Metamorphoses

At the center of The Metamorphoses, a work thought by many to be the wittiest poem by the wittiest author of antiquity, lies the theme of change and transformation. Composed of a series of kaleidoscopic narratives in which human and divine characters meet with paradoxical and always arbitrary fates, The Metamorphoses is alternately humorous, pathetic and bizarre, but always surprising and entertaining. A. D. Melville's translation admirably reproduces the grace and fluidity of Ovid's style, with the subtle addition, for occasional special effect, of rhyming couplets to the traditional blank verse form.

Literature & Fiction

Melville, A. D.

Ovid

Ancient & Medieval Literature

Oxford University Press

Metamorphoses--the best-known poem by one of the wittiest poets of classical antiquity--takes as its theme change and transformation, as illustrated by Greco-Roman myth and legend. Melville's new translation reproduces the grace and fluency of Ovid's style, and its modern idiom offers a fresh understanding of Ovid's unique and elusive vision of reality.

Metamorphoses (The ^AWorld's Classics)

History & Criticism

NAME BLACKED OUT ON FIRST PAGE. NO OTHER MARKS OR WRITING ON PAGES. CLEAN COVERS.

The Love Poems (The ^AWorld's Classics)

In AD 8 Ovid's brilliant career was abruptly ruined when the Emperor Augustus banished him, for reasons never satisfactorily explained, to Tomis (Constanta) on the Black Sea. The five books of Tristia (Sorrows) express his reaction to this savage and, as he clearly regarded it, unjust sentence. Though their ostensible theme is the misery and loneliness of exile, their real message, if they are read with the care they deserve, is one of affirmation. With a wit and irony that borders on defiance, Ovid repeatedly asserts the injustice of his sentence and of the preeminence of the eternal values of poetry over the ephemeral dictates of an earthly power. In technical skill and inventiveness these elegies rank with the Art of Love or the Fasti. For this new translation Alan Melville has reproduced, in rhyming stanzas, the virtuosity, wit, and elegance of the original.

Sorrows of an Exile: Tristia (The ^AWorld's Classics)

The Thebaid of Publius Papinas Statius, an epic poem in twelve books completed in about A.D. 90, has been thought by many to stand second only to Virgil's Aeneid among Latin narrative poems. It tells of the war between Eteocles and Polynices, sons of Oedipus, for the throne of Thebes. Rich in incident and always dramatic in tone, it unfolds a panorama of human ambition and violence, triumph and catastrophe. Though remaining within the Homeric and Virgilian tradition, it achieves its own power and vitality in thought, language, and description. This new translation captures all power of the Latin original, demonstrating that the Thebaid is not only a masterpiece of poetry but a compelling story, at times horrifying, noble, and pathetic, of humankind bound by the power of Fate.

Thebaid (The World's Classics) (The ^AWorld's Classics)

Statius

Metamorphoses (Oxford World's Classics)

Poetry

Ovid's love poems were brilliant and innovative. In the Amores (Loves) his witty and ironic analysis explodes the romantic mystery of elegiac love-poetry, so that after the poems appeared it was simply no longer possible to write love-elegy: Ovid had skilfully dealt the genre its death-blow. In its place he offers in the Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love) and Remedia Amoris (The Cures for Love) an alternative conception of love, as a game at which both sexes can play without getting hurt - providing they stick to the poet's rules. This edition contains Amores, Cosmetics for Ladies, and The Cures for Love, newly translated by A. D. Melville, and B. P. Moore's 1935 translation of The Art of Love, with small revisions by A. D. Melville.

The Love Poems (Oxford World's Classics)

Parenting & Relationships

Morford and Lenardon's best-selling introduction to classical mythology is a comprehensive survey focusing on the literary tradition of Greek and Roman mythology. It offers extensive translations of original mythological sources as well as comparative and interpretive approaches to the myths. In this package, Classical Mythology, 6/e is bundled with the Oxford World's Classic Metamorphoses. Metamorphoses--the best-known poem by one of the wittiest poets of classical antiquity--takes as its theme change and transformation, as illustrated by Greco-Roman myth and legend. Melville's new translation reproduces the grace and fluency of Ovid's style, and its modern idiom offers a fresh understanding of Ovid's unique and elusive vision of reality.

Classical Mythology

Ovid's love poetry, like everything else he wrote, was original and innovative. Yet under the surface of the poet's characteristic wit runs an undercurrent of serious meaning--the theme of the poet's complete control of his medium and his art and a proud consciousness of achievements registered and yet to come. Ovid claimed to be the "Virgil of elegy" and in such poetry as Amores, Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris, he largely succeeded. These accomplished translations of the love poetry adopt a highly entertaining modern idiom, yet maintain the sophisticated elegance of Ovid's Latin. Melville, the acclaimed translator of the Metamorphoses, employs rhyme throughout and evolves an original metrical system that gives a greater sense of Ovid's elegaic couplets than earlier systems. He also includes, with some revisions, B.P. Moore's brilliant version of Ars Amatoria, published over fifty years ago and still unequalled.

The Love Poems

The Thebaid of Publius Papinas Statius, an epic poem in twelve books completed in about A.D. 90, has been thought by many to stand second only to Virgil's work among Latin narrative poems. It is the account of the war between Eteocles and Polynices, sons of Oedipus, for the throne of Thebes--rich in incident and always dramatic in tone, it unfolds a panorama of human ambition and violence, triumph and catastrophe. Though remaining within the Homeric and Virgilian tradition, it achieves its own power and vitality in thought, language, and description. This new translation captures all power of the Latin original, demonstrating that the Thebaid is not only a masterpiece of poetry but a compelling story, at times horrifying, noble, and pathetic, of humankind bound by the power of Fate.

Thebaid (The World's Classics)

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Melville, A. D.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Melville, A. D.