The Metamorphoses of Ovid [Paperback]

Ovid (Author), David R. Slavitt (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1994

First published in 8 A.D. when he was 52, Ovid's epic poem contains profoundly entertaining tales of Adonis, Midas, Apollo, Icarus, and many others. (Poetry)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Composed between 2 and 8 A.D., Ovid's (43 B.C.-?A.D. 17) epic poem purports to tell the story of the universe. Competing over the centuries with such formidable adversaries as the Bible, the Upanishads , Darwin, and modern physics, The Metamorphoses remains one of the world's most engaging cosmologies. The primary strength of Slavitt's ( The Fables of Avianus ) translation is its conversational diction, which accurately conveys the style of storytelling pervading the original. His departs from most existing translations by resisting slavish preoccupation with detail, allowing him to anticipate and engage a restless and modern reader. For example, in Book Seven, Slavitt interrupts the narrative to comment on Ovid's often long-winded style, and replaces ``forty lines of travel'' (Medea's) with 40 verse lines of his own criticism of the text. Another characteristic touch is the presence of innumerable loan words, mostly from French. Unfortunately, Slavitt's poetic line has the mildly irritating tendency to throw the reader off the back of its lumbering cadence. As poetry, the translation neither invigorates nor inspires, and much of it seems to have been written with a shrug, as if to Slavitt verse held a secondary position to subject matter. Otherwise, his Ovid displays poise and a refreshingly varied texture. His translation is constructed like a Shakespearian play: it satisfies those who want only to enjoy the vaudevillian spectacle of Jupiter and Juno's marriage, and relive the adventures of the Argonauts or the Trojan War. Yet it will also charm those stimulated by subtle references to postmodern ideas, by a liberal, multilingual vocabulary, and by the occasional lame joke.

Copyright 1994 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Slavitt's new translation of Ovid's masterpiece is a joy to read, taking a place beside the recent translation of Allen Mandelbaum (LJ 11/1/93) as well as those of May M. Innes (Penguin, 1955) and Rolfe Humphries (Indiana Univ. Pr., 1955). While Mandelbaum and Slavitt are good poets who work to preserve the poetry in their translations, the former is more accurate and the latter smoother and more fluent. Slavitt renders Ovid's witty verse narrative into modern idiomatic English, making it contemporary without relying on informality or losing the elegance of the original. If his diction and reworking of passages are not always faithful to the original, they are true to the original's tone and spirit. As such, while Mandelbaum is perhaps better for the serious student of classical literature (with or without Latin), Slavitt is a better introduction to the pleasures of Ovid for the general reader. For all libraries.
T.L. Cooksey, Armstrong State Coll., Savannah, Ga.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (April 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801847982
• ISBN-13: 978-0801847981
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #679,905 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an honest, earnest translation, March 20, 2003

By 

I X Key "burningfield" (tomorrow) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Metamorphoses of Ovid (Paperback)

Slavitt's free translation of Ovid is generally very true to the tone of the original, & only sometimes slightly awkward. Slavitt's understanding of Ovid & of translation is great. The Ovid he presents modern English-speaking readers with is much more human & easily flowing than the Ovid of many other translators. Ovid's Metamorphoses is one of the greatest classics of western literature, Ovid one of the most significant writers of our thousands of years of literature, & Slavitt does the man, the book, & readers a good service with this translation.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For the less scholarly among us, March 11, 2007

By 

J. Houston "book lover" (Knoxville, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Metamorphoses of Ovid (Hardcover)

I can see why, if you are a Latin scholar, or very serious about Ovid, you might be put off by this free translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Slavitt writes, in the middle of Book Seven, that "any sensible poet would lay (the background story) out somehow", and that Ovid has written "footnotes without a text, a quiz, or a gazetteer of distractions, its only sense in what it refuses to say." Useful, interesting opinions, of the sort typically encountered while reading an author's note. But these comments (and others like them) are inserted directly into the text. So yes, I could see how purists would not like that. Although, I have to admit that I loved it. The tone was very conversational, making the translation easy to understand. And now I feel like I have a good grasp of many of the Greek/Roman myths. In my opinion, this is a very approachable translation of one of those books you've always meant to read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ovid in the Hands of a Master Poet and Translator, February 11, 2003

By 

Okla Elliott (Columbus, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Metamorphoses of Ovid (Paperback)

So many translations suffer one of two fates: either the translator has a wonderful grasp of the foreign language in question but is not a very talented poet in his own, or he is a wonderful poet but a terrible linguist. David R. Slavitt is both an extremely prolific and talented poet, novelist, and essayist in his own native English, and an excellent linguist. This translation of a classic that is so often translated may seem unnecessary. Why have one more translation of Ovid's "Metmorphoses"? Read this version and you'll see why.