A starting point should be three collections of essays on Ovid, Transformations, ed. P. Hardie, A. Barchiesi, and S. Hinds (1999); The Cambridge Companion to Ovid, ed. P. Hardie (2002); and Brill’s Companion to Ovid, ed. B. Boyd (2002), along with the excellent introductory pamphlet on Ovid by J. Barsby, Ovid (1978).
S. Hinds, ‘‘Essential epic: genre and gender from Macer to Statius,’’ in the important collection of essays, Matrices of Genre: Authors, Canons and Society, ed. M. Depew and D. Obbink (2000b): 22144, explores in formal, ideological, and epistemological terms the tension between Roman generic theory and Roman generic practice.
G. Rosati’s essay, ‘‘Narrative techniques and narrative structures,’’ in Brill’s Companion to Ovid (2002): pp. 271-304, provides a sophisticated analysis of complex problems of narrative technique, in particular the multiplication of narrative voices in the Metamorphoses.
For those with Latin, R. J. Tarrant’s Oxford text of the Metamorphoses (2004) will now probably supersede the Teubner text ofW. S. Anderson (1988). Anderson himself provides fine commentaries on Books 1-5 and Books 6-10 (1997 and 1972 respectively); for the entire poem there is the seven-volume German commentary of F. Bcimer (1969-86).
A. Mandelbaum’s translation (1993) has proved very popular. Opinions are divided about the merits of D. R. Slavitt’s translation (1994). He takes liberties with Ovid’s text through his own poetic embellishments. To my mind these work and make the translation vivid, fast-paced, and in the Ovidian spirit, but not everyone agrees.
There have been several recent works on the reception of Ovid. C. Martindale (ed.) Ovid Renewed (1988) examines Ovidian influences on literature and art from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century; S. A. Brown, The Metamorphosis of Ovid: From Chaucer to Ted Hughes (1999) provides a broad survey of Ovidianism in English literature. R. Lyne, Ovid’s Changing Worlds (2001) explores the important role played by Golding and Sandys, the first English translators of the Metamorphoses, in the complex, troubled process of the assertion of national identity. J. Bate, Shakespeare and Ovid (1993), examines Shakespeare’s transformation of Ovidian materials throughout his career.
But an initial, immediate sense of the transformative power of the Metamorphoses can be gained from Petrarch’s Canzoniere and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. C. W. Bynum, Metamorphosis and Identity (2001), while focused on the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, provides a rich meditation on different intellectual paradigms for understanding the complex meanings of metamorphosis.
Examples of Ovidian transformations in other literary genres are: in poetry, Ted Hughes, Tales from Ovid (1997); M. Hofmann and J. Lasdun (eds.) After Ovid: New Metamorphoses (1994); in the novel, C. Ransmayer, The Last World: With an Ovidian Repertory, trans. J. Woods (1990); David Malouf, An Imaginary Life (1978); Jane Alison, The Love-artist (2001); in drama, Mary Zimmerman, Metamorphoses (2002).
A Companion to Ancient Epic Edited by John Miles Foley Copyright © 2005 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
World History
