Wow wow wow, cannot emphasize enough how beautifully written this book is, this definitely brought me a lot of comfort during exam season and something to look forward to at the end of my day.
Baring in mind that I have yet to read Ovid's Metamorphoses, but this definitely rose a high interest for the original book in me.

Ted Hughes' translation/interpretation of some of the tales from Ovid's Metamorphoses is a really good example of the way translation is always an interpretation -- he's played to that, and used anachronistic images and modern language, and created something dynamic and energetic and entirely his. It's much like the way Seamus Heaney and Simon Armitage took Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and used their own dialects to flavour it, bringing in what felt appropriate to them and what might make the old stories more interesting to a modern audience. You might disagree with the decision, but the vitality is undeniable.

The stories themselves, well, they've always been some of my favourite mythology. Ted Hughes didn't translate all of these stories -- I really need a good version that does, perhaps for my Kindle -- but he translates some good ones. I love the story of Arachne, and there's a lot to be said for the story of Pygmalion or Midas or... Yeah, I just kind of love Ovid.

An epic and timeless classic! I could read this incredible collection of stories 100 times and get something new out of them each time. Thank you to my darling wife Alysonn from Tucson Arizona for giving me this special book.

Myth can pretty much encapsulate everything through the device of archetypes - and that is what Ovid does. Then comes the psychological interpretation of Ted Hughes to elucidate and modernise these archetypes. These are tales of psychological metamorphosis - and probably my favourite book of poetry.

five stars SOLELY for the translation ‘And his pelvic bone / Gave his testicles the fright of their lives’

i felt like the line and rhythm of the translation, or rather the poetry resulting from the translation, since i can't read latin, sagged a little in the middle before rebounding at the end. but yeah these are wonderful stories. they are themselves retellings and expansions of foundational myths, based on who knows what, then retold and expanded themselves, and constantly reborn and dismantled.

these versions bring across the insanity and magic of desire so well. also totally PG-13. hella people dying in convoluted brutal ways.

Ovid's Metamorphoses can be a delight for anyone who loves classical mythology, a good complement to the versions of tales you learned from Bulfinch, Hamilton, the D'Aulaires, etc. Besides, Ovid gives you the sex and violence too, which those nice children's illustrated versions leave out.

There are many translations of Metamorphoses available, but one I definitely would recommend is Tales from Ovid by Ted Hughes. As the title suggests, this is not a literal translation and does not contain every one of Ovid's stories. On the other hand, Hughes is a real poet, with a special gift for dark, mythic language, and—although he does not tell all of the tales—the tales he tells come to life.

I love poetry as well as mythology, and I think poetry should be translated by poets. Although they may sometimes betray the literal sense of a passage, they are more faithful to its sound and spirit. Because of this, if you wish to possess a complete version, I would recommend the elegant Gregory or the arch, ironic Slavitt, or—if you have in interest in something older, say from the Renaissance or Neo-Classical periods--you might give the vigorous Golding or the stately Garth a try.

But if all you want is a vivid collection of mythological tales which catalogs the changes wrought by the gods, written in memorable, laconic verse, I would go with Hughes. Hughes is particular good at conveying both the marvelousness and the callousness of such transformations—two important qualities (they tell me) of the originals. From time to time, I do miss Horace Gregory's elegance, but Ted Hughes' force and concentration is enough to make up for it. (He also has a gift for surprisingly contemporary diction. Witness the use of the phrase “vapour trail” below.)

Here follow four versions of the the fall of Phaeton, blasted by Jove's thunderbolt from the runaway chariot of Phoebus his father, god of the sun:

Ted Hughes:

Phaethon, hair ablaze,
A fiery speck, lengthening a vapour trail,
Plunged toward the earth
Like a star
Falling and burning out on a clear night.

In a remote landscape
Far from his home
The hot current
Of the broad Eridanus
Quenched his ember--
And washed him ashore.
The Italian nymphs
Buried his remains, that were glowing again
And flickering little flames
Of the three-forked fire from God.
Over his grave, on a rock they wrote this:
"Here lies Phoebus' boy who died
In the sun's chariot,
His strength too human, and too hot
His courage and his pride."


Horace Gregory:

But Phaethon, fire pouring through fiery hair,
Sailed earthward through clear skies as though he were
A star that does not fall, yet seems to fall
Through long horizons of the quiet air.
Far from his home he fell, across the globe
Where River Eridanus cooled his face.
There Naiads of the West took his charred body
Still hot with smoking flames of the forked bolt
To rest, with these carved words upon his tomb:
HERE PHAETHON LIES WHO DROVE HIS FATHER'S CAR;
THOUGH HE FAILED GREATLY, YET HE VENTURED MORE.


Joseph Addison (Garth, editor):

The breathless Pheeton, with flaming hair,
Shot from the chariot, like a falling star,
That in a summer's ev'ning from the top
Of Heav'n drops down, or seems at least to drop;
'Till on the Po his blasted corps was hurl'd,
Far from his country, in the western world.
The Latian nymphs came round him, and, amaz'd,
On the dead youth, transfix'd with thunder, gaz'd,
And, whilst yet smoaking from the bolt he lay,
His shatter'd body to a tomb convey,
And o'er the tomb an epitaph devise:
"Here he, who drove the sun's bright chariot, lies;
His father's fiery steeds he cou'd not guide,
But in the glorious enterprize he dy'd."


Arthur Golding (“Shakespeare's Ovid”)

But Phaeton (fire yet blasing stil among his yellow haire)
Shot headlong downe, and glid along the Region of the Ayre
Like to a Starre in Winter nightes (the wether cleare and fayre)
Which though it doe not fall indeede, yet falleth to our sight.
Whome almost in another world and from his countrie quite
The River Padus did receyve, and quencht his burning head.
The water Nymphes of Italie did take his carkasse dead
And buried it yet smoking still, with Joves three forked flame,
And wrate this Epitaph in the stone that lay upon the same.
"Here lies the lusty Phaeton which tooke in hand to guide
His fathers Chariot: from the which although he chaunst to slide,
Yet that he gave a proud attempt it cannot be denide.

This was actually much more readable - as in kinetic, muscular, savage and horrifying, not to mention entertaining and inspiring - than I anticipated. And, ok, pieces like “Tereus” have a certain extra frisson.

I really enjoyed it as I have an interest in Greek and roman mythology. During the process of reading I had many complaints against the action of the men and woman in this book and the actions they took for love or revenge.

I really enjoyed the transitions from each story that Ted Hughes has used from the original because It made it easier to keep on reading as opposed to reading just one story and leaving it at that.

I also enjoyed the stories that I have read in other texts such as many of the myths are featured in the Percy Jackson series so it was interesting to see the origins of those stories in the form they were originally in. I also enjoyed the Pyramus and Thisbe story because it is featured in
A Midsummer Night's Dream

I loved this. Not everything from Ovid's Metamorphoses is included here, but how it could have been? Its content was condensed and made more accessible, even though I missed some of the stories I loved as a late teen. The translation was brought to life in such a dynamic, memorable and readable way. I listened to Hughes read it himself too, which I really enjoyed. This was such a delightful nostalgic read for me that made me want to read and reread more classic mythology.

Hughes has managed to preserve the essence of Ovid's own text, while still imbuing the work with a distinct Hughesian touch. I also liked the selection of tales, and as each one one wrapped up to a finish, I found myself waiting for the expected metamorphosis that either offered some sort of solace for the reader, or gave me an etymological Eureka moment. If you love Greek mythology, this book illustrates these tales in a beautifully lucid and scintillating way.

Hughes is one of the great English poets of the 20th century, a terrific translator, and an inventor of his own mythology. His selection from Ovid's masterpiece is no substitute for the full version, but it's a powerful, satisfying recapitulation of the most famous episodes.