Title page of 1556 edition published by Joannes Gryphius (decorative border added subsequently). Hayden White Rare Book Collection, University of California, Santa Cruz.[1]
Although it meets some of the criteria for anepic, the poem defies simple genre classification because of its varying themes and tones. Ovid took inspiration from the genre of metamorphosis poetry. Although some of theMetamorphoses derives from earlier treatment of the same myths, Ovid diverged significantly from all of his models.
TheMetamorphoses is one of the most influential works inWestern culture. It has inspired such authors asDante Alighieri,Giovanni Boccaccio,Geoffrey Chaucer, andWilliam Shakespeare. Numerous episodes from the poem have been depicted in works of sculpture, painting, and music, especially during theRenaissance. There was a resurgence of attention to Ovid's work near the end of the 20th century. TheMetamorphoses continues to inspire and be retold through various media. Numerous English translations of the work have been made, the first byWilliam Caxton in 1480.[2]
Ovid's relation to the Hellenistic poets was similar to the attitude of the Hellenistic poets themselves to their predecessors: he demonstrated that he had read their versions ... but that he could still treat the myths in his own way.
Ovid's decision to make myth the primary subject of theMetamorphoses was influenced byAlexandrian poetry.[4] In that tradition, myth functioned as a vehicle for moral reflection or insight, yet Ovid approached it as an "object of play and artful manipulation".[4] The model for a collection of metamorphosis myths was found in themetamorphosis poetry of theHellenistic tradition, which is first represented byBoios'Ornithogonia—a now-fragmentary poem of collected myths about the metamorphoses of humans into birds.[5]
There are three examples ofMetamorphoses by later Hellenistic writers, but little is known of their contents.[3] TheHeteroioumena byNicander of Colophon is better known, and clearly an influence on the poem: 21 of the stories from this work are treated in theMetamorphoses.[3] However, in a way that was typical for writers of the period, Ovid diverged significantly from his models. TheMetamorphoses was longer than any previous collection of metamorphosis myths (Nicander's work consisted of probably four or five books)[6] and positioned itself within a historical framework.[7]
Some of theMetamorphoses derives from earlier literary and poetic treatment of the same myths. This material was of varying quality and comprehensiveness; while some of it was "finely worked", in other cases Ovid may have been working from limited material.[8] In the case of an oft-used myth such as that ofIo in Book I, which was the subject of literary adaptation as early as the 5th century BCE, and as recently as a generation prior to his own, Ovid reorganises and innovates existing material in order to foreground his favoured topics and to embody the key themes of theMetamorphoses.[9] The narrative and motivic scope is further widened through severalintertextual references; the literary predecessors are therefore not only used as source material but also to enrich the mythological landscape presented in theMetamorphoses.[10]
Scholars have found it difficult to place theMetamorphoses in a genre. The poem has been considered as anepic or a type of epic (for example, an anti-epic or mock-epic);[11] aKollektivgedicht that pulls together a series of examples in miniature form, such as theepyllion;[12] a sampling of one genre after another;[13] or simply a narrative that refuses categorization.[14]
The poem is generally considered to meet the criteria for an epic; it is considerably long, relating over 250 narratives across fifteen books;[15] it is composed indactylic hexameter, themeter of both the ancientIliad andOdyssey, and the more contemporary epicAeneid; and it treats the high literary subject of myth.[16] However, the poem "handles the themes and employs the tone of virtually every species of literature",[17] ranging from epic andelegy totragedy andpastoral.[18] Commenting on the genre debate,Karl Galinsky has opined that "... it would be misguided to pin the label of any genre on theMetamorphoses".[14]
TheMetamorphoses is comprehensive in its chronology, recounting the creation of the world to the death ofJulius Caesar, which had occurred only a year before Ovid's birth;[13] it has been compared to works ofuniversal history, which became important in the 1st century BCE.[17] In spite of its apparently unbroken chronology, scholarBrooks Otis has identified four divisions in the narrative:[19]
Book I – Book II (end, line 875): The Divine Comedy
Book III – Book VI, 400: The Avenging Gods
Book VI, 401 – Book XI (end, line 795): The Pathos of Love
Book XII – Book XV (end, line 879): Rome and the Deified Ruler
Ovid works his way through his subject matter, often in an apparently arbitrary fashion, by jumping from one transformation tale to another, sometimes retelling what had come to be seen as central events in the world ofGreek mythology and sometimes straying in odd directions. It begins with the ritual "invocation of themuse", and makes use of traditionalepithets andcircumlocutions. But instead of following and extolling the deeds of a humanhero, it leaps from story to story with little connection.
The recurring theme, as with nearly all of Ovid's work, is love—be it personal love or love personified in the figure ofAmor (Cupid). Indeed, the otherRoman gods are repeatedly perplexed, humiliated, and made ridiculous byAmor, an otherwise relatively minor god of thepantheon, who is the closest thing this putative mock-epic has to a hero.Apollo comes in for particular ridicule as Ovid shows how irrational love can confound the god out ofreason. The work as a whole inverts the accepted order, elevating humans and human passions while making the gods and their desires and conquests objects of low humor. Love has also been proposed as one of the ordering principles of the work, in that the focus changes over the 15 books from male to female desire, for example, and asymmetrical, violent forms of love are replaced by the depiction of consensual relationships in the course of the entire work.[20]
TheMetamorphoses ends with an epilogue (Book XV.871–879), one of only two surviving Latin epics to do so (the other beingStatius'Thebaid).[21] The ending acts as a declaration that everything except his poetry—even Rome—must give way to change:[22]
And now, my work is done, which neitherJove Nor flame nor sword nor gnawing time can fade. That day, which governs only my poor frame, May come at will to end my unfixed life, But in my better and immortal part I shall be borne beyond the lofty stars And never will my name be washed away. Where Roman power prevails, I shall be read; And so, in fame and on through every age (If bards foretell the truth at all), I'll live.[23]
Rhoetus: a character mentioned in Book V. AfterPerseus rescuesAndromeda from thesea monster, her betrothedPhineus, brother of her father, attacksPerseus, throwing a spear at him. Perseus, in turn, throws the spear back, but Phineus hides behind the altars, and the spear strikes Rhoetus.
The different genres and divisions in the narrative allow theMetamorphoses to display a wide range of themes. Scholar Stephen M. Wheeler notes that "metamorphosis, mutability, love, violence, artistry, and power are just some of the unifying themes that critics have proposed over the years".[25]
Metamorphosis or transformation is a unifying theme amongst the episodes of theMetamorphoses. Ovid raises its significance explicitly in the opening lines of the poem:In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas / corpora; ("I intend to speak of forms changed into new entities;").[26] Accompanying this theme is often violence, inflicted upon a victim whose transformation becomes part of the natural landscape.[27] This theme amalgamates the much-explored opposition between the hunter and the hunted[28] and the thematic tension between art and nature.[29]
There is a great variety among the types of transformations that take place: from human to inanimate objects (Nileus),constellations (Ariadne's Crown), animals (Perdix), and plants (Daphne, Baucis and Philemon); from animals (ants) and fungi (mushrooms) to human; from one sex to another (hyenas); and from one colour to another (pebbles).[30] The metamorphoses themselves are often located metatextually within the poem, through grammatical or narratorial transformations. At other times, transformations are developed into humour or absurdity, such that, slowly, "the reader realizes he is being had",[31] or the very nature of transformation is questioned or subverted. This phenomenon is merely one aspect of Ovid's extensive use of illusion and disguise.[32]
No work from classical antiquity, eitherGreek orRoman, has exerted such a continuing and decisive influence onEuropean literature as Ovid'sMetamorphoses. The emergence of French, English, and Italian national literatures in thelate Middle Ages simply cannot be fully understood without taking into account the effect of this extraordinary poem. ... The only rival we have in our tradition which we can find to match the pervasiveness of the literary influence of theMetamorphoses is perhaps (and I stress perhaps) theOld Testament and theworks of Shakespeare.
TheMetamorphoses has exerted a considerable influence on literature and the arts, particularly ofthe West; scholar A. D. Melville says that "It may be doubted whether any poem has had so great an influence on theliterature andart of Western civilization as theMetamorphoses."[33] Although a majority of its stories do not originate with Ovid himself, but with such writers asHesiod andHomer, for others the poem is their sole source.[27]
TheMetamorphoses was also a considerable influence onWilliam Shakespeare.[37] HisRomeo and Juliet is influenced by the story ofPyramus and Thisbe (Metamorphoses Book IV);[38] and, inA Midsummer Night's Dream, a band of amateur actors performs a play about Pyramus and Thisbe.[39] Shakespeare's early erotic poemVenus and Adonis expands on the myth in Book X of theMetamorphoses.[40] InTitus Andronicus, the story of Lavinia's rape is drawn fromTereus' rape ofPhilomela, and the text of theMetamorphoses is used within the play to enable Titus to interpret his daughter's story.[41] Most of Prospero's renunciative speech in Act V ofThe Tempest is taken word-for-word from a speech by Medea in Book VII of theMetamorphoses.[42] Among other English writers for whom theMetamorphoses was an inspiration areJohn Milton—who made use of it inParadise Lost, considered hismagnum opus, and evidently knew it well[37][43]—andEdmund Spenser.[44] In Italy, the poem was an influence onGiovanni Boccaccio (the story of Pyramus and Thisbe appears in his poemL'Amorosa Fiammetta)[27] andDante.[45][46]
During theRenaissance andBaroque periods, mythological subjects were frequently depicted in art. TheMetamorphoses was the greatest source of these narratives, such that the term "Ovidian" in this context is synonymous for mythological, in spite of some frequently represented myths not being found in the work.[47][48] Many of the stories from theMetamorphoses have been the subject of paintings and sculptures, particularly during this period.[37][49] Some of the most well-known paintings byTitian depict scenes from the poem, includingDiana and Callisto,[50]Diana and Actaeon,[51] andDeath of Actaeon.[52] These works form part ofTitian's "poesie", a collection of seven paintings derived in part from theMetamorphoses, inspired by ancient Greek and Roman mythologies, which were reunited in the Titian exhibition atThe National Gallery in 2020.[53] Other famous works inspired by theMetamorphoses includePieter Brueghel's paintingLandscape with the Fall of Icarus andGian Lorenzo Bernini's sculptureApollo and Daphne.[37] TheMetamorphoses also permeated thetheory of art during the Renaissance and theBaroque style, with its idea of transformation and the relation of the myths of Pygmalion and Narcissus to the role of the artist.[54]
Though Ovid was popular for many centuries, interest in his work began to wane after the Renaissance, and his influence on 19th-century writers was minimal.[37] Towards the end of the 20th century his work began to be appreciated once more.Ted Hughes collected together and retold twenty-four passages from theMetamorphoses in hisTales from Ovid, published in 1997.[55] In 1998,Mary Zimmerman's stage adaptationMetamorphoses premiered at theLookingglass Theatre,[56] and the following year there was an adaptation ofTales from Ovid by theRoyal Shakespeare Company.[57] In the early 21st century, the poem continues to inspire and be retold through books,[58] films[59] and plays.[60] A series of works inspired by Ovid's book through the tragedy of Diana and Actaeon have been produced by French-based collective LFKs and his film/theatre director, writer and visual artist Jean-Michel Bruyere, including the interactive 360° audiovisual installationSi poteris narrare, licet ("if you are able to speak of it, then you may do so") in 2002, 600 shorts and "medium" film from which 22,000 sequences have been used in the 3D 360° audiovisual installationLa Dispersion du Fils[61] from 2008 to 2016 as well as an outdoor performance, "Une Brutalité pastorale" (2000).
This panel byBartolomeo di Giovanni depicts the second half of the story ofIo. In the upper left, Jupiter emerges from clouds to order Mercury to rescue Io.[62]
In spite of theMetamorphoses' enduring popularity from its first publication (around the time ofOvid's exile in 8 AD) no manuscript survives from antiquity.[63] From the 9th and 10th centuries there are only fragments of the poem;[63] it is only from the 11th century onwards that complete manuscripts, of varying value, have been passed down.[64]
The poem retained its popularity throughoutlate antiquity and the Middle Ages, and is represented by an extremely high number of surviving manuscripts (more than 400);[65] the earliest of these are three fragmentary copies containing portions of Books 1–3, dating to the 9th century.[66]
But the poem's immense popularity in antiquity and the Middle Ages belies the struggle for survival it faced in late antiquity. TheMetamorphoses was preserved through the Roman period ofChristianization.[citation needed] Though theMetamorphoses did not suffer the ignominious fate of theMedea, no ancientscholia on the poem survive (although they did exist in antiquity[67][page needed]), and the earliest complete manuscript is very late, dating from the 11th century.
Influential in the course of the poem's manuscript tradition is the 17th-century Dutch scholarNikolaes Heinsius.[68] During the years 1640–52, Heinsius collated more than a hundred manuscripts and was informed of many others through correspondence.[68]
Collaborative editorial effort has been investigating the various manuscripts of theMetamorphoses, some forty-five complete texts or substantial fragments,[69] all deriving from aGallic archetype.[70][page needed] The result of several centuries of critical reading is that the poet's meaning is firmly established on the basis of the manuscript tradition or restored by conjecture where the tradition is deficient. There are two modern critical editions: William S. Anderson's, first published in 1977 in the Teubner series, andR. J. Tarrant's, published in 2004 by the Oxford Clarendon Press.
An illumination of the story ofPyramus and Thisbe from a manuscript ofWilliam Caxton's translation of theMetamorphoses (1480)—the first in the English language
The full appearance of theMetamorphoses in English translation (sections had appeared in the works of Chaucer andGower)[71] coincides with the beginning of printing, and traces a path through the history of publishing.[71][72]William Caxton produced the first translation of the text on 22 April 1480;[73] set in prose, it is a literal rendering of a French translation known as theOvide Moralisé.[74]
In 1567,Arthur Golding published a translation of the poem that would become highly influential, the version read by Shakespeare and Spenser.[75] It was written inrhyming couplets ofiambic heptameter. The next significant translation was byGeorge Sandys, produced from 1621 to 1626,[76] which set the poem inheroic couplets, a metre that would subsequently become dominant in vernacular English epic and in English translations.[77]
In 1717, a translation appeared fromSamuel Garth bringing together work "by the most eminent hands":[78] primarilyJohn Dryden, but several stories byJoseph Addison, one byAlexander Pope,[23] and contributions fromTate,Gay,Congreve, andRowe, as well as those of eleven others including Garth himself.[79] Translation of theMetamorphoses after this period was comparatively limited in its achievement; the Garth volume continued to be printed into the 1800s, and had "no real rivals throughout the nineteenth century".[80]
Around the later half of the 20th century a greater number of translations appeared[81] as literary translation underwent a revival.[80] This trend has continued into the twenty-first century.[82] In 1994, a collection of translations and responses to the poem, entitledAfter Ovid: New Metamorphoses, was produced by numerous contributors in emulation of the process of the Garth volume.[83]
One of the most famous translations of theMetamorphoses published in France dates back to 1557. Published under the titleLa Métamorphose d'Ovide figurée (The Illustrated Metamorphosis of Ovid) by theMaison Tournes (1542–1567) inLyon, it is the result of a collaboration between the publisherJean de Tournes andBernard Salomon, an important 16th-century engraver. The publication is editedoctavo format and presents Ovid's texts accompanied by 178 engraved illustrations.[84]
In the years 1540–1550, the spread of contemporary translations led to a true race to publish the ancient poet's texts among the city of Lyon's various publishers. Therefore, Jean de Tournes faced fierce competition, which also published new editions of theMetamorphoses. He published the first two books of Ovid in 1456, a version that was followed by an illustrated reprint in 1549. His main competitor wasGuillaume Roville, who published the texts illustrated byPierre Eskrich in 1550 and again in 1551. In 1553, Roville published the first three books with a translation byBarthélémy Aneau, which followed the translation of the first two books byClément Marot. However, the 1557 version published by Maison Tournes remains the version that enjoys the greatest fortune, as testified by historiographical mentions.
The 16th-century editions of theMetamorphoses constitute a radical change in the way myths are perceived. In previous centuries, the verses of the ancient poet had been read above all in function of their moralising impact, whereas from the 16th century onwards their aesthetic and hedonistic quality was exalted. The literary context of the time, marked by the birth of thePléiade, is indicative of this taste for the beauty of poetry.
"The disappearance of theArs Amatoria and theRemedia amoris marks the end of a Gothic era in Ovidian publishing, just as the publication in 1557 of the Métamorphose figurée marks the appropriation by the Renaissance of a work that is as much in line with its tastes as the moralizing of the Metamorphoses had been with the aspirations of the 14th and 15th centuries".[85]
The work was republished in French in 1564 and 1583, although it had already been published in Italian by Gabriel Simeoni in 1559 with some additional engravings.
Some copies from 1557 are today held in public collections, namely theNational Library of France, the Municipal Library of Lyon, the Brandeis University Library in Waltham (MA) and theLibrary of Congress inWashington D.C., USA. A digital copy is available onGallica.[86] It would also appear that a copy has been auctioned atSotheby's.[87]
The 1557 edition published byJean de Tournes features 178 engravings byBernard Salomon accompanying Ovid's text.[88] The format is emblematic of the collaboration between Tournes and Salomon, which has existed since their association in the mid-1540s: the pages are developed centred around a title, an engraving with an octosyllabic stanza and a neat border.
The 178 engravings were not made all at once for the full text, but originate from a reissue of the first two books in 1549. In 1546, Jean de Tournes published a first, non-illustrated version of the first two books of theMetamorphoses, for which Bernard Salomon prepared twenty-two initial engravings. Salomon examined several earlier illustrated editions of theMetamorphoses before working on his engravings, which nevertheless display a remarkable originality.
In the bookBernard Salomon. Illustrateur lyonnais,Peter Sharratt states that the plates in this edition, along with that of theBible illustrated by the painter in 1557, are Salomon's works that most emphasise the illustrative process based on "a mixture of memories".[84] Among the earlier editions consulted by Salomon, one in particular stands out:Metamorphoseos Vulgare,[89] published in Venice in 1497. The latter shows similarities in the composition of some episodes, such as the 'Creation of the World' and 'Apollo and Daphne'. In drawing his figures, Salomon also used Bellifontaine's canon, which testifies to his early years as a painter. Among other works, he created some frescoes in Lyon, for which he drew inspiration from his recent work inFontainebleau.
Better known in his lifetime for his work as a painter, Salomon's work inLa Métamorphose d'Ovide figurée nevertheless left a mark on his contemporaries. These illustrations contributed to the celebration of the Ovidian texts in their hedonistic dimension. In this respect,Panofsky speaks of "extraordinarily influential woodcuts"[90] and the American art historian Rensselaer W. Lee describes the work as "a major event in the history of art".[84]
In theMusée des Beaux-arts et des fabrics in Lyon, it is possible to observe wooden panels reproducing the model of Salomon's engravings for Ovid'sMetamorphoses of 1557.
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Hösle, Vittorio (2020).Ovids Enzyklopädie der Liebe. Formen des Eros, Reihenfolge der Liebesgeschichten, Geschichtsphilosophie und metapoetische Dichtung in den Metamorphosen [Ovid's encyclopaedia of love. Forms of Eros, sequence of love stories, philosophy of history and metapoetic writing in the 'Metamorphoses']. Heidelberg: Winter.ISBN978-3-8253-4722-2.
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von Albrecht, Michael (2014).Ovids Metamorphosen. Texte, Themen, Illustrationen [Ovid's Metamorphoses. Texts, themes, illustrations]. Heidelberg: Winter,ISBN978-3-8253-6320-8.
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