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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
I feel slightly disingenuous adding this definitely to my read (past tense—isn't it odd that "to read" is one of those few verbs whose present and past forms are identical?) pile as I only studied a few sub-books of Ovid's opus with genuine attention (most notably book 12), and skimmed the rest. While disagreeing with Ovid on a few fundamental points, the topics he tackles are important and give rise to important and transcendental questions. His great thesis is that desire, universal among humanity, is the engine of metamorphosis/change, which when taken to extremes is a fascinating theory. Each brief vignette is a unique moment in Greek mythology, but great metanarrative is what truly sets Ovid among the trifecta of revered poets. Ovid made for great discussions and a thought-provoking essay. A pagan classic, but one of high moral value nonetheless. I had to do some thinking about Dante's relationship to Ovid for another essay, and here is a great quote I found in researching:
Worth a read.
Like Virgil, Ovid is a canonical member of Dante's scriptura paganorum, an authoritative voice able to speak divine truth and moral guidance; like Virgil, he also shares the title of "altissimo poeta" (Inf. iv, 180) and a place of privilege in Limbo. And yet, far more dramatically than is the case with Virgil's "pious" epic, the Metamorphoses demonstrates the need to read literature for its inner meaning. What this means for Dante is reading in accordance with Christian revelation, the "spiritual understanding" (Colossians 1:9) which enables one to see in the wanton transformations of gods and mortals the fullness of Gospel truth. Without such a spiritual gloss, Ovid's luxuriant letter may deceive, mislead or even kill. With it, however, the Metamorphoses becomes an allegory, a work of human language whose "other term" is God's own speech.
(Hawkins, Peter. 1980. “Virtuosity and Virtue: Poetic Self-Reflection in the ‘Commedia.’” Dante
Studies, with the Annual Report of the Dante Society 98:18.)
Worth a read.
breathtaking.
It's dense, and long, and you've got to pay attention.
But it's simply breathtaking.
It's dense, and long, and you've got to pay attention.
But it's simply breathtaking.
I read this in one of my college classes, and I'm glad I was able to benefit from class discussion-it was so interesting to hear all the different interpretations of the classmates. An interesting thing my professor pointed out:
The chaotic structure of the beginning of the book reflects the chaos of the formation of the world! Anyway, it's an extremely interesting read that becomes even more fascinating the more your analyze it.
The chaotic structure of the beginning of the book reflects the chaos of the formation of the world! Anyway, it's an extremely interesting read that becomes even more fascinating the more your analyze it.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I liked it, it was so much fun reading about mythology . I had to read it for class but I still enjoyed it.
9 year old me is screaming about the fact that i am reading greek myth for school. how could i read this and not simply lose my mind??? what beautiful and tragic poetics. it is bursting with gripping retellings of captivating myth. ovid, u have won me over <3
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Reading some Greek mythology before my vacation there in August.
What a way to start off 2017. Charles Martin’s translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses has skyrocketed into my list of favorite books. I savored each page and made sure I was calm and focused each time I sat down to read so that I wouldn’t miss anything. If I had to quote the best part, I’d say it was: “My mind leads me to speak now of forms changed / into new bodies … and if there is truth in poets’ prophesies, / then in my fame forever I will live” (Book I:1 - Book XV: 1112).
I enjoyed Ovid’s grouping of history into four ages: Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron. In the beginning, we had beauty, no need for laws, peace and nature. By the time we find ourselves in the Iron Age, we have war, greed, and despoiling of nature in furthering of those two desires. Ovid writes that in the age of Iron we dig in the ground to unearth gold and iron, the latter to kill and secure the former (p. 20).
I was fascinated with all the origin myths of the gods and heroes of the classical world. I am thankfully to have come to Ovid after having read so many other things from Greek and Roman mythology. Encountering Ovid first would have been confusing and not as wonderful an experience. As I’m a huge Homer fan and of the larger Epic Cycle, I enjoyed the “Ajax versus Ulysses” section of Book XIII, which deals with the awarding of Achilles’ armor after his death at Troy. I also enjoyed Pythagoras’s thoughts on the moral imperative of vegetarianism in Book XV. I loved seeing the seeds of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in Ovid’s tale of Pyramus and Thisbe (Book IV, p. 125). Ovid didn’t invent this theme of forbidden love but I was so surprised reading this section that was written almost 1600 years before Shakespeare’s play.
The only part of this translation I didn’t enjoy was the “rap” part in Book V with the “The daughters of Pierus.” It just seemed full of pandering to stereotypes. One thing I found troubling, not with Ovid or the translation but with the mythology, was a thought I had in Book XI (though it built up over the entire work). Were all females, either goddesses or woman, raped to produce the male “heroes” of the classical world?
Almost all of Ovid’s metamorphoses (transformations) are of beings (gods or humans) being turned into flora or fauna. There are physical changes, mental fogginess, and the loss or change of spoken language. This death of personality can also be seen as a birth of sorts, whereby a new object comes into being, sometimes one beloved like various birds, trees or streams.
I’ll close this review with a note I wrote on the inside cover of my edition: “What wonder, to write when Homer, Ovid, Virgil and Horace wrote. To describe the world when it was new.” As a writer, I hope to try reinvent this newness and address it with my simple prose and verse.
I enjoyed Ovid’s grouping of history into four ages: Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron. In the beginning, we had beauty, no need for laws, peace and nature. By the time we find ourselves in the Iron Age, we have war, greed, and despoiling of nature in furthering of those two desires. Ovid writes that in the age of Iron we dig in the ground to unearth gold and iron, the latter to kill and secure the former (p. 20).
I was fascinated with all the origin myths of the gods and heroes of the classical world. I am thankfully to have come to Ovid after having read so many other things from Greek and Roman mythology. Encountering Ovid first would have been confusing and not as wonderful an experience. As I’m a huge Homer fan and of the larger Epic Cycle, I enjoyed the “Ajax versus Ulysses” section of Book XIII, which deals with the awarding of Achilles’ armor after his death at Troy. I also enjoyed Pythagoras’s thoughts on the moral imperative of vegetarianism in Book XV. I loved seeing the seeds of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in Ovid’s tale of Pyramus and Thisbe (Book IV, p. 125). Ovid didn’t invent this theme of forbidden love but I was so surprised reading this section that was written almost 1600 years before Shakespeare’s play.
The only part of this translation I didn’t enjoy was the “rap” part in Book V with the “The daughters of Pierus.” It just seemed full of pandering to stereotypes. One thing I found troubling, not with Ovid or the translation but with the mythology, was a thought I had in Book XI (though it built up over the entire work). Were all females, either goddesses or woman, raped to produce the male “heroes” of the classical world?
Almost all of Ovid’s metamorphoses (transformations) are of beings (gods or humans) being turned into flora or fauna. There are physical changes, mental fogginess, and the loss or change of spoken language. This death of personality can also be seen as a birth of sorts, whereby a new object comes into being, sometimes one beloved like various birds, trees or streams.
I’ll close this review with a note I wrote on the inside cover of my edition: “What wonder, to write when Homer, Ovid, Virgil and Horace wrote. To describe the world when it was new.” As a writer, I hope to try reinvent this newness and address it with my simple prose and verse.