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Description for Sales People:
1. Translator Rolfe Humphries was the first modern poet to translate Metamorphoses. Consequently, his translation has been recognized for capturing the poetic rhythm and spirit of the original. In online discussions of the various translations, he often surfaces as the most readable.
2. Joseph D. Reed's annotation is the exhaustively complete and represents the latest state-of-the-art scholarship on Ovid. It's been nearly a decade since the last annotated edition. He nicely provides background on the myths and probes the origins of many phrases, showing how Humphries rendered original passages in certain ways to achieve poetic effect.
Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION
BOOK ONE
The Creation
The Four Ages
Jove's Intervention
The Story of Lycaon
The Flood
Deucalion and Pyrrha
Apollo and Daphne
Jove and Io
BOOK TWO
The Story of Phaethon
Jove in Arcady
The Story of the Raven
The Story of Ocyrhoe
Mercury and Battus
Mercury, Herse, and Aglauros
The House of the Goddess Envy
Europa
BOOK THREE
The Story of Cadmus
The Story of Actaeon
The Story of Semele
The Story of Tiresias
The Story of Echo and Narcissus
The Story of Pentheus and Bacchus
BOOK FOUR
The Story of Pyramus and Thisbe
The Story of Mars and Venus
The Sun-god and Leucothoe
The Story of Salmacis
The End of the Daughters of Minyas
The Story of Athamas and Ino
The End of Cadmus
The Story of Perseus
BOOK FIVE
The Fighting of Perseus
Minerva Visits the Muses
BOOK SIX
The Story of Niobe
The Story of Tereus, Procne, and Philomela
BOOK SEVEN
The Story of Jason and Medea
War Between Crete and Athens
The Story of Cephalus and Procris
BOOK EIGHT
The Story of Nisus and Scylla
The Story of Daedalus and Icarus
The Calydonian Boar
The Brand of Meleager
The Return of Theseus
The Story of Baucis and Philemon
The Story of Erysichthon
BOOK NINE
The Story of Achelous' Duel for Deianira
The Story of Hercules, Nessus, and Deianira
The Story of Hercules' Birth
The Story of Dry ope
The Story of Caunus and Byblis
The Story of Iphis and Lanthe
BOOK TEN
The Story of Orpheus and Eurydice
The Story of Cyparissus
The Story of Ganymede
The Story of Apollo and Hyacinthus
Two Incidents of Venus Anger
The Story of Pygmalion
The Story of Cinyras and Myrrha
The Story of Adonis
Venus Tells Adonis the Story of Atalanta
The Fate of Adonis
BOOK ELEVEN
The Death of Orpheus
The Story of Midas
Midas Never Learns
The Building of the Walls of Troy
The Story of Thetis
Ceyx Tells the Story of Daedalion
The Story of Peleus' Cattle
The Quest of Ceyx
The Story of Aesacus and Hesperia
BOOK TWELVE
The Invasion of Troy
Nestor Tells the Story of Caeneus
Story of the Battle with the Centaurs
Nestor Is Asked Why He Omitted Hercules
BOOK THIRTEEN
The Argument between Ajax and Ulysses
After the Fall
The Sacrifice of Polyxena
The Discovery of Polydorus
The Story of Memnon
The Pilgrimage of Aeneas
The Story of Anius' Daughters
The Pilgrimage Resumed
The Story of Galatea
The Song of Polyphemus
The Transformation of Acis
The Story of Glaucus
BOOK FOURTEEN
The Story of Glaucus Continued
The Pilgrimage of Aeneas Resumed
Achaemenides Tells His Story
The Story of Picus
The Pilgrimage of Aeneas Resumed
The Narrative of Diomedes
The Return of Venulus
The Deification of Aeneas
Legendary History of Rome
Pomona and Vertumnus
The Story of Iphis and Anaxarete
More Early Roman History
BOOK FIFTEEN
The Succession of Numa
The Teachings of Pythagoras
The Return of Numa
The Story of Hippolytus
The Story of Cipus
The Story of Aesculapius
The Deification of Caesar
The Epilogue
COMMENTARY by Joseph D. Reed
EXPANDED GLOSSARY AND INDEX
Biographical Note:
Poet and critic Rolfe Humphries (1894-1969) also translated Virgil's Aeneid, Lucretius's On the Nature of Things, Ovid's Art of Love, and Juvenal's Satires.
Joseph D. Reed is Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature at Brown University. He is the author of Virgil's Gaze: Nation and Poetry in the Aeneid.
Review Quotes:
"One of the most captivating books ever written, a whole library of love stories, murder stories, horror stories, fairy stories, and adventure stories. . . Humphries's version. . . has the sound merits of directness, unpretentiousness and integrity. . . [His English is] swift, lucid . . . and admirably suited to its general purpose, the telling of a story." -New York Times
"It is very much alive, fresh, racy, and above all, vivid. . . .Humphries reproduces most successfully the speed and animation of Ovid's narrative, its modernity, its gaiety, and its tenderness." -Classical Review
"So easy to read that one may have to think twice to realize these tales are nearly 2000 years old." -Washington Post"--
"Not too many 12,000-line translations from the '50s are still in print, let alone getting a brand new set of annotations. About those I wanna say: jam a bookmark back there and read every single note. They're the real thing, impossible to fake. . . . As for the translation as a whole, the main thing it's got going for it is clarity. I, for one, felt I was able to pay attention to the stuff like never before. . . . So I say double thumbs up to Humphries and Reed. Recommended."--RHINO
"Reed's annotated edition of Ovid's realistic, moving, and influential classic can now easily be adopted for classroom use, and it will also serve the curious who wish to know more about this unparalleled, captivating array of Roman mythology. . . . Highly recommended. "--Choice
"One of the most captivating books ever written, a whole library of love stories, murder stories, horror stories, fairy stories, and adventure stories. . . Humphries's version. . . has the sound merits of directness, unpretentiousness and integrity. . . [His English is] swift, lucid . . . and admirably suited to its general purpose, the telling of a story."--The New York Times
"So easy to read that one may have to think twice to realize these tales are nearly 2000 years old."--Washington Post
"It is very much alive, fresh, racy, and above all, vivid. . . .Humphries reproduces most successfully the speed and animation of Ovid's narrative, its modernity, its gaiety, and its tenderness."--Classical Review
"Joseph Reed's annotation of Rolfe Humphries' translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses strikes an impressive balance between accessibility for general readers with no Latin and detailed analysis for advanced Classics students and researchers."--Classical Journal Review
Publisher Marketing:
Ovid's Metamorphoses is one of the most influential works of Western literature, inspiring artists and writers from Titian to Shakespeare to Salman Rushdie. These are some of the most famous Roman myths as you've never read them before--sensuous, dangerously witty, audacious--from the fall of Troy to birth of the minotaur, and many others that only appear in the Metamorphoses. Connected together by the immutable laws of change and metamorphosis, the myths tell the story of the world from its creation up to the transformation of Julius Caesar from man into god.
In the ten-beat, unrhymed lines of this now-legendary and widely praised translation, Rolfe Humphries captures the spirit of Ovid's swift and conversational language, bringing the wit and sophistication of the Roman poet to modern readers.
This special annotated edition includes new, comprehensive commentary and notes by Joseph D. Reed, Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature at Brown University.
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