Metamorphoses

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This article is about the poem by Ovid. For other uses, see Metamorphoses (disambiguation).

Metamorphoses

by Ovid

Title page of 1556 edition published by Joannes Gryphius

(decorative border added subsequently). Hayden White Rare

Book Collection, University of California, Santa Cruz[1]

Original Metamorphoseon libri

title

First 8 AD

published

in

Language Latin

Genre(s) Narrative
 poetry, epic, elegy, tragedy, pastoral (see Contents)

The Metamorphoses (Latin: Metamorphsen libr: "Books of Transformations") is a Latin narrative

poem by the Roman poet Ovid, considered his magnum opus. Comprising fifteen books and over
250 myths, the poem chronicles the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius
Caesar within a loose mythico-historical framework.
Although meeting the criteria for an epic, the poem defies simple genre classification by its use of
varying themes and tones. Ovid took inspiration from the genre of metamorphosis poetry, and some
of the Metamorphoses derives from earlier treatment of the same myths; however, he diverged
significantly from all of his models.
One of the most influential works in Western culture, the Metamorphoses has inspired such authors
as Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer, and William Shakespeare. Numerous
episodes from the poem have been depicted in acclaimed works of sculpture, painting, and music.
Although interest in Ovid faded after the Renaissance, there was a resurgence of attention to his
work towards the end of the 20th century; today, the Metamorphoses continues to inspire and be
retold through various media. The work has been the subject of numerous translations into English,
the first by William Caxton in 1480.[2]

Contents
[hide]

1Sources and models

2Contents

o 2.1Books

3Themes

o 3.1Metamorphosis

4Influence

5Manuscript tradition

6In English translation

7See also

8Notes

9References

o 9.1Modern translation

o 9.2Secondary sources
 10Further reading

11External links

Sources and models[edit]

Ovid's relation to the Hellenistic poets was similar to the attitude of the Hellenistic poets themselves to their
predecessors: he demonstrated that he had read their versions ... but that he could still treat the myths in his own
way.
Karl Galinsky[3]

Ovid's decision to make myth the dominant subject of the Metamorphoses was influenced by the
predisposition of Alexandrian poetry.[4]However, whereas it served in that tradition as the cause for
moral reflection or insight, he made it instead the "object of play and artful manipulation". [4] The
model for a collection of metamorphosis myths derived from a pre-existing genre of metamorphosis
poetry in the Hellenistic tradition, of which the earliest known example is Boio(s)' Ornithogonia a
now-fragmentary poem collecting myths about the metamorphoses of humans into birds.[5]
There are three examples of the Metamorphoses by later Hellenistic writers, but little is known of
their contents.[3] The Heteroioumena by Nicander of Colophon is better known, and clearly an
influence on the poem 21 of the stories from this work were treated in the Metamorphoses.
[3]
However, in a way that was typical for writers of the period, Ovid diverged significantly from his
models. The Metamorphoses was longer than any previous collection of metamorphosis myths
(Nicander's work consisted of probably four or five books)[6] and positioned itself within a historical
framework.[7]
Some of the Metamorphoses derives from earlier literary and poetic treatment of the same myths.
This material was of varying quality and comprehensiveness while some of it was "finely worked",
in other cases Ovid may have been working from limited material.[8] In the case of an oft-used myth
such as that of Io in Book I, which was the subject of literary adaptation as early as the 5th century
BC, and as recently as a generation prior to his own, Ovid reorganises and innovates existing
material in order to foreground his favoured topics and to embody the key themes of
the Metamorphoses.[9]

Contents[edit]

A woodcut from Virgil Solis, illustrating the apotheosis of Julius Caesar, the final event of the poem (XV.745
850)

Scholars have found it difficult to place the Metamorphoses in a genre. The poem has been
considered as an epic or a type of epic (for example, an anti-epic or mock-epic);
[10]
a Kollektivgedicht that pulls together a series of examples in miniature form, such as the epyllion;
[11]
a sampling of one genre after another;[12] or a narrative that refuses categorization.[13]
The poem is generally considered to meet the criteria for an epic; it is considerably long, relating
over 250 narratives across fifteen books;[14] it is composed in dactylic hexameter, the meter of both
the ancient Iliad and Odyssey, and the more contemporary epic Aeneid; and it treats the high literary
subject of myth.[15] However, the poem "handles the themes and employs the tone of virtually every
species of literature",[16] ranging from epic and elegy to tragedy and pastoral.[17] Commenting on the
genre debate, G. Karl Galinsky has opined that "... it would be misguided to pin the label of any
genre on the Metamorphoses."[13]
The Metamorphoses is comprehensive in its chronology, recounting the creation of the world to the
death of Julius Caesar, which had occurred only a year before Ovid's birth; [12] it has been compared
to works of universal history, which became important in the 1st century BC.[16] In spite of its
apparently unbroken chronology, scholar Brooks Otis has identified four divisions in the narrative: [18]

Book IBook II (end, line 875): The Divine Comedy

Book IIIBook VI, 400: The Avenging Gods

Book VI, 401Book XI (end, line 795): The Pathos of Love

Book XIIBook XV (end, line 879): Rome and the Deified Ruler
Ovid works his way through his subject matter, often in an apparently arbitrary fashion, by jumping
from one transformation tale to another, sometimes retelling what had come to be seen as central
events in the world of Greek mythology and sometimes straying in odd directions. It begins with the
ritual "invocation of the muse", and makes use of traditional epithets and circumlocutions. But
instead of following and extolling the deeds of a human hero, it leaps from story to story with little
connection.
The recurring theme, as with nearly all of Ovid's work, is lovebe it personal love or love personified
in the figure of Amor (Cupid). Indeed, the other Roman gods are repeatedly perplexed, humiliated,
and made ridiculous by Amor, an otherwise relatively minor god of the pantheon, who is the closest
thing this putative mock-epic has to a hero. Apollo comes in for particular ridicule as Ovid shows how
irrational love can confound the god out of reason. The work as a whole inverts the accepted order,
elevating humans and human passions while making the gods and their desires and conquests
objects of low humor.
The Metamorphoses ends with an epilogue (Book XV.8719), one of only two surviving Latin epics
to do so (the other being Statius' Thebaid).[19] The ending acts as a declaration that everything except
his poetryeven Romemust give way to change:[20]
"Now stands my task accomplished, such a work
As not the wrath of Jove, nor fire nor sword
Nor the devouring ages can destroy".[21]
Books[edit]
 A depiction of the story of Pygmalion by Jean Raoux (1717)

Book I The Creation, the Ages of Mankind,

the flood, Deucalion and Pyrrha, Apollo and Daphne, Io, Phaton.

Book II Phaton (cont.), Callisto, the raven and the

crow, Ocyrhoe, Mercury and Battus, the envy of Aglauros, Jupiter and Europa.

Book III Cadmus, Diana and Actaeon, Semele and the birth
of Bacchus, Tiresias, Narcissus and Echo, Pentheus and Bacchus.

Book IV The daughters of Minyas, Pyramus and Thisbe, the Sun in

love, Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, the daughters of Minyas
transformed, Athamas and Ino, the transformation
of Cadmus, Perseus and Andromeda.

Book V Perseus' fight in the palace of Cepheus, Minerva meets

the Muses on Helicon, the rape of Proserpina, Arethusa, Triptolemus.

Book VI Arachne; Niobe; the Lycian peasants; Marsyas; Pelops; Tereus, Procne,
and Philomela; Boreas and Orithyia.

Book VII Medea and Jason, Medea and Aeson, Medea

and Pelias, Theseus, Minos, Aeacus, the plague at Aegina,
the Myrmidons, Cephalus and Procris.

Book VIII Scylla and Minos,

the Minotaur, Daedalus and Icarus, Perdix, Meleager and the Calydonian
Boar, Althaea and Meleager, Achelous and the Nymphs, Philemon and
Baucis, Erysichthon and his daughter.
 Book IX Achelous and Hercules; Hercules, Nessus, and Deianira; the death and
apotheosis of Hercules; the birth of Hercules; Dryope; Iolaus and the sons
of Callirhoe; Byblis; Iphis and Ianthe.

Book X Orpheus and

Eurydice, Cyparissus, Ganymede, Hyacinth, Pygmalion, Myrrha, Venus and Adonis,
Atalanta.

Book XI The death of Orpheus, Midas, the foundation and destruction

of Troy, Peleus and Thetis, Daedalion, the cattle of
Peleus, Ceyx and Alcyone, Aesacus.

Book XII The expedition against Troy, Achilles and Cycnus, Caenis, the battle of
the Lapiths and Centaurs, Nestor and Hercules, the death of Achilles.

Book XIII Ajax, Ulysses, and the arms of Achilles; the Fall of
Troy; Hecuba, Polyxena, and Polydorus; Memnon; the pilgrimage of Aeneas; Acis
and Galatea; Scylla and Glaucus.

Book XIV Scylla and Glaucus (cont.), the pilgrimage of Aeneas (cont.), the island
of Circe, Picus and Canens, the triumph and apotheosis of
Aeneas, Pomona and Vertumnus, legends of early Rome, the apotheosis
of Romulus.

Book XV Numa and the foundation of Crotone, the doctrines of Pythagoras, the
death of Numa, Hippolytus, Cipus, Asclepius, the apotheosis of Julius Caesar,
epilogue.[22]

Themes[edit]