Product Description

Bringing together a series of ingeniously linked myths and legends, Ovid’s deliciously witty and poignant Metamorphoses describes a magical world in which men and women are transformed - often by love - into flowers, trees, animals, stones and stars. First published in 1567, this landmark translation by Arthur Golding was the first major English edition of the epic, which includes such tales as the legend of Narcissus; the parable of Icarus; and the passion held by the witch-queen Circe for the great Aeneas. A compelling adaptation that used imagery familiar to English sixteenth-century society, it powerfully influenced Spenser, Shakespeare and the character of Elizabethan literature.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #221914 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-27
• Original language: Latin
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

About the Author
Ovid (43 BC - AD 18) was a Roman poet who experimented in a variety of different forms from love elegies to mock didactic verse. He died in exile. Arthur Golding (c.1565 - c.1605) was a translator of Latin and French verse, the most significant of which was The Metamorphoses. Madeleine Forey is a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. Translated by Arthur Golding Edited with an introduction and notes by Madeleine Forey

Customer Reviews

Golding's hugely influential 1587 translation
This is Ovid Englished by Golding (otherwise known as Shakespeare's Ovid as it might have been the version of the Metamorphoses that he read,although he probably read the latin original too). Published in 1587 this had a huge impact on Renaissance literature and it's easy to see why. Managing to walk the fine line between Ovid's latin original and a translation which is politically and religiously acceptable in C16th England, this tells nothing less than the story of the (Graeco-Roman) world from the original chaos to the apotheosis of Augustus.
In robust rhyming fourteeners Golding re-tells the most famous Greek myths: Narcissus and Echo, Daphne and Apollo, the rape of Persephone, Pygmalion, Orpheus etc etc. But this is more than a collection of ancient stories; this is a poetic text in its own right which is, by turn, funny, tragic, warm and chilling. Amazingly Golding manages to capture something of Ovid's own wit and playfulness while bedding his own version down within the world of Renaissance England.

If you haven't experienced Ovid before then I would recommend a more traditional translation like David Raeburn's one for Penguin or the accurate by less elegant Loeb edition. But if you know the original, then this is a fine addition, and essential for anyone interested in or studying the renaissance and its literature and culture.