Metamorphoses (Oxford World's Classics)

Book Description

Metamorphoses--the best-known poem by one of the wittiest poets of classical antiquity--takes as its theme change and transformation, as illustrated by Greco-Roman myth and legend. Melville's new translation reproduces the grace and fluency of Ovid's style, and its modern idiom offers a fresh
understanding of Ovid's unique and elusive vision of reality.

Customer Reviews:

Things change..........2007-08-07

Maidens become trees. Young hunks turn into flowers. Men become women; women become invincible warriors. And every time you blink, another poor wretch becomes a bird or turns to stone. In Ovid's Metamorphosis, nothing stays the same for long. A rich compendium of Greco-Roman mythology and history all ingeniously linked together by the theme of transformation, the Metamorphosis is a surprisingly sophisticated, erotic, and gory classic of ancient literature.

Rapes, murders, wars, and all manner of perversion abound. Death is lingered over with almost forensic precision. The slaughter of arrogant Niobe's fourteen children, for example, is recounted in an exhaustive detail that would do any contemporary slasher flick justice, as one by one they're picked off in various grisly ways. This is classical gore--Ovid sounding like the Clive Barker of ancient Rome as in this excerpt from the massacre of the centaurs:

[Exadius] found a weapon, a stag's antlers
Hung on a pine tree...
And Gryneus' eyes were pierced by those twin prongs,
Eyeballs gouged out; one of them stuck to the horn,
The other rolled down his beard till a blood clot caught it.

This is the sort of wonderfully nauseating detail that is repeated countless times in a masterpiece that often reads like the National Enquirer. It's hard not to believe that Ovid, like Shakespeare, was aiming his work for the mass audience of his time, which just goes to show you that the product of one age's pop culture is another's venerated classic. One only has to read Ovid's over-the-top account of the love-sick Cyclops to realize that black comedy ala the B-movies of Herschel Gordon Lewis had already been mastered some two thousand years ago.

There are a bewildering proliferation of translations of Ovid's Metamorphosis to choose from. In selecting Humphries, I chose the text that struck me as the least encumbered by the translator's attempt to distinguish himself from his rivals. Many translators feel the pressing need to do something new, and to `recast' the Metamorphosis into what they consider a facsimile of contemporary poetry. The result is all-too-often a needless accretion of unnecessary words and poetic tropes that do nothing whatsoever to enhance the text, and much towards rendering it more difficult for novelty's sake alone, and to call attention to the translator--two things a translation should avoid at all costs.

Rolf Humphries renders the Metamorphosis into a clear, straightforward English verse whose easy-going casualness facilitates readability and comprehension, as well as reflecting the apparently colloquially style of Ovid's original. And Humphries accomplishes all this without sacrificing any of the poetry--his translation is often quite beautiful, not only in its clarity and apparent simplicity, but in its adept use of language that breathes life back into this ancient work. By stepping back and lending his breath to the ancient poet, Humphries allows Ovid himself to sing again.

One of the truly seminal works of world literature, not to mention an invaluable storehouse of myths and legends, Ovid's Metamorphosis is not only must reading for any lover of great literature, but also a heck of a lot of fun.

Myths in poetry.......2007-08-05

This book by Ovid tells in verse the story of all the Greek myths. I used to read it to my son when he was younger, translating into Spanish because it is our first language, but he loved it so much that now that he is 18 he searched for it to purchase one for us and one to give as a present to a friend from school.

Ovid's theory is that everything metamorphoses or changes and he starts with the story of the creation and moves accordingly to the stories of the Titans, the Gods and the heroes. It is beautifully written, the images very rich and poetic. One of my favorite stories is of Echo and Narcissus. The English is antique, and since it is in verse, reading can be a little difficult, but if you go past this it is a book to cherish and remember.

An Anthology of Greek Mythology, Clothed in Latin Dress.......2006-03-09

Ovid was undoubtedly the most prolific Latin poet; his enormous corpus of poetry gives credence to that fact. Naso's works ranged from lusty love poetry and somber exile literature (all elegies) to the sweeping heroic epic, of which his immortal Metamorphosis is styled upon. The work itself is an anthology of traditional Greek mythology, clothed in Latin dress. Its aim seems to have been twofold: for one, to establish a historical link between the gods of old and the new Roman empire, and two, to popularize the myths of Greece for the Roman nobility and populus. And so, as the Metamorphosis contains many tales, and is in a sense many books within a book, it invites us to read it in small doses. Moreover, it hardly has the capacity to steal your imagination like Virgil's Aenied, but it does have the virtue of being poetic and encyclopedic, while at the same time being entertaining and didactic. A.D. Mellville's translation is suggested; his English is so smooth it is almost therapeutic.

(Un) pleasant surprises and no happy endings........2006-01-16

Publius Ovidius Naso was born in 43 B.C and died in 18 A.D.
He was banished for unknown reasons to Tomi, a barren place near the coast of the Black Sea. A few scholars believe that this was a literary hoax created by Ovid himself. It would enable him to write the 'Tristia' and 'Letters From The Black Sea'.

'Metamorphoses' is his main achievement. It contains 250 stories from the Greek Mythology and they all have in common that the principal character changes into another form. Most of the time they turn into an animal or a tree but also in a river, a constellation of stars, a rock or a flower and other pleasant surprises.

If you read this book you won't find many happy endings. The ancient Greeks didn't know the meaning of that expression.
It's not an easy read but if you persist it will be a rewarding literary experience.

Superb Translation and Edition.......2005-09-30

This book is wonderful. The Rolfe Humphries is THE translation. This printing is also very nice. The paper, the type, everything makes it a good book. When you turn the page, it turns nicely and lies flat; how refreshing.

The stories of the Metamorphoses are, of course, wonderful. It's the book itself that I want to talk about.

The beautiful Waterhouse painting on the cover spans the front and part of the back covers. The line numbers at the top of each text page are those of the Latin text in the Loeb edition; how many translators would go to that kind of trouble for you? Rolfe Humphries' introduction is light, funny, and enjoyable. His love of his work shines through. The last line of his intro is, "So - here he is [Ovid], and I hope you like him."

The table of contents is annotated, making it easy to find any major story you are looking for. I also love the designs at the beginning of each book/chapter: such details enhance my enjoyment of reading this edition.

If you have never read Ovid's Metamorphoses, don't be intimidated. It is a collection of mythology stories, and you will find much that is probably familiar to you (Echo and Narcissus, Jason, Pygmalion, and more). If you are at all serious about literature, this is a basic building block in your knowledge. And even if you're not, it's just a damn good book.

The translation itself is so fluent and enjoyable. Just listen to the introduction:

My intention is to tell of bodies changed
To different forms; the gods, who made the changes,
Will help me - or so I hope - with a poem
That runs from the world's beginning to our own days.

This is exciting, eloquent stuff! Please do yourself a favor and make sure you read this at some point during your lifetime. To die without having read it would be almost like not having lived at all.

Average customer rating:

Hobbled by bad book design
Excellent edition and translation
(Un)pleasant surprises and no happy endings.
Metamorphosis & Banishment

Metamorphoses (Penguin Classics)
Ovid
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 014044789X
Release Date: 2004-08-03

Book Description

Ovid's sensuous and witty poem brings together a dazzling array of mythological tales, ingeniously linked by the idea of transformation—often as a result of love or lust—where men and women find themselves magically changed into new and sometimes extraordinary beings. Beginning with the creation of the world and ending with the deification of Augustus, Ovid interweaves many of the best-known myths and legends of ancient Greece and Rome, including Daedalus and Icarus, Pyramus and Thisbe, Pygmalion, Perseus and Andromeda, and the fall of Troy. Erudite but light-hearted, dramatic and yet playful, the Metamorphoses has influenced writers and artists throughout the centuries from Shakespeare and Titian to Picasso and Ted Hughes.

Customer Reviews:

Hobbled by bad book design.......2007-05-15

It's not like designers at Penguin Classics are lacking
the knowledge
Of how to handle hexameters. Why then their failure
to use it
In Raeburn's recent translation of Metamorphoses?
On an average page, there's barely three verses that's
typeset within
A single line, with all others continued with vast
indent--
And most roving over a single word. The pages are
ugly,
Everything awkward to read. The font size is generous,
though,
So why not reduce it a point and gather more verses
together?
Nor does it help that the poem is written in thumping
sub-Longfellow,
With all of the beats but now with just one third the
sonority--
Dietetically versed. Avoid this volume. Feh, and more
feh.

Excellent edition and translation.......2006-01-09

After reading the old Penguin edition of this work, I was amazed at the improvement in not only the translation, but the organization and supplemental material as well. The old edition I read was written in prose (yuck), the translation was was dry and boring, the text was not broken up into sections, and there were no notes to speak of. This edition, however, has really come a long way. The text has been translated into a more modern voice, making it much more user friendly and fun to read. And it's written in verse form (as is should be). The organization is top-notch: not only is it divided into "books", but is further divided into the individual stories with appropriate headings (like "Mars and Venus" and "Pyramus and Thisbe"), so it's easy to find your favorite myth and know where you are in the epic. There's also an excellent introduction to the entire work as well as introductions to each individual book, providing insights and background information. The notes in the back of the book are very comprehensive and helpful, adding greatly to your understanding of the work. On top of all that, there's a glossary of the characters in the back which not only tells you who they are, but where they are featured in the epic. And finally, as if there wasn't enough already, there's even a map in the back of Rome during Ovid's time. Needless to say, this edition is chock full of stuff to please both casual readers of the work and scholars looking to get a little more in-depth. I believe this is one of the most important and influential works of Western civilization, and everyone should have a copy. It's especially great for those who love Greek and Roman myths, since it's packed full of just about every classical myth ever conceived. And since it's broken down so nicely into individual stories and books, you can read a story here and there instead of the whole thing at once, if you choose. Though since all the stories are connected and flow seamlessly into one another, reading it through from beginning to end is very rewarding and highly recommended.

(Un)pleasant surprises and no happy endings. .......2005-05-04

Metamorphosis & Banishment.......2004-12-21

In Ovid's elegiac Metamorphoses, love conquers all. Love conquers the humans, and love conquers the gods. For when Cupid is insulted by Phoébus Apollo, Apollo is hit with Cupid's golden arrow. Apollo's beloved Daphne is hit with a lead arrow, the result being unrequited love which causes her plea to her father for help resulting in her transformation from a human into a laurel tree. Punishment, unrequited love, transformation. Why is transformation the chosen theme of punishment? Simply because transformation is something between life and death. Metamorphosis is not as final as being sent down to Aïdoneus in the underworld, nor as easy as deterring menin and living. Something in between the two (life and death), could also be banishment. As the author himself was banished by Cæsar Augustus, his own life is beginning to fit the equation: Punishment (his banishment), unrequited love (of state) and yet to be seen is his transformation. Everyone is punished, both the victim and the punisher, at every level both mortal and divine.

In the stories of Cerastae and Propoetides, Pygmálion, Actaeon one sees evidence of this and in this edition the layout by Penguin makes the stories easy to read and wonderful to enjoy.

Average customer rating:

Love of language
AWSOME PLAY
I would give it 10 stars out of five
I got a chance to perform in Metamorphoses at my university!
Plays better than it reads

Metamorphoses: A Play
Mary Zimmerman
Manufacturer: Northwestern University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0810119803

Book Description

Based on Ovid's fifteen volume work of transformation myths, the tone of Mary Zimmerman's drama superbly echoes the play's theme of change as its physical production evolves onstage.

Customer Reviews:

Love of language.......2006-02-13

I am currently involved in this play with my local theatre, and when we first read through the script I was floored. As an actor of Shakespeare I fell in love instantly with the play and the language. Even though we cannot get every amazing visual down pat, the script gives so much to work with. I can't imagine reading this and never seeing it done. But even just to read is amazing.

AWSOME PLAY.......2005-04-30

My high school preformed this show and i must say it was absolutely amazing. Even as just a script, it was fantastic. it is absolutely worth buying just to read the words. the script is fantastic, and the stories are moving, provocative, and beautiful all in their own.
This is indeed one of the best plays i have ever read or been involved with.

I would give it 10 stars out of five.......2004-10-19

Having been someone who has been intimatly involved with this play; I have read it, seen it, and been in it, I can tell you that this is one of the best American plays of the 20th century if not ever.

As for a book, it is amazing. Mary Zimmerman's language is stunningly beautiful; her amalgam of her own language and that of Ovid or Rilke and others is seemless. The words are often profound, and always beautiful.

Small parts of the text are lost without a visual aid, but these are rare and easy to imagine.

We can only hope that Mary Zimmerman keeps writing amazing works of theatre and makes them available to the public.

I got a chance to perform in Metamorphoses at my university!.......2004-04-19

I was cast in this play and trust me when I say this is a great script. Not because of what it contains- but because of what it doesn't. Mary Zimmerman has left so much of her play open for interpretation, and we certainly took that to heart.

The poetry of Ovid is mesmerizing, and David Slavitt's translation is a must read. But to truly understand the inspiration of this work, see this play and read this script with your mind open.

Plays better than it reads.......2003-08-19

This is not a play script in the traditional sense. This is part of the new trend of director-centered theater, where concept is all. In this case the concept is a pool, where several of Ovid's tales of strange-changes-in-the-night take place in and around. This is one of the better examples of concept theater, and it won many awards on Broadway (but not for script). Reading the original Ovid is preferable to reading descriptions of how the pool should be lit, or what music plays through scene changes. But seeing it? If done right, this material could be incredibly visually striking.

Amazon.com

Publius Ovidius Naso, whom we know as Ovid, was already established as a writer when The Metamorphoses was published in A.D. 8, when he was 52 years old. It had taken him a decade to compose his great poem, during which time he published little, but the Roman world was still abuzz with excitement over his richly erotic Art of Love. So, unfortunately, was the court of Augustus Caesar, and the emperor banished the poet to what is now Romania. Augustus may have taken exception to the poet's turn to the impolite realm of the body--or he may have objected to a rumored affair between Ovid and the emperor's nymphomaniacal daughter Julia, who figures so prominently in Robert Graves's Claudius novels. The poet who had declared Rome to be his only home could have found no worse punishment than exile, but no amount of pleading could sway Augustus, and Ovid died on the shores of the Black Sea a decade later. Full of veiled political and historical references, The Metamorphoses lived on to become a permanent fixture in the canon of European literature. In Allen Mandelbaum's hands, it lives on for a new generation.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent translation, but no annotations.......2007-06-27

Mandelbaum's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses is the best I have seen so far. It is a very accurate and original rendition of the poem, while also being very readable. This is my most highly recommended edition of Ovid's Metamorphoses because of its highly readable, enjoyable verse translation. Mandelbaum, who won the National Book Reward for his classic verse translation of Virgil's Aeneid, displays his unmatched skill and heart at translating Latin classics in this edition of Ovid's poem.

My only complaint about this book is that the book does not have any footnotes or table of contents whatsoever. The book has to be navigated by looking at the top margins.

I personally do not recommend the Oxford and Penguin editions of this book, as they are not as close to the original Latin, and the rhetorical quality is also not as good. Focus Classical Library's edition of
Ovid's Metamorphoses is very highly annotated with indispendable footnotes, outlines, headings, and index, but unfortunately its translation complicated is not as readable as Mandelbaum's.

For serious mythology learners who want an accurate, original rendition of the poem, I would recommend getting both this book and Mandelbaum's translation. Because of the Focus Classical Library edition's indispensable annotations and more literal translation (which includes all of the proper names Ovid uses in his original poem) and outline, serious readers might want to also buy that one in addition to the Mandelbaum translation.

Overall, this is THE edition of Ovid's Metamorphoses that you should get, whether you are a new reader or longtime classicist. This vivid, accurate, readable, page-turning book is truly a modern masterpiece.

Good Mythology and a Strong Translation.......2007-06-18

Most mythology I have read has been in a prose format. Reading Ovid was a bit of a challenge but I found this translation much cleaner then several of the others I tried to read.

If you think by reading one mythology text you have already encountered everything you needed to know, you are of course wrong, I found new characters, new stories that I am weaving into my own writing.

I highly recommend this translation.

(Un) pleasant surprises and no happy endings........2006-01-16

Everything a book should be.......2006-01-14

Sumptuous, gorgeous. From the creation of the world to the birth of Julius Caesar. If only the Bible was written as well or made as much sense. And how thrilling to discover Shakespeare stealing wholesale from it: eg. Titania's "Nine men's morris" comes from Medea. One of the great reading experiences of a lifetime. And this translation sings and stuns and entertains. Buy it. And give it to all your friends. If you love them and fear for their souls.

Your next "ought to read that" read.......2005-02-20

Ovid is something that people interested in Shakespeare and mythology and Western culture in general ought to read, and Mandelbaum's translation will make you glad while you read it.

Ovid's poem begins with a creation out of chaos and into the golden age, traces the famous careers of Orpheus, Hercules, and Achilles, and culminates with the ascension of Augustus Caesar. Along the way, his tales of young lust, treachery, and enough shape-changes to keep George Lucas in business for decades will pull you into a world in which men contend with gods (and usually, but not always, lose), true love can forestall even death (or make death kidnap a goddess's daughter), and Morpheus is not a gun-toting cyber-revolutionary but a servant of Sleep and a master of imitation.

Mandelbaum's translation balances beauty of language and flow of story to make this classic compilation of Roman myths a page-turner. A beginner might want to acquire an edition with footnotes, but a reader with sufficient background or the resources to research references would do well to acquire this translation of this wonderful text.

Ovid III: Metamorphoses, Books I-VIII (Loeb Classical Library #42)

Average customer rating:

Ovid is the Master
Finest Book by Rome's Greatest Author
A Must for anyone interested in Latin!

Ovid III: Metamorphoses, Books I-VIII (Loeb Classical Library #42)
Ovid
Manufacturer: Loeb Classical Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0674990463

Book Description

Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso, 43 BCE-17 CE), born at Sulmo, studied rhetoric and law at Rome. Later he did considerable public service there, and otherwise devoted himself to poetry and to society. Famous at first, he offended the emperor Augustus by his Ars Amatoria, and was banished because of this work and some other reason unknown to us, and dwelt in the cold and primitive town of Tomis on the Black Sea. He continued writing poetry, a kindly man, leading a temperate life. He died in exile.

Ovid's main surviving works are the Metamorphoses, a source of inspiration to artists and poets including Chaucer and Shakespeare; the Fasti, a poetic treatment of the Roman year of which Ovid finished only half; the Amores, love poems; the Ars Amatoria, not moral but clever and in parts beautiful; Heroides, fictitious love letters by legendary women to absent husbands; and the dismal works written in exile: the Tristia, appeals to persons including his wife and also the emperor; and similar Epistulae ex Ponto. Poetry came naturally to Ovid, who at his best is lively, graphic and lucid.

The Loeb Classical Library edition of Ovid is in six volumes.

Customer Reviews:

Ovid is the Master.......2006-08-04

I wrote a thesis on Ovid in college, so I'm a little biased, but this is one great translation. I love the Loeb series in general, and haven't seen a single edition that hasn't been well translated and edited. If you're reading a classic, read a Loeb.

Finest Book by Rome's Greatest Author.......2000-02-26

Ovid is by far the greatest Roman poet. Certainly, Vergil's work must not be overlooked, with his excellent style and powerful emotion (a favorite scene of mine is the death of Laocoon); however, Ovid surpasses Rome's poet laureate by leaps and bounds: Ovid's dactylic hexameter is ornate and precise, and his poetry contains a daring irreverence that outraged Augustus. Few authors have surpassed the power of Ovid's pen, and his _Metamorphoses_ is his best work.

Although I am not entirely impressed with pedestrian prose translations of poetry, the Lobe edition's side-by-side translation provides the reader an adequate aid to begin to grasp the poet's beauty.

(If one desires to read Ovid's _Metamorphoses_ in English, I highly recommend Rolfe Humprhies's excellent translation.)

A Must for anyone interested in Latin!.......1998-09-25

The Metamorphoses, of course, is one of, if not the, classical world's greatest mythological treatises. The Loeb edition's convenient format of original Latin text opposite a clear, concise English translation is invaluable for anyone who has ever been interested in Latin, and a wonderful study guide for the Latin scholar. Highly recommended.

Ovid : Metamorphoses Books 9-15 (Ovid, Volume 4 - Loeb Classical Library)

Average customer rating:

Glad to have this in my collection.

Ovid : Metamorphoses Books 9-15 (Ovid, Volume 4 - Loeb Classical Library)
Ovid , and G. P. Goold
Manufacturer: Loeb Classical Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0674990471

Book Description

The Loeb Classical Library edition of Ovid is in six volumes.

Customer Reviews:

Glad to have this in my collection........2007-05-21

It's a hardcover book I purchased for the Orpheus and Eurydice myth (for research.) It includes the entire story with information I had not seen in other versions of Ovid. It has the Latin across the page from the English.

The Pygmalian story and others in this volume will also be useful for future lectures.

My only quibble: the print is so small.

Kathleen Burt

Metamorphoses: Towards a Materialist Theory of Becoming (Short Introductions)

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Metamorphoses: Towards a Materialist Theory of Becoming (Short Introductions)
Rosi Braidotti
Manufacturer: Polity Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0745625770

Book Description

The discussions about the ethical, political and human implications of the postmodernist condition have been raging for longer than most of us care to remember. They have been especially fierce within feminism. After a brief flirtation with postmodern thinking in the 1980s, mainstream feminist circles seem to have turned their back on the staple notions of poststructuralist philosophy. Metamorphoses takes stock of the situation and attempts to reset priorities within the poststructuralist feminist agenda.Cross-referring in a creative way to Deleuze's and Irigaray's respective philosophies of difference, the book addresses key notions such as embodiment, immanence, sexual difference, nomadism and the materiality of the subject. Metamorphoses also focuses on the implications of these theories for cultural criticism and a redefinition of politics. It provides a vivid overview of contemporary culture, with special emphasis on technology, the monstrous imaginary and the recurrent obsession with 'the flesh' in the age of techno-bodies.This highly original contribution to current debates is written for those who find changes and transformations challenging and necessary. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of philosophy, feminist theory, gender studies, sociology, social theory and cultural studies.

Average customer rating:

Glorious English!

Ovid's Metamorphoses
Ovid
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0801870607

Book Description

This landmark translation of Ovid was acclaimed by Ezra Pound as "the most beautiful book in the language (my opinion and I suspect it was Shakespeare's)". Ovid's deliciously witty and poignant epic starts with the creation of the world and brings together a series of ingeniously linked myths and legends in which men and women are transformed -- often by love -- into flowers, trees, stones, and stars. Golding's robustly vernacular version was the first major English translation and decisively influenced Shakespeare, Spenser, and the character of English Renaissance writing.

Customer Reviews:

Glorious English!.......2004-09-11

Of course it is for Golding's translation ITSELF that this book is valuable. You might ask yourself, who is the author of this Metamorphosis, Ovid or Golding? Is the book less artistically important because it is Golding's vision of Ovid rather than an unprocessed Ovid? Just feel how nice and chewy Golding's language is. Resentful academic purists should read Ovid in the original Latin.

Tales from Ovid: 24 Passages from the Metamorphoses

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Stories Fading into Oblivion
Re: Yeah Man
Yeah man
brilliant stuff
A delicious new classic

Tales from Ovid: 24 Passages from the Metamorphoses
Ted Hughes
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0374525870

Amazon.com

England's poet laureate Ted Hughes first turned his hand to Ovid's Metamorphoses when he--along with other prominent English-language poets such as Seamus Heaney, Amy Clampitt, and Charles Simic--contributed poems to the anthology After Ovid. In the three years following After Ovid's publication, Hughes continued working with the Metamorphoses, eventually completing the 24 translations collected here. Culling from 250 original tales, Hughes has chosen some of the most violent and disturbing narratives Ovid wrote, including the stories of Echo and Narcissus, Bacchus and Pentheus, and Semele's rape by Jove. Classical purists may be offended at the occasional liberties Hughes takes with Ovid's words, but no one will quarrel with the force and originality of Hughes's verse, or with its narrative skill. This translation is an unusual triumph--a work informed by the passion and wit of Ovid, yet suffused with Hughes's own distinctive poetic sensibility.

Book Description

A powerful version of the Latin classic by England's late Poet Laureate, now in paperback.When it was published in 1997, Tales from Ovid was immediately recognized as a classic in its own right, as the best rering of Ovid in generations, and as a major book in Ted Hughes's oeuvre. The Metamorphoses of Ovid stands with the works of Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Milton as a classic of world poetry; Hughes translated twenty-four of its stories with great power and directness. The result is the liveliest twentieth-century version of the classic, at once a delight for the Latinist and an appealing introduction to Ovid for the general reader.

Customer Reviews:

Stories Fading into Oblivion.......2007-07-21

I agree with most of the positive reviewers of this book, in fact, it's a wonderful book. It's 24 or 25 freely translated, modernized Greek myths in their Ovidian versions, out of 250 or so that Ovid wrote. In the introduction, Hughes said that the stories had become part of our culture's subconscious memory, and it occured to me that that may no longer be true, and that Hughes' work of preservation here and in his anthologies of poetry had a certain touching hopefulness to it. These are great stories with implications way beyond their obvious meanings. The great enemy of mankind's future, it seems to me, and as many other people have said, is Corporate Mankind: the unpoetic, the emotionally deaf, unmusical person, greedy and mendacious. Man becoming a kind of technologically sophisticated, highly organized human insect. Anyway, Hughes was one of the people who hoped this was not our fate and who tried to do something about it. This book was one of the ways, probably the most delightful, engaging of his efforts. His versions of these myths could not be improved upon.

Re: Yeah Man.......2006-05-06

To answer bayoubill's question regarding this book: "When will he translate the rest of the Metamorphoses? The Odyssey?" While that would have been great to see, Ted Hughes died about a year after the publication of Tales from Ovid. Ted's dead, bayoubill. Ted's dead.

By the way, excellent translation. Those who want to move on to read the Metamorphoses in its entirety would do well to read the 2003 Charles Martin translation, which is also excellent.

Yeah man.......2006-01-26

It makes love to your mind. When will he translate the rest of the Metamorphoses? The Odyssey? Go Ted, go.

brilliant stuff.......2005-10-26

As an appropriation of an appropriation, hughes' manages to bring to life the classic tales of greek mythology and modernize ovid's original tales yet at the same time keeping up the essential message that ovid was bringing across 2000 years ago. Even if you do'nt speak English one could understand teh works of hughes' perfectly, his range of vocabulary is genius in itself. the language slips and slides around your mouth, burning like brimstone or as languid as lagoons.
try this for size:

Violence is an extrapolation
Of the cutting edge
Into the orbit of the smile

Rivers of milk mingled with rivers of nectar
and out of the black oak oozed amber honey

I must confess I have to read this for my literature course, but I am so glad that I did! I never would have picked it up otherwise, whilst seemingly sophisticated and slippery it is simultaneously so simple and easy to relate to in a way that hardly condescends or patronizes the reader's understanding.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone, even if you don't speak english, even if you don't understand some of the words, it's the way it sounds that counts.
Read it with your eyes closed, you will never want to put it down.

A delicious new classic.......2005-10-16

Think: ancient Greek myths mixed with the heart-racing drama of Ovid's storytelling fashioned by the sensual, gorgeous rhythms of a modern poet, and you get this book.

Jaw-dropping, inspiring, delicious.

Average customer rating:

For the less scholarly among us
an honest, earnest translation
Ovid in the Hands of a Master Poet and Translator
The Worst English Translator of the Twentieth Century
A poor translation

The Metamorphoses of Ovid
Ovid
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0801847982

Book Description

First published in 8 A.D. when he was 52, Ovid's epic poem contains profoundly entertaining tales of Adonis, Midas, Apollo, Icarus, and many others. (Poetry)

Customer Reviews:

For the less scholarly among us.......2007-03-11

I can see why, if you are a Latin scholar, or very serious about Ovid, you might be put off by this free translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Slavitt writes, in the middle of Book Seven, that "any sensible poet would lay (the background story) out somehow", and that Ovid has written "footnotes without a text, a quiz, or a gazetteer of distractions, its only sense in what it refuses to say." Useful, interesting opinions, of the sort typically encountered while reading an author's note. But these comments (and others like them) are inserted directly into the text. So yes, I could see how purists would not like that. Although, I have to admit that I loved it. The tone was very conversational, making the translation easy to understand. And now I feel like I have a good grasp of many of the Greek/Roman myths. In my opinion, this is a very approachable translation of one of those books you've always meant to read.

an honest, earnest translation.......2003-03-21

Slavitt's free translation of Ovid is generally very true to the tone of the original, & only sometimes slightly awkward. Slavitt's understanding of Ovid & of translation is great. The Ovid he presents modern English-speaking readers with is much more human & easily flowing than the Ovid of many other translators. Ovid's Metamorphoses is one of the greatest classics of western literature, Ovid one of the most significant writers of our thousands of years of literature, & Slavitt does the man, the book, & readers a good service with this translation.

Ovid in the Hands of a Master Poet and Translator.......2003-02-12

So many translations suffer one of two fates: either the translator has a wonderful grasp of the foreign language in question but is not a very talented poet in his own, or he is a wonderful poet but a terrible linguist. David R. Slavitt is both an extremely prolific and talented poet, novelist, and essayist in his own native English, and an excellent linguist. This translation of a classic that is so often translated may seem unnecessary. Why have one more translation of Ovid's "Metmorphoses"? Read this version and you'll see why.

The Worst English Translator of the Twentieth Century.......2001-02-20

Whenever you see David Slavitt's name on a translation, look elsewhere. He's a third-rate poet who has made a career of destroying the great works of other poets. This translation is a good example of that. At various points he goes off on tangents, commenting--shallowly, I might add--on the contents of the poem he is supposed to be translating. You read things such as "What is Ovid doing here with this boring passage?" But it won't be a footnote, it will be inserted into the body of the poem. For this one, read Mandelbaum's translation. Stay away from Slavitt.

A poor translation.......1998-09-06

If you are interested in Slavitt, read this translation. If you are interested in Ovid, do not.

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