Ovid's Metamorphoses

by Fantham, Elaine

• ISBN13: 9780195154092
• ISBN10: 0195154096
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-07-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Oxford Approaches to Classical Literature (Series Editors: Kathleen Coleman and Richard Rutherford) introduces individual works of Greek and Latin literature to readers who are approaching them for the first time. Each volume sets the work in its literary and historical context, and aims tooffer a balanced and engaging assessment of its content, artistry, and purpose. A brief survey of the influence of the work upon subsequent generations is included to demonstrate its enduring relevance and power. All quotations from the original are translated into English. Ovid's Metamorphoses have been seen as both the culmination of and a revolution in the classical epic tradition, transferring narrative interest from war to love and fantasy. This introduction considers how Ovid found and shaped his narrative from the creation of the world to his own sophisticatedtimes, illustrating the cruelty of jealous gods, the pathos of human love, and the imaginative fantasy of flight, monsters, magic, and illusion. Elaine Fantham introduces the reader not only to this marvelous and complex narrative poem, but to the Greek and Roman traditions behind Ovid's tales oftransformation and a selection of the images and texts that it inspired.

Table of Contents

Editors' Foreword	v
1 Transforming Bodies, Transforming Epic	3	(18)
2 Creation, Flood, and Fire	21	(15)
3 Cadmus and the Tragic Dynasty of Thebes	36	(15)
4 Human Artistry and Divine Jealousy	51	(10)
5 The Lives of Women	61	(13)
6 Aspects of Love	74	(15)
7 Heroes-Old Style and New	89	(16)
8 Fantasy, the Fabulous, and the Miraculous Metamorphoses of Nature	105	(14)
9 Genre and Narrative: Ovid's Polymorphous Poem	119	(14)
10 After Ovid	133	(20)
APPENDIX 1 Ovid's Poetical Works	153	(4)
APPENDIX 2 Outline of the Metamorphoses	157	(10)
Index of Persons	167	(8)
General Index	175