Cover of George Sandys's 1632 edition of Ovid's 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 according to Greek and Roman points of view. Written two thousand years ago (probably in the year 8 BCE), it has remained one of the most popular works of mythology, being the Classical work best known to medieval writers and thus having a great deal of influence on medieval poetry. Download high resolution version (678x942, 298 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (678x942, 298 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... George Sandys (March 2, 1578 - 1644), English traveller, colonist and poet, the seventh and youngest son of Edwin Sandys, archbishop of York. ... The Roman Forum was the central area around which ancient Rome developed. ... Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC â€“ Tomis, now Constanta AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations. ... The Chinese poem Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain by Emperor Gaozong (Song Dynasty) // Poetry (from the Greek , poiesis, making or creating) is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible meaning. ... Creation (theology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... in 1930 was when the first traces of humans where discovered by cochroaches. ... Roman mythology, the mythological beliefs of the people of Ancient Rome, can be considered as having two parts. ... // For the Derek Sherinian album, see Mythology (Derek Sherinian album). ...

Content

Ovid emphasizes tales of transformation often found in myths, in which 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. In Greek mythology, Prometheus (Ancient Greek, , forethought) is the Titan chiefly honored for stealing fire from the gods in the stalk of a fennel plant and giving it to mortals for their use. ... Gaius Julius Caesar[1] (Latin pronunciation ; English pronunciation ; July 12 or July 13, 100 BC – March 15, 44 BC), often simply called Julius Caesar, was a Roman military and political leader and one of the most influential men in world history. ... Dactyllic hexameter (also known as heroic hexameter) is a form of meter in poetry or a rhythmic scheme. ... In mathematics, see epic morphism. ... It has been suggested that Deception of Zeus be merged into this article or section. ... Odysseus and Nausicaä - by Charles Gleyre The Odyssey (Greek: , Odusseia) is one of the two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to the poet Homer. ... The Aeneid (IPA English pronunciation: ; in Latin Aeneis, pronounced — the title is Greek in form: genitive case Aeneidos): is a Latin epic written by Virgil in the 1st century BC (between 29 and 19 BC) that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy where he...

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. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (2560x1824, 529 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Metamorphoses (poem) Danaë Titian ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (2560x1824, 529 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Metamorphoses (poem) Danaë Titian ... Titians self-portrait, 1566. ... Cupidon (French for Cupid), by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1875. ... Lycian Apollo, early Imperial Roman copy of a fourth century Greek original (Louvre Museum) In Greek and Roman mythology, Apollo (Ancient Greek , Apóllōn; or , Apellōn), the ideal of the kouros, was the archer-god of medicine and healing, light, truth, archery and also a bringer of death...

Inspirations and adaptations

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, and the open-air-theatre group London Bubble also adapted it in 2006. Naomi Iizuka's "Polaroid Stories" also bases its format off of Metamorphoses, setting the classic play in a modern time with drug-addicted, teenage versions of many of the characters from the original play. Arthur Golding (c. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... For other meanings see Romeo (disambiguation) and Juliet (disambiguation). ... Thisbe, by John William Waterhouse, 1909 The love story of Pyramus and Thisbe, not really a part of Roman mythology, is actually a sentimental romance. ... Ezra Pound in 1913. ... Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH (November 22, 1913 Lowestoft, Suffolk - December 4, 1976 Aldeburgh, Suffolk) was a British composer, conductor, and pianist. ... English composer Benjamin Britten composed the program music Six Metamorphoses after Ovid (Op. ... The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. ... Mary Zimmerman is a member of the Lookingglass Theatre Company and is an Artistic Associate of the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. ...

Manuscript tradition

Collaborative editorial effort has been investigating the various manuscripts of Metamorphoses, some forty-five complete texts or substantial fragments,^[1] since the High Middle Ages; though early emendations made by readers based on comparisons of this popular text has resulted in contamination, so that there are no isolated manuscript traditions, the result of several centuries of critical reading is that the poet's meaning is firmly established on the basis of the manuscript tradition or restored by conjecture where the tradition is deficient. The modern critical editions are two: W. S. Anderson's, first published in 1977 in the Teubner series, and R. J. Tarrant's, published in 2004 by the Oxford Clarendon Press.

Notes

See also

• List of characters in Metamorphoses
• Tales from Ovid - Ted Hughes' poetical work

This is a list of characters in the poem Metamorphoses by Ovid. ... This article or section should include material from Tristia For other uses, see Ovid (disambiguation) Portrait of the poet Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso, (March 20, 43 BC – AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations. ... Edward (Ted) James Hughes, OM, referred to normally as Ted Hughes, (August 17, 1930 – October 28, 1998) was an English poet and childrens writer. ...

External links

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Metamorphoses (Ovid)

• 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.)
  • Metamorphoses in Latin edition and English translations (From Perseuswith hyperlinked commentary, mythological, and grammatical references)
• Latin text
  • University of Virginia: Metamorphoses
  • The Latin Library: P. OVIDI NASONIS OPERA
• English translation
  • By A. S. Kline, 2000
    • Poetry in Translation: Ovid: Metamorphoses. (Enhanced viewer with links and notes. Can be downloaded in different formats.)
    • Mythology: Metamorphoses
  • By Sir Samuel Garth, John Dryden et al., 1717
    • Internet Classics Archive: Ovid's Metamorphoses
    • Ovid's Metamorphoses
  • By Others:
    • Elizabethan Authors: Ovid's Metamorphoses, trans. by Arthur Golding, 1567.
    • Ovid's Metamorphoses trans. by George Sandys, 1632.
    • Ovid's Metamorphoses trans. by Brooke Moore, 1922.
    • TextKit: Ovid's Metamorphoses, Books I–IV, trans. Rev. Dr. Giles, a learning translation/crib in PDF graphic format.
• 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.)
  • A Honeycomb for Aphrodite by A. S. Kline
  • Ovid's Metamorphoses, An introduction and commentary by Larry A. Brown.
  • An Analytical Onomasticon to the Metamorphoses of Ovid (Concordance and narrative index.)