Ovid’s sensuous and witty poem brings together a dazzling array of mythological tales, ingeniously linked by the idea of transformation, often as a result of love or lust, in which men and women find themselves magically changed into new and sometimes extraordinary beings. Beginning with the creation of the world and ending with the deification of Augustus, Ovid interweaves many of the best known myths and legends of ancient Greece and Rome, including Daedalus and Icarus, Pyramus and Thisbe, Pygmalion, Perseus and Andromeda, and the fall of Troy. Mortals become gods, animals turn to stone, and humans change into flowers, trees, or stars.
First published in A.D. 8, Ovid’s Metamorphoses remains one of the most accessible and inspirational introductions to Greek mythology.
“It is Ovid’s perhaps unique genius to offer his tales of transformed bodies both as metaphors for the pivotal moment of the human life cycle and as comments on the social construction of the life cycle in his own time.”
Ovid—Publius Ovidius Naso—(43 b.c. to a.d. 17 or 18) was born into a wealthy Roman family and became the most distinguished poet of his time. He died in exile on the Black Sea, far from Rome and his literary life.
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