden, 1858.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ovid is remarkable. I initially had some hesitation to him because I'd just spent the past several months reading the Latin of Vergil. Their two styles are palpably different. Most notable in Ovid is a faster metre and substantially more brachylogical lines—the latter of which is so different from Vergil's careful attention to chiastic and synchistic lines,

But anyway... Ovid is an ancient atheist, I suppose, and though his poems are primarily mockeries, one would be remiss in not noting the terrible sadness in all of them. Ovid's very dense, brevious Latin is powerful, most notably in a story like that of Iuppiter and Europa, which was only a stanza or so long but nevertheless carried in its scores of lines entire worlds of grief.

I've read here only the first five books, but my favorite stories are Apollo and Daphne, Jupiter and Europa, & Actaeon and Diana.

[Bobi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looks like I'm done myth 1/3 of Ovid's Metamorphoses or 33 1/3 %. And I'm really happy with them so far. OK, the only downfall is in my edition because there are some missing pages in book five. But so far it is like reading Nicholas Kun's myths from Ancient Greece, just more original. Too bad I don't know Latin - maybe I would like this more.

Anyway, from what I've read so far it is pretty fun. There isn't too much poetry and that's good for me because I don't understand poetry much. There are great characters and some action. Myth after myth, I get more and more interested and I will totally read the other 2/3 of the metamorphoses. So far from BAD 1 to EXCELLENT 6 Ovid's Metamorphoses from the first century BC gets EXCELLENT 6.

[max · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chock full of helpful observations on the overall structure of the poem (complex and mysterious to scholars), this edition also offers useful introductory material and notes on Ovid's tone, style, meter, narrative techniques, tricky grammatical constructions, and the mythological background of many of the stories. Particularly illuminating is his discussion (in the Introduction) of how Ovid's style differs from that of Vergil. Indispensable for readers of the original Latin text. See also Anderson's edition of Books 6-10, which is equally helpful:
Ovid's Metamorphoses

[Drianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good commentary, though the editor did tend to attribute rather more self-awareness and irony to Ovid than I am inclined to (I think he really was just [like the rest of his culture] that sexist, etc.). And reading connected books like this rather than piecemeal stories is interesting -- I don't think the poem suffers unduly from being chopped up (but I teach excerpts, so I guess I would say that), and it just makes me even more convinced than Ovid is super-problematic with the constant, constant rapes.

[Ellen]

Ovidii, Nasonis: Metamorphoses

[L S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I tend to be lukewarm on Latin poetry, I like Ovid more with every reread. Not only is his Metamorphoses entertaining but his self-conscious cleverness keeps me coming back for more.

[Julie Browne · Rating 4 out of 5]

a beautiful collection of greek mythology. any lover of these tales should read this book.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't find my translation, but this one works I guess. A little much to read all at once, but fun to just pick up and start reading wherever you flip to.

[azolla]

Good solid Latin

[Elizabeth Pyjov · Rating 5 out of 5]

fantastic!

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Anderson's commentary, though it is occasionally off the mark grammatically. Re: Ovid - what can I say - it was a great re-introduction to Latin, and enjoyable poetry.

[Valeria Messalina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, my favorites were of Hyacinthus, and Myrrha.

[Shakana]

this book is soooooo boring.......