Ovid’s Metamorphoses

Ovid's poem Metamorphoses is an epic like no other. It chronicles the history of the world through stories of transformation, from the creation of the world till the apotheosis of Julius Caesar. The poem absorbs a vast array of sources and models and employs a dazzling variety of styles, techniques, and mannerisms, but challenges them all, thus reinventing the genre itself throughout the generation of the poem. In spite (or because) of this avant-garde, modern conception of the poem, it has been one of the most influential works of Latin literature over more than two millennia: an unexpected classic. This course focuses on reading selections from the Metamorphoses in their original language, with particular attention to the structure of the Latin language, meter, and other features of poetic language, as well as issues of interpretation and situating the poem in the greater universe of Latin literature. We also examine some acts of reception of the poem in the literary, visual, and musical arts from antiquity through today.