Customer Reviews

Metamorphoses: A New Translation by Charles Martin

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Ovid, or Publius Ovidius Naso, justly deserves his acclaim as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature alongside Horace and Virgil. And he knows it and doesn't bother to hide it, as he appends this bit of encomium to himself at the very end:

My work is finished now: no wrath of Jove
nor sword nor fire nor futurity
is capable of laying waste to it.
...
wherever Roman governance extends
over the subject nations of the world,
my words will be upon the people's lips
and if there is truth in poets' prophesies [sic, Quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus, as the Romans would say]
then in my fame forever I will live.

So he is the worst kind of genius: a genius who knows he is a genius. Witty, elegant, and lively, his Metamorphoses is a masterpiece of epic poetry that tells of the myriad odd transformations that mythical (and sometimes historical) figures from Orpheus and Icarus to Romulus and Julius Caesar go through. Throughout, he is delightfully and cuttingly mocking of pretty much the entire epic tradition and every great poet that came before him, including no less authors than Virgil and Homer themselves. In at least three elaborate scenes, he makes so much fun of epic battles and they are hilariously and eerily reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino's comical massacre scene in his Kill Bill Vol. 1. Hell, Ovid can be tragic, comic, moving, and sarcastic/satirical all at the same time without lacking in elegance. The poem, 15 books of 1,000 lines per book, so seamlessly integrates story after story of wildly differing genres and plots and lengths that it feels like you're reading a single monomyth without getting bored or overwhelmed. In fact, befitting its title, the stories are constantly changing and sprouting out - each little story feeding into the next and each book spilling into the next without pauses - always keeping the reader on his toe and more often than not leaving the reader breathless and reeling.

Charles Martin did a superb job translating the work. He uses free verse in rendering Latin dactylic hexameter into iambic-friendly English, and it is really good. It's lively, swift, and above all, elegant - or in other words, as Ovid ought to be. Except in the scene where the Muses battle it out with the Pierides, a.k.a. P-Airides whose verse is rendered in modern rap, the translation had everything right and good (though even the surreal rap battle scene was not so bad - just weird). If you're looking to read Ovid, buy this edition. It apparently doesn't add anything new to the original (as many editions do, rather profusely and liberally and thus preposterously), faithful to the original, and very reader-friendly. In my opinion, it belongs to the best translations of the classics.

I teach mythology and literature in translation. In my mythology section I had my students read a version of Ovid available online. They found the experience painful and dull, even though they were somewhat familiar with the story line. So, when I assigned a translation for my workshop on Ovid, I chose this one on the strength of various reviews. Its a real pleasure to have a group of students become ecstatic about a piece of ancient literature! The Lukeion Project will now being using this translation as required reading.

Ovids Metamorphoses was Leonardo Da Vinci favorite piece of literature with this well written translation I have become a lover of his work. This edition is both well documented with footnotes and endnotes that are clear and concise. The books print is also easy to read. Metamorphoses is collection of short stories some with morales and many with just plain ideas on conduct with in society. Ovid is a master story teller with beautiful fluidity of prose and ideas. His imagery is so colorful that the characters truly come to life on the page before us. This is the third translation I have read and this is by far the best version it is well worth the invest because to introduce your children to this epic with this translation will be magic to their imaginations. Good reading.

I read the story of Phaeton aloud to my college students and they were rapt throughout. That in itself is an encomium. When I mentioned that to a friend, she said her daughter's junior high school English class had been studying Phaeton as well: it's an excellent allegory for today's young, and they seem fascinated by the details. Mr. Martin's translation is fast-paced and exciting, direct and lucid.

I was so excited to read this, after hearing the praise for the new translation. It turned out to be an exhausting exercise in attempts to be inventive. The main word that comes to mind is tiresome. I'm terribly sorry since it took so much work, obviously, but it just didn't ring as true to me as Rolfe Humphries's translation, which is so simple and straight-forward that I never want to put it down, because there's so much there behind the words. It's a matter of taste, of course, but I would put forth The Story of Baucis and Philemon as an example - read both translations and see what you think.

Publius Ovidius Naso was born in 43 B.C and died in 18 A.D.
He was banished for unknown reasons to Tomi, a barren place near the coast of the Black Sea. A few scholars believe that this was a literary hoax created by Ovid himself. It would enable him to write the 'Tristia' and 'Letters From The Black Sea'.
'Metamorphoses' is his main achievement. It contains 250 stories from the Greek Mythology and they all have in common that the principal character changes into another form. Most of the time they turn into an animal or a tree but also in a river, a constellation of stars, a rock or a flower and other pleasant surprises.

If you read this book you won't find many happy endings. The ancient Greeks didn't know the meaning of that expression.
It's not an easy read but if you persist it will be a rewarding literary experience.

First off, I'm not a scholar of Latin, nor of Ovid. I do speak another language, though, so I'm familiar with the problems of translations. That said, my impression of this translation is that it is a vivid and entertaining read. Many of the stories are familiar to any educated person, especially because they form the subject matter for many of the Western world's most famous paintings and sculptures. Martin makes the stories come alive, painting striking visual images with his words while gracefully preserving the rhythmic drive that seems to have been part of the original. And all this while translating from Latin, whose case-driven structure is quite different from English! It's impressive - and fun to read.

I read mythology very often, and recently read Ovid's metamorphoses. It is a vital part of the classical mythology canon. I highly recommend anyone interested in mythology, stories, or just great literature to read it.

Heavy going - but then again isn't all greek tragedy- but a good unbiased translation. Great classroom text. You will need a good background in other greek myth to get the underlying story lines in some of the metamorphoses work. Greek tragedy never stands alone but builds.

This translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses by Charles Martin is one of the poorest examples I've found. This was recomended by Robert Fagles (one of my favorite translators/poets), and the Washington Post says it will likely become the new standard. It also won the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award. What are these people reading? Is there another version of this translation out there? The Charles Martin translation that I read reduced one of the worlds most beautifull pieces of poetry to a silly puppet show. It's difficult by reading this to imagine that Martin has a commanding grasp of the Latin language, or maybe he's just a very poor writer. Either way, this book is not recommended to anyone for any reason. Try the Horace Gregory translation or wait with baited breath to see if Fagles will tackle this epic poem. Keep your fingers crossed and stay away from Martin.