Ovid’s sensuous and witty poem, in an accessible translation by David Raeburn In Metamophoses, Ovid 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, Metamorphoses has influenced writers and artists throughout the centuries from Shakespeare and Titian to Picasso and Ted Hughes. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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read this book for a class. it’s very dense. i listened to it on audio which helped at first. but then there were so many characters and things happening i just couldn’t keep up.
it’s really interesting to see how things tie in with one another. ovid starts it with a creation story and also has a flood story in there.
also enjoyed the etymology stories that would describe short stories of how for example mulberries became red or the crow became black. they’re obviously not true but it’s interesting to read.
also saw a lot of ties to Shakespeare’s stories and characters. would be interested to read some of his stuff now having seen that. but also romeo and juliet existed way before shakespeare wrote about it.
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