
Metamorphoses
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Narrated by:
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David Horovitch
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By:
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Ovid
The Metamorphoses by Publius Ovidius Naso (43 B.C. - A.D. 17) has, over the centuries, been the most popular and influential work from our classical tradition. This extraordinary collection of some 250 Greek and Roman myths and folk tales has always been a popular favorite, and has decisively shaped western art and literature from the moment it was completed in A.D. 8.
The stories are particularly vivid when read by David Horovitch, in this new lively verse translation by Ian Johnston.
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It doesn't hurt that David Horovitz's voice is wonderful - almost a physical pleasure to listen to. The translation is by Ian Johnston, who has provided, both online and through Naxos, wonderful versions of Homer.
Ovid's poem is famous for the subtle transitions from one story to the next. They are, at times, almost imperceptible; you start out listening to a story about Orpheus and Eurydice and suddenly realize Orpheus is now telling a story about Venus and Adonis. (And maybe within that story, Venus in turn tells a story about Atalanta.) It sounds more confusing than it is, but you do have to pay careful attention. I recommend keeping a table of contents handy. The PDF that comes with the audiobook provides a useful track listing, and there are other outlines of the structure available on the Internet.
Fantastic!
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If you could sum up Metamorphoses in three words, what would they be?
Important, because this is one of the only remaining primary sources of Greco-Roman mythologyConsistent, because it has a constant theme of change through out the work
Propaganda, because the last book is so obviously that. The Roman Empire was changing from a republic to a Pricipate and Augusts used propaganda to cement his newly created position.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Metamorphoses?
Ariadne making Athena look at the crimes the male gods of mount Olympus had committed against innocent mortal womenHave you listened to any of David Horovitch’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
No, but he did a wonderful jobAny additional comments?
This will be a confusing listen for anyone who is not familiar with the many names of the characters (i.e. Apollo, Phoebus), their backgrounds (i.e. The Delian God = born on the island of Delos = Apollo) and their family tree (i.e. Son of Latona, brother of Diana)I suggest it to people who are willing to use some sort of reference or those who are already familiar with these stories
This is a very easy to understand translation otherwise and I would highly recommend to those who love mythology
For those whom love myths
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Excellent, Engrossing Narration of Classic Mythology
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The Metamorphoses is a compendium of Greek and Roman myth.
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Even though we usually know what will happen in the stories, either because we've read them before or because Ovid foreshadows some doom, his book is still absorbing because of his psychological insights, smooth transitions from one myth to the next, nesting of stories one inside the other, sudden shifts to present tense or to second person (e.g., "They wept for you, Orpheus"), humor, irony, and sympathy. And Ovid regularly surprises with some extra touch, as when, after concluding the story of Narcissus with the youth wasting away and entering "the houses of the dead," he says that Narcissus is still trying to find his reflection in the "waters of the Styx."
A common cause or theme of the changes is love or its opposite, especially when transgressive: "By gods above, how much hidden darkness/ the human heart contains!" If some god isn't lusting after some maiden, a daughter is falling in love with her father, a sister with her brother, a brother-in-law with his sister-in-law, or a princess with the enemy of her people. Among the many illicit loves appear a few cases of conjugal loyalty and affection. Ovid also depicts much hate-fueled violence: patricide, homicide, infanticide, fratricide--and is there a word for the murder of an uncle? Almost as often as he depicts detailed metamorphoses, he shows graphic violence, as when during a wedding feast melee a disemboweled centaur entangles his feet in his entrails and runs them unspooling completely out of his body. There is cannibalism. And there is plenty of rape; at one point a girl ravished by Neptune asks to be turned into a man so that she may never be ravished again.
Indeed, many of the myths reveal a bias towards men, as when female-female love is depicted as more abnormal than female-bull love while post-Eurydice Orpheus' preference for boys is taken in stride. Nevertheless, Ovid writes many strong female characters, and his most compelling monologues are those of conflicted women.
In addition to love and violence, Ovid is interested in things like self-destructive pride (e.g., the fate of Niobe mother of fourteen children), heroic ego (e.g., the debate between Ajax and Ulysses over Achilles' armor), and vegetarianism (e.g., the diatribe against our bloody consumption of other living creatures). He also tosses off pithy lines about life, like "No pleasure ever lasts." It all returns to change: whether fantastically as in the myths or naturally as in Pythagoras' "scientific" account of the world, from earth to water or air to fire, from life to death and death to life, everything changes from one form to another.
At times I experienced metamorphosis fatigue (aNOTHer tree?), but mostly his book is a joy, largely due to its wonderful writing. Ovid writes wonderful epic similes, as when Apollo gives
a cry of grief and pain
just like a young cow makes when she beholds
the slaughterer raise his murderous axe
to his right ear and, with a splintering sound,
smash in the temples of her suckling calf.
He offers memorable cameos to personifications of things like Sleep, Hunger, and, here, Envy: "Wherever she goes, she tramples down fields full of flowers, burns the grass, plucks the tops of growing plants, and with her breath pollutes cities and homes, entire communities."
And in Ian Johnston's lively, readable translation, Ovid's rich descriptions and vivid imagination are transporting, like his vision of a post-flood world in which survivors sail boats over the roofs of sunken villas and dolphins race through submerged woods, or his depiction of Medea's magical concoction, including hoarfrost scraped up by moonlight and "the cut up entrails of the ambiguous werewolf," or his beautiful, terrible account of Daphne changing into a tree:
Scarcely had she made this plea, when she feels
A heavy numbness move across her limbs,
her soft breasts are enclosed by slender bark,
her hair is changed to leaves, her arms to branches,
her feet, so swift a moment before, stick fast
in sluggish roots, a covering of foliage
spreads across her face. All that remains of her
is her shining beauty.
Phoebus loved her
in this form as well. He set his right hand
on her trunk and felt her heart still trembling
under the new bark and with his own arms
hugged the branches as if they were her limbs.
He kissed the wood, but it shrank back from his kiss.
The god spoke:
"Since you cannot be my wife,
you shall surely be my tree."
David Horovitch reads the audiobook marvelously. For pastoral scenes his voice wafts pollen, for spiteful ones it drips poison, for sensual ones it caresses flesh, for brutal ones it gouges eyeballs, and for fantastic ones it stirs wonder. He doesn't strain for female voices. He doesn't change his voice drastically for different characters, but modulates it to suit different moods (his love-sick Cyclops is splendid!). It is a pleasure to listen to him.
Ovid ended his magnum opus confident it would last: "Here I end my work,/ which neither Jupiter's rage, nor fire, nor sword,/ nor gnawing time can ever wipe away." He was right to say, "Men will celebrate my fame/ for all the ages, and, if there is truth/ in poet's prophecies, I will live on."
“Oh, Venus, how powerful is your hold over us!”
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really changed me
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Besides the transformation motif, there are other recurring elements to help with the storytelling. People keep secrets from their spouses, families, and communities. Some transformations are instantaneous, such as the one caused by a glance at Medusa, while others are gradual enough that the person being transformed just starts to notice it happening, reacts with horror or amazement, and might even give their last words as a human. Mostly mortals are undergoing metamorphosis caused by a god they have no power to do anything about, but there is one goddess, Proserpina, who becomes an underworld goddess when she consumes pomegranate seeds there, and is only partially compensated for the trouble. There isn't any big discussion of the origin of the major gods or their family relations before they became gods, you just have to accept that they are realities in this world with their given traits and attitudes.
With any work of this age there is a lot of cultural adjustment the reader has to make to get into the different plots. When I told my friend that I was reading this, his reaction is that it was terribly "rapey," which isn't inaccurate. There is a fair amount of graphic violence Overall the attitude toward young women whether mortal or semi-divine is that of subjugation, which may elicit pity but almost never lead to action out of indignation. The only exception I can think of was the story of Atalanta, who is able to rise above her role through her devotion to Diana. There are other implicit attitudes toward enslaved people, the elderly, nobility, and barbarians which we might not match today. I was able to make allowances for all these differences, but other people might not want to and would find that they spoil their appreciation for the work.
I listened to an audiobook version of the work translated by Ian Johnston and narrated well by David Horovitch. I think they elevated the text for me and kept what might have been a repetitive set of myths (over two hundred) varied enough to want to keep going. I didn't really try to keep track of all of the different characters and settings but imagine that this would be hard even reading a printed version. It was not a verse setting of Ovid's work, and I like to think that someday I might take a look at the original and try to get a sense of the music of the lines to see what I missed. The narration comes in at over seventeen hours so it's hard to imagine experiencing the whole thing again, but maybe I will dip into one myth or another to refresh my memory.
Greek and Roman mortals beset by the gods
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Surprisingly insightful for a book written in 8A.D
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Great reading
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Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Reading the Arthur Golding edition of Metamorphoses cannot be replaced with this audiobook; however, if you (like me) were looking for a copy to listen to in order to gain familiarity and recall with Greek/Roman mythology then I highly recommend this book.Good to help you gain familiarity with the myths
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