Customer Reviews

The Metamorphoses of Ovid

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Metamorphoses is an excellent work and Mandelbaum does a great job of translating. The book is full of the ancient greek myths of hero's, gods, and regular individuals. While not as readable as Homer or Virgil, Ovid gives a great account of many of the ancient myths. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Greek Mythology.

Did you ever wonder where Keats garnered the inspiration for Endymion? Or why Shakespeare's plays always make reference to the Greek and Roman gods instead of the Judeo-Christian ones? In part, this book is at the foundation.

This is THE book to get the knowledge of the myths that our modern and not so modern conceptions of Roman and Greek gods and myths come from. And it has served as inspiration for poets, writers, shepherds and talentless hacks for millenia.

Mandelbaum's translation is sufficient in that it is not an original work. A translator must before anything get the point across. Embellishments and other creative input into a translation add only defects. Mandelbaum's tranlsation suffices and is very readable and very understandable.

Edith Wharton's "Mythology" will help one get through it if the verse is incomprehensible to the reader and works well as a supplement to this book. A highly enjoyable and almost mandatory read.

On Ovid: This is one of the best poems ever written. Period. I'm a big mythology buff and many of the Greek and Roman myth versions we know today come from this work. It also tells a compelling story. Shakespeare thought it was great, enough said.

On Mandelbaum: I've read about 4 different translations of this work and Mr. Mandelbaum's is my favorite. He remains precise without being choppy. He keeps it poetic, which I like. There is a fine line translators must walk, being true to the original text while making the english understandable and keeping the imagery, flow, music and intent intact. This version does all of those.

A marvelous translation of the Metamorphoses, difficult to put down, very poetic and evocative, leading one into one's own personal associations to the myths while being true to Ovid. I recommend reading it aloud....

Fascinating.
Beautifully written.
Thought provoking.

I'm sorry I must disagree with all other reviewers on this edition. First of all let me quickly say I'm not really rating Ovid, but this specific translation. Don't be fooled by the book cover, which is a rather handsome one. This edition is missing something! The translation seems all right, at times it rhymes, but I'm no judge of that for I've never read Ovid in it's original Latin text (I can't read Latin!). Anyway, the edition lacks any annotation. Now some people may find that to be of no consequence but I think it quite important. This is one of the reasons I value Fagles' Iliad and Odyssey. They are both well annotated and both have interesting introductory essays.

Let me point out why annotation is important. As I was reading Mandelbaum's edition (quite enjoying it), I reached the point where Apollo falls in love with Daphne. I got somewhat confused because then it seemed another character named Phoebus comes in. So it seems we have three characters. And I suddenly realized that in fact Phoebus and Apollo are the same god, Phoebus is just an epithet for Apollo. I only found this out by looking up the notes in the Fagles edition (which by the way also has a pronunciation guide). And so without any annotation, a reader (such as me) who has recently started to read the ancient classics would be clueless, for Ovid assumes that his audience knows what he is writing about-since after all these are Gods know by the Romans. And this where a good editor would bridge the gap (between the modern reader and the ancient writer).

Many say that it is the reader's job to look up things he does not understand. But in a book like this one, where hundreds of gods are floating about, this task would be monumental. Take for example the case of Phoebus and Apollo. Some readers may never have noticed that in fact Phoebus and Apollo have to be the same god. Mandelbaum and all the other learned reviewers may already have knowledge of the Roman mythology but not me. I wish to be slowly eased into Ovid's world but Mandelbaum drowns me. He has little care for readers like me.