![]() ![]() ![]() Ovid’s Metamorphoses, translation David Raeburn (2004). This accomplishment also goes a long way in explaining the rightful place the Metamorphoses holds within the canon of classical literature, placed as it is beside other great epics of Mediterranean antiquity such as the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid. The artistic dexterity involved in pulling off this literary feat is testimony to Ovid’s skill and ambition as a poet. The madness and chaos of some 250 stories, spanning around 700 lines of poetry per book, are woven together by the theme of metamorphosis or transformation. Beginning with the creation of the world, and ending with Rome in his own lifetime, the Metamorphoses drags the reader through time and space, from beginnings to endings, from life to death, from moments of delicious joy to episodes of depravity and abjection. Ovid’s 15-book epic, written in exquisite Latin hexameter, is a rollercoaster of a read. Recent calls to provide trigger-warnings to university students before they study the work tell us as much about modern Western attitudes towards sex, violence and censorship as the Metamorphoses tells us about the gender politics of ancient Rome. ![]() But as centuries have passed, its notoriety has increased. Ovid’s Metamorphoses (AD 3-8) was not originally as controversial as his other poetic works. ![]()
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