The Metamorphoses Of Ovid

The Metamorphoses Of Ovid

Through Mandelbaum?s poetic artistry, this gloriously entertaining achievement of literature-classical myths filtered through the worldly and far from reverent sensibility of the Roman poet Ovid-is revealed anew. ?[An] extraordinary translation...brilliant? (Booklist). With an Introduction by the Translator.Amazon.com ReviewPublius Ovidius Naso, whom we know as Ovid, was already established as a writer when was published in A.D. 8, when he was 52 years old. It had taken him a decade to compose his great poem, during which time he published little, but the Roman world was still abuzz with excitement over his richly erotic . So, unfortunately, was the court of Augustus Caesar, and the emperor banished the poet to what is now Romania. Augustus may have taken exception to the poet's turn to the impolite realm of the body--or he may have objected to a rumored affair between Ovid and the emperor's nymphomaniacal daughter Julia, who figures so prominently in 's Claudius novels. The poet who had declared Rome to be his only home could have found no worse punishment than exile, but no amount of pleading could sway Augustus, and Ovid died on the shores of the Black Sea a decade later. Full of veiled political and historical references,The Metamorphoses lived on to become a permanent fixture in the canon of European literature. In Allen Mandelbaum's hands, it lives on for a new generation.From Publishers WeeklyTranslator and poet Mandelbaum offers his rendition of Ovid's classic work of mythology and change.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.From the Back CoverThe Metamorphoses is a treasury of classical myths, filtered through the worldly and far from reverent sensibility of the Roman poet Ovid (43 B.C-A.D.17).About the AuthorAllen Mandelbaum's translations of Homer, Dante, Virgil, Quasimodo, and Ungaretti have all been richly praised. For his translation ofThe Aeneid, he won the National Book Award.