A new translation of Ovid's exuberant poem, which tells of the various transformations of gods and mortals, and was influential in bringing the mythology of the anicent world to the early modern and modern era.

2007-11-18 Excellent poetry and mythology

Roman poet Ovid was born in central Italy in 43BC. In AD 8 he was exiled to the Black Sea by Emperor Augustus for reasons that have never been made clear. He died around Ad 17/18, never having returned to Rome despite constant petitioning.

Metamorphoses is his epic poem on change. It covers many metamorphoses, mostly humans being turned into animals, plants, birds etc by the gods. The most unlucky name seemed to be Cycnus as you are likely to be turned into a swan at some point! It shows how it never pays to scorn the gods as you will get turned into a spider, horse, stag to be hunted by your own hounds, raven etc... The other key transforming factor was grief. People weeping were liable to turn into birds or plants/trees mostly and Hecuba even turned into a dog.

Lots of famous tales and people were included in this poem. Everyone from Icarus to Theseus, the Minatour, Narcissus and Echo, Arachne, Hercules and Aeneas. The tales ranged from very gory to very irreverent via erotic, Ovid had a very interesting sense of humour which came across in most of his tales (this possibly caused the trouble with Augustus). His treatment of the gods is interesting, he focuses on their human aspects of pride, revenge and their tendency to be quick to anger. Yes the poem is very long, but I really enjoyed it and would recommend it. It was interesting as well to read something from a roman perspective after trying out some of the greek classics.