Metamorphoses

Ovid's epic poem-whose theme of change has resonated throughout the ages-is one of the most important texts of Western imagination, an inspiration from Dante's time to the present, when writers such as Salman Rushdie and Italo Calvino have found a living source in Ovid's work. The text is accompanied by a preface, A Note on the Translation, and detailed explanatory annotations. "Sources and Backgrounds" includes Seneca's inspired commentary on Ovid, Charles Martin's essay on the ways in which pantomimic dancing-an art form popular in Ovid's time-may have been the model for Metamorphoses. , as well as related works by Virgil, Callimachus, Hesiod, and Lucretius, among others. From the enormous body of scholarly writing on Metamorphoses. , Charles Martin has chosen six major interpretations by Bernard Knox, J. R. R. Mackail, Norman O. Brown, Italo Calvino, Frederick Ahl, and Diane Middlebrook. A Glossary of Persons, Places, and Personifications in the Metamorphoses. and a Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.