The Metamorphoses of Ovid

ovid allen mandelbaum

It is savage and sophisticated, mischievous and majestic, witty and wicked. In its earthiness, its psychological acuity, it speaks over the centuries to our time. And with this new "fluid, readable, and accurate rendition" (Library Journal), the Metamorphoses for our age has been created.
The Metamorphoses is a treasury of classical myths, filtered through the far from reverent sensibility of the Roman poet Ovid (43 B.C. - A.D. 17). It weaves together every major mythological story to display a dazzling array of miraculous metamorphoses, from the time chaos is transformed into order at the moment of creation, to the time when the soul of Julius Caesar is turned into a star and set in the heavens. Through the poetic artistry of Allen Mandelbaum, this glorious achievement of classical literature, whose influence is rivaled perhaps only by that of the Bible, is revealed anew. Declared the Bloomsburg, "Mandelbaum's Ovid, like his Dante, is unlikely to be equalled for years to come."

Genres poetrymythologyfictionliteraturefantasygreek mythologyphilosophyancientschoolclassics

559 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,0008

Literary awards

harold morton landon translation award, premi crítica serra dor de traducció,

Places

ancient mythological world,

This edition

Format: 559 pages, Paperback
Published: April 15, 1995 by Harcourt
ISBN: 9780156001267
ASIN: 0156001268
Language: English

Characters More characters

Odysseus

A legendary Greek king of Ithaca and a hero of Homers epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homers Iliad.Husband of Penelope, father of Telemachus, and son of Laërtes and Anticlea, Odysseus is renowned for his brilliance, gu...
Venus (goddess)

Venus is the Roman goddess whose functions encompassed love, beauty, sex, fertility and prosperity. In Roman mythology, she was the mother of the Roman people through her son, Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and fled to Italy. Julius Caesar claimed ...
Ares (god)

Ares (Greek: Ἄρης), was the Greek god of war. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. In Greek literature, he often represents the physical or violent and untamed aspect of war, in contrast to the armored Athena, whose functions a...
Perseus

Perseus (Greek: Περσεύς), the legendary founder of Mycenae and of the Perseid dynasty of Danaans, was the first of the heroes of Greek mythology whose exploits in defeating various archaic monsters provided the founding myths of the Twelve Olympians. Pers...
Jupiter (god)

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Orpheus

Orpheus was a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. He is the son of the god Phoebus and the muse Calliope.The major stories about Orpheus are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his ...

About the author

ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso (20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horatius, with whom he is often ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love elegists. Although Ovid enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime, the emperor Augustus exiled him to Tomis, the capital of the newly-organised province of Moesia, on the Black Sea, where he remained for the last nine or ten years of his life. Ovid himself attributed his banishment to a "poem and a mistake", but his reluctance to disclose specifics has resulted in much speculation among scholars.
Ovid is most famous for the Metamorphoses, a continuous mythological narrative in fifteen books written in dactylic hexameters. He is also known for works in elegiac couplets such as Ars Amatoria ("The Art of Love") and Fasti. His poetry was much imitated during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and greatly influenced Western art and literature. The Metamorphoses remains one of the most important sources of classical mythology today.