Metamorphoses: The New, Annotated Edition

Great book. Highly recommended for casual readers and students. Does away with pretentious verse translation, and is eminently readable. There is the odd mistranslation of the Latin (usually only a minor technicality), but these are pointed out in the superb notes by J Reed. The notes in the back are the most useful bit of the book, making the text accessible to everyone.

I use this text to teach homeschooling teenagers because it's a nice poetic version in modern English. The reading level is not difficult, and the stories of gods, nymphs, traitors, soldiers, murderers, and adventurers are all punctuated with how they turn into birds or flowers or trees or whatever, and are compelling for the students. A great resource for studying literature since Ovid was so influential to English writers through the centuries, including Shakespeare and the Romantics. Perhaps the most important source book next to the Bible!

This book is a joy to read. The notes are great. The price is very reasonable. I love it!

I purchased this edition of the Metamorphoses because as a Classics grad student studying Augustan literature I wanted to have several different translations of the Metamorphoses for comparison's sake. The translation here is... rough, in my eyes. Not "rough" in the sense of "poorly done," but "rough" in the sense of "outdated and misogynistic." The real value here is in Joseph Reed's commentary, which I think would be useful for first-time readers of the Metamorphoses and seasoned Classicists alike. Reed does an excellent job explaining mythological references, clarifying some of the translator's problematic language, and drawing connections between myths to try and explain Ovid's project. The purchase was worth it for the commentary alone!

Good to have this useful book

No light read, but Ovid really knows how to write a book! Just don't drop it on your foot.

5 stars for the book rather than the translation as it strikes me this is one of those books that might benefit from being read in Latin but my Latin is limited to mea culpa. Anyway, Ovid's book is a fantastic array of ridiculous fantasy stories of Gods snatching maidens and young boys and turning them [hence "metamorphoses"] into trees or rivers or birds or ... and then only after fully enjoying the pleasures of the flesh. Wish I was a god. Ravishing stuff but after a few hundred pages of the same plot it becomes "Here we go again". It's replete with famous stories: Ganymede, Narcissus, Jason & Medea, the Deucalion Flood (an alternate version of Noah's Ark), Midas, Icarus, Scylla and Charybdis, the invasion of Troy, Adonis etc - all familiar western myths. Book Fifteen includes a section on Pythagoras' teaching who as a vegetarian really let fly at carnivores - made me wince. In short, no [Western] education is complete without this book.

I bought this on Kindle, not so much for the translation as I've others I'd prefer, but entirely off the back of the many great reviews of the Reed's annotation commentary. I bought the Kindle version precisely because I did not want to be flipping to the back of the book constantly. Unfortunately, whoever created this Kindle version has not deemed it necessary to make the annotations clickable. There are very many asterisks, one pretty much every line. A great shame, and returned it for a refund.

Humphries gelingt es, dieses großartige Werk dem Normalleser zugänglich zu machen. Das ist keine geringe Leistung. Stehen die "Metamorphosen" doch am Beginn der europäischen Literatur und sind sie neben der Bibel das meist zitierte Werk der abendländischen Literatur. Ovids Werk handelt von Verwandlungen verschiedenster Art. Meist geht es darum, dass Götter ihre Macht missbrauchen, um Sterbliche in Tiere oder Pflanzen zu verwandeln. Oft nachdem sie vorher von den Göttern missbraucht wurden oder indem sie der ungerechten Rachsucht der Unsterblichen zum Opfer fielen. Die Götter sind dabei nicht zimperlich. Hier kommen die meisten schweren Straftaten, die hierzulande vom Strafgesetzbuch erfasst sind, zur Anwendung: Mord und Totschlag, Entführung, Vergewaltigung, Inzest, usw. Nicht umsonst geriet "Metamorphosen" ins Blickfeld politisch korrekter Studenten in den USA, welche von ihren Professoren verlangten, das Werk mit einem entsprechenden Hinweis auf potentiell gefährliche Inhalte zu versehen. Sicher, "Metamorhosen" ist ein gewalttätiges und chauvinistisches Werk, dessen männliche Dominanz und Brutalität augenscheinlich sind, aber es steht in seiner Bedeutung für die europäische Kulturgeschichte auch einzigartig da. Man ist beim Lesen immer wieder überrascht, für wie viele europäische Mythen, die ins Allgemeinwissen übergegangen sind, bereits hier die Grundlagen gelegt wurden.

Good product

Questa è onestamente la miglior traduzione delle Metamorfosi di Ovidio. Ho letto i libri in latino e in Italiano, e questa traduzione di Rolfe Humphries è l'unica che non mi fa venire mal di testa per l'uso di eccessiva pomposità e parole pseudo-italiane ricercate che dovrebbero arricchire il testo ma lo gonfiano soltanto (ho detto quello che ho detto e non mi pento). Questa traduzione riflette la narrativa semplice e diretta di Ovidio, come giusto che sia.

This book is wonderful. The Rolfe Humphries is THE translation. This printing is also very nice. The paper, the type, everything makes it a good book. When you turn the page, it turns nicely and lies flat; how refreshing. The stories of the Metamorphoses are, of course, wonderful. It's the book itself that I want to talk about. The beautiful Waterhouse painting on the cover spans the front and part of the back covers. The line numbers at the top of each text page are those of the Latin text in the Loeb edition; how many translators would go to that kind of trouble for you? Rolfe Humphries' introduction is light, funny, and enjoyable. His love of his work shines through. The last line of his intro is, "So - here he is [Ovid], and I hope you like him." The table of contents is annotated, making it easy to find any major story you are looking for. I also love the designs at the beginning of each book/chapter: such details enhance my enjoyment of reading this edition. If you have never read Ovid's Metamorphoses, don't be intimidated. It is a collection of mythology stories, and you will find much that is probably familiar to you (Echo and Narcissus, Jason, Pygmalion, and more). If you are at all serious about literature, this is a basic building block in your knowledge. And even if you're not, it's just a damn good book. The translation itself is so fluent and enjoyable. Just listen to the introduction: My intention is to tell of bodies changed To different forms; the gods, who made the changes, Will help me - or so I hope - with a poem That runs from the world's beginning to our own days. This is exciting, eloquent stuff! Please do yourself a favor and make sure you read this at some point during your lifetime.

A must read for the avid Ovid reader. Good quality book for the price point.