The Metamorphoses of Ovid

Michael Simpson

University of Massachusetts Press, 2003 - Poetry - 497 pages

Composed in Latin in the early years of the first century by the Roman poet Ovid, the Metamorphoses presents a collection of amazing tales of transformation based on Greek mythology and legend. Michael Simpson's prose translation of Ovid's masterpiece in the rapid and direct American idiom catches the swiftness and clarity of the Latin original. His introduction sketches the poet's life, describes his extant works, discusses his unusual exile to the west coast of the Black Sea (where he died), and provides a useful context for reading the Metamorphoses.

Simpson has also prepared extensive endnotes that serve as mini-essays, illuminating the manifold aspects of the poem and offering commentary and interpretation that enable readers to enter Ovid's magical world and enjoy its richness.

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The metamorphoses of Ovid

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Ovid's Metamorphoses is one of the best repositories of ancient Greek and Roman mythology. Ovid is also a skilled poet and storyteller with a sly and urbane wit. A number of translations are readily ...

About the author

Michael Simpson is professor of classics in the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas. He is author of Gods and Heroes of the Greeks: The "Library" of Apollodorus (University of Massachusetts Press, 1976).

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Metamorphoses of Ovid
• Editor: Michael Simpson
• Translated by: Michael Simpson
• Contributor: Michael Simpson
• Edition: illustrated, reprint, revised
• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press, 2003
• ISBN: 1558493999, 9781558493995
• Length: 497 pages
• Subjects: Poetry / Ancient & Classical; Poetry / European / General