Metamorphoses: A Norton Critical Edition (Norton Critical Ed

ISBN: 039392534X

Author: Ovid

Condition: new

In his award-winning translation, Charles Martin combines fidelity to Ovids text with verse that catches the speed and liveliness of the original. Ovids epic poem-whose theme of change has resonated throughout the ages-is one of the most important texts of Western imagination, an inspiration from Dantes time to the present, when writers such as Salman Rushdie and Italo Calvino have found a living source in Ovids work. The text is accompanied by a preface, A Note on the Translation, and detailed explanatory annotations.Sources and Backgrounds includes Senecas inspired commentary on Ovid, Charles Martins essay on the ways in which pantomimic dancing-an art form popular in Ovids 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.