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4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
Definitely good for me and filled in some gaps. There are still many gaps to fill that this book did not help me with (looking at you, Hercules
"..y se llama nacer a empezar a ser
algo distinto a lo que antes se era, y morir a dejar de ser
eso mismo..."
Mi lectura nº 100 de 2020 es esta maravilla de Ovidio por donde pasean Narciso, Dafne, Orfeo, Pigmalión, el Minotauro, Ícaro, Sibila... Sus mitos están narrados con una belleza deslumbrante. Si solo vais a leer una obra de mitología clásica, que sea esta.
algo distinto a lo que antes se era, y morir a dejar de ser
eso mismo..."
Mi lectura nº 100 de 2020 es esta maravilla de Ovidio por donde pasean Narciso, Dafne, Orfeo, Pigmalión, el Minotauro, Ícaro, Sibila... Sus mitos están narrados con una belleza deslumbrante. Si solo vais a leer una obra de mitología clásica, que sea esta.
Rating: 5/10
This was the last book of myth retellings I had on my shelves from the bunch I bought about five years ago. I had already established before now that I vastly prefer fairy tales to myths, but I wanted to read this anyway because I know the stories in here are formative for a lot of Western literature that came later.
I admire this for its literary historical value. I also think it’s impressive that Ovid constructed this epic linked work based on transformation. It’s quite a narrow linking point, but he makes it work. People get turned into birds, trees, rocks, islands, and other things throughout this story told through poetry. The narrow linking point makes the narratives kind of repetitive, though. Myth and fairy tale does tend to be repetitive anyway, so this isn’t new, but it is tiring.
And this focusing a lot on the gods and goddesses of the Roman pantheon (the Romans generally took their gods from the Greeks and just changed the names), we get an awful lot of infighting between the gods. We also get a lot of Jupiter (Zeus) raping young girls. That’s not fun to read over and over again. And he wasn’t the only god who couldn’t leave young mortal women alone. Honestly, it got repetitive.
I knew a lot of the stories here from other retellings, and the ones I didn’t know tended to repeat many of the same ideas anyway. So I confess I skimmed through bits of this. It got to be not fun to read.
I also didn’t enjoy the experience of reading this Penguin edition. The way it was structured, they would drop the last word or couple of words onto the next line, which upset the flow of the poem for me. I don’t know why they didn’t make the size of the book bigger or the font smaller to fix this problem. However, I did like the introduction to each book, summarising each story, and I liked the headings for each new story.
At least I don’t have any myth-based books left to read. Now, I can just avoid them, unless they’re feminist retellings. Five out of ten for the literary merit of this book. The reading experience was not enjoyable for me.
Blog: awonderfulbook.com | Instagram: katiemotenbooks | Twitter: katiemotenbooks
This was the last book of myth retellings I had on my shelves from the bunch I bought about five years ago. I had already established before now that I vastly prefer fairy tales to myths, but I wanted to read this anyway because I know the stories in here are formative for a lot of Western literature that came later.
I admire this for its literary historical value. I also think it’s impressive that Ovid constructed this epic linked work based on transformation. It’s quite a narrow linking point, but he makes it work. People get turned into birds, trees, rocks, islands, and other things throughout this story told through poetry. The narrow linking point makes the narratives kind of repetitive, though. Myth and fairy tale does tend to be repetitive anyway, so this isn’t new, but it is tiring.
And this focusing a lot on the gods and goddesses of the Roman pantheon (the Romans generally took their gods from the Greeks and just changed the names), we get an awful lot of infighting between the gods. We also get a lot of Jupiter (Zeus) raping young girls. That’s not fun to read over and over again. And he wasn’t the only god who couldn’t leave young mortal women alone. Honestly, it got repetitive.
I knew a lot of the stories here from other retellings, and the ones I didn’t know tended to repeat many of the same ideas anyway. So I confess I skimmed through bits of this. It got to be not fun to read.
I also didn’t enjoy the experience of reading this Penguin edition. The way it was structured, they would drop the last word or couple of words onto the next line, which upset the flow of the poem for me. I don’t know why they didn’t make the size of the book bigger or the font smaller to fix this problem. However, I did like the introduction to each book, summarising each story, and I liked the headings for each new story.
At least I don’t have any myth-based books left to read. Now, I can just avoid them, unless they’re feminist retellings. Five out of ten for the literary merit of this book. The reading experience was not enjoyable for me.
Blog: awonderfulbook.com | Instagram: katiemotenbooks | Twitter: katiemotenbooks
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Bro this was sooooo hard to read 😭 idk if it’s just this translation but it’s so flowery and why all the obscure names?? Like it’s confusing. Overall this was super fun to read and I’m proud that I did it! Because it had soooo many of the myths I know and it was nice to finally read them with their source, in a way, you know? But also there were some details I hadn’t known that I think could work in a future thesis which was killer haha.
No matter what- no matter how familiar and exhausting- this book will be special to me. To see so much of Roman mythology and some Greek written in one place. To see the myths I’ve spent years learning about in books and podcasts all be in their home. It’s cool to see how Ovid flowed from one myth to another and how he worked out the narrator for each book.
No matter what- no matter how familiar and exhausting- this book will be special to me. To see so much of Roman mythology and some Greek written in one place. To see the myths I’ve spent years learning about in books and podcasts all be in their home. It’s cool to see how Ovid flowed from one myth to another and how he worked out the narrator for each book.
I adore Greek and Roman myth and Ovid tells them in such a powerful way that I can't help but fall in love with it. The only complaint I have is with the edition. The translation was nice and easy to read, but the end notes were a pain. The book is far to thick to keep flipping back and forth between the end notes and the actual text.
What a strange and wonderful read. This 15-part poem took me through Greek myths and their Roman retellings. (It's weird to call the deities "Juno" and "Jove" and "Venus" etc., when really I know and think of them by their Greek names.) The last quarter of this book is a weaving back and forth between stories from the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid. Except we have to say "Ulysses."
This book was in my life from Aug-Nov, so all the themes about agriculture and harvest, grain and corn, the rhythms of seasons, and the oaks losing their leaves, was pretty magical. THOSE are metamorphses, don't you see? Every season change is a transformation, for every plant, animal, and person.
The changes in gods and mortals can be supernatural, and in that case, are horrifying. How had it never occurred to me that all these Greek myths are monster stories? Most times a mortal appeals to a god or goddess for help. With no warning that god/ess dreams something up to turn them into and just transforms them without warning--animal, tree, water spout monster, whatever. The mortal gives no permission and has no time to prepare, so they are MISERABLE and try to fight the transformation. Fighting never works. Those transformed keep their human consciousness, so they are aware that they have become beasts. That is the classic existential monster problem. Straight up HORROR.
I found the most surprising theme to be the gender exploration in these stories. It's recorded here that if one goes into a forest and sees two serpents mating, they can strike them with a stick and change their gender. But don't worry, should this person want to change again, they can just find more snake-monsters boning and whack 'em with a stick.
Characters change genders and aren't punished, but celebrated. I'd never heard the tale of Iphis: a girl raised as a boy because her father only wanted sons. On the cusp of adolescence, Ihpis realizes she's a girl .... who loves girls. Never fear, a god granted Iphis's wish to be a boy and all is well. "The boy-Ihpis gained his Ianthe" and they get to live happily ever after.
(LITERALLY the next story is one about Orpheus, who is so heartbroken over losing Eurydice twice, that he goes around seducing and f*cking so many young boys he becomes a legend at it. Why ... was two brides an issue but two grooms appears not to be? I get there are many cultural forces I didn't grow up steeped in but. While the cultural MORALITY is perplexing, the fluidity of gender is quite familiar to me!)
I always love stories about Medea or Circe making potions using herbs, and otherwise being witchy.
Loved it, queer AF, thank you public library for the loan!!
This book was in my life from Aug-Nov, so all the themes about agriculture and harvest, grain and corn, the rhythms of seasons, and the oaks losing their leaves, was pretty magical. THOSE are metamorphses, don't you see? Every season change is a transformation, for every plant, animal, and person.
The changes in gods and mortals can be supernatural, and in that case, are horrifying. How had it never occurred to me that all these Greek myths are monster stories? Most times a mortal appeals to a god or goddess for help. With no warning that god/ess dreams something up to turn them into and just transforms them without warning--animal, tree, water spout monster, whatever. The mortal gives no permission and has no time to prepare, so they are MISERABLE and try to fight the transformation. Fighting never works. Those transformed keep their human consciousness, so they are aware that they have become beasts. That is the classic existential monster problem. Straight up HORROR.
I found the most surprising theme to be the gender exploration in these stories. It's recorded here that if one goes into a forest and sees two serpents mating, they can strike them with a stick and change their gender. But don't worry, should this person want to change again, they can just find more snake-monsters boning and whack 'em with a stick.
Characters change genders and aren't punished, but celebrated. I'd never heard the tale of Iphis: a girl raised as a boy because her father only wanted sons. On the cusp of adolescence, Ihpis realizes she's a girl .... who loves girls. Never fear, a god granted Iphis's wish to be a boy and all is well. "The boy-Ihpis gained his Ianthe" and they get to live happily ever after.
(LITERALLY the next story is one about Orpheus, who is so heartbroken over losing Eurydice twice, that he goes around seducing and f*cking so many young boys he becomes a legend at it. Why ... was two brides an issue but two grooms appears not to be? I get there are many cultural forces I didn't grow up steeped in but. While the cultural MORALITY is perplexing, the fluidity of gender is quite familiar to me!)
I always love stories about Medea or Circe making potions using herbs, and otherwise being witchy.
Loved it, queer AF, thank you public library for the loan!!
Wow, this took me awhile. It's a crazy complex web of interlocking myths with an awesome coda at the end. Unfortunately, that coda us followed by some sucking up to the powers that be. We all gotta do what we gotta do, I guess.
Although I can appreciate quite a few of the stories in the Metamorphoses individually and understand the impact of the Metamorphoses in its entirety for (modern Western) literature, both the content and the way of storytelling from Ovid feel - today - outdated.
I'm so glad to have finally read this, I feel like I now have so much background on names I've heard before or the origin of some stories that I've heard before.
I also enjoyed Stephanie McCarter's translation of this book and her introduction! It's interesting hearing her talk about this book and some of the meaning behind it. Also, the fact that she's the first woman translator for the Metamorphoses is mind-boggling, especially when she's discussing in the intro about all the discrepancies she was finding in previous male translations, specifically surrounding SA.
Thank you to Penguin Books for the finished copy in exchange for an honest review
Rating: 4 stars
I also enjoyed Stephanie McCarter's translation of this book and her introduction! It's interesting hearing her talk about this book and some of the meaning behind it. Also, the fact that she's the first woman translator for the Metamorphoses is mind-boggling, especially when she's discussing in the intro about all the discrepancies she was finding in previous male translations, specifically surrounding SA.
Thank you to Penguin Books for the finished copy in exchange for an honest review
Rating: 4 stars