Reading Ovid: Stories from the Metamorphoses (Cambridge Intermediate Latin Readers)

by Peter V. Jones

Presents a selection of stories from Ovid's Metamorphoses, the most famous and influential collection of Greek and Roman myths in the world. It includes well-known stories like those of Daedalus and Icarus, Pygmalion, Narcissus and King Midas. The book is designed for those who have completed an introductory course in Latin and aims to help such users to enjoy the story-telling, character-drawing and language of one of the world's most delightful and influential poets. The text is accompanied by full vocabulary and grammar notes, with assistance based on two widely used beginners' courses, Reading Latin and Wheelock's Latin. Essays at the end of each passage point up important detail and show how the logic of each story unfolds, while study sections offer questions for discussion and ways of thinking further about the passage. No other intermediate text is so carefully designed to make reading Ovid a pleasure.

Genres: Classics, Poetry

282 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Peter Jones (sometimes credited as Peter V. Jones) is a former lecturer in Classics at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, a writer and journalist. Jones has regularly written on Classics for major newspapers, and was awarded the MBE in 1983. He is a Cambridge graduate.

Jones' popular work has been focused on introducing new generations to Ancient Rome and Greece, from newspaper columns to crossword collections, popular non-fiction, and charitable organisations devoted to helping keep Classics subjects in schools.

Reviews

[KR · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the publishers did a good job of glossing the books and providing notes and summaries of the stories. It was a little difficult to read at first, but I got easier after awhile. My class started reading this toward the end of our second year of Latin.

[Faith B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I found Jones' commentary somewhat despicable - he seems like a horrid old man - his notes were quite helpful, making Ovid enjoyable rather than a terrible slog through vocabulary and syntax.