Ovid’s Metamorphoses has entranced audiences for two thousand years, from Rome under Augustus to humanities classrooms today. Borrowing liberally from Greek and Roman mythology, the poem tells hundreds of stories that share one essential theme: each tale depicts a transformation from one physical form into another.Drawing on many years of teaching the Metamorphoses, Gareth Williams offers a brisk and lively reading of the poem that emphasizes why it speaks in compelling ways to a twenty-first-century audience. He shows how the Metamorphoses is not just a colorful collection of stories about change but an exploration of change itself. Ovid challenges us to recognize flux as fundamental to human experience: circumstances shift, fortunes ebb and flow, and our very identities ceaselessly evolve across from one life stage to another.Capturing the energy and excitement that Ovid’s poem generates among readers, Williams also sheds new light on its modern provocations. His fresh interpretations of the Metamorphoses reveal its power to enrich and inform our daily existence amid the uncertainties of life today.
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Drawing on many years of teaching Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Gareth Williams offers a brisk and lively reading of the poem that emphasizes why it speaks in compelling ways to a twenty-first-century audience. He shows how the Metamorphoses is not just a colorful collection of stories about change but an exploration of change itself.
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PrefaceIntroduction1. Diversity, Idiosyncrasy, and Self-Discovery in the Metamorphoses2.The Liabilities of Language: Change and Instability in Ovid’s World of Words3. The Path of Deviance: Sexual Morality and the Incestuous Urge in the Metamorphoses4. Rough Justice: Victimization, Revenge, and Divine Punishment in the MetamorphosesEpilogueFurther ReadingIndex
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Smart close readings abound, and Williams’s punchy analyses make the book fun to read, though they never obscure his mastery of the subject.

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780231200707
Publisert
2023-01-03
Utgiver
Vendor
Columbia University Press
Høyde
216 mm
Bredde
140 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet

Forfatter

Om bidragsyterne

Gareth Williams is Anthon Professor of the Latin Language and Literature at Columbia University. He has published extensively on Ovid, Roman philosophy, and classical reception.