Amores & Metamorphoses: Selections

ovid phyllis b. katz charbra adams jestin

The source of Ovid’s enduring appeal is his Amores are written with the wit and humor—and sometimes the regret—of one who has seen love fi rst hand. His Metamorphoses, an epic tale of transformations, is the sparkling work of a consummate storyteller. This edition is organized to facilitate reading, comprehension, and enjoyment of a poet whose sometimes startling voice rings as clear and true today as it did in his own day. This edition • introduction to each passage • unadapted Latin texts of six Amores and fi ve selections from the Metamorphoses • samepage grammatical/syntactical/vocabulary notes • translation questions and answers, to prompt reading comprehension • glossaries of metrical terms and fi gures of speech • high-frequency vocabulary list • translation tips for reading Ovid • topical bibliography

Genres classicspoetry

224 pages, Paperback

First published December 31,1998

This edition

Format: 224 pages, Paperback
Published: July 15, 2012 by Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers
ISBN: 9780865164314
ASIN: 0865164312
Language: Latin

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.