
Metamorphoses
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Narrated by:
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David Horovitch
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By:
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Ovid
About this listen
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.
Download the accompanying reference guide.Public Domain (P)2012 Naxos AudioBooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
We live in an era rife with cultural conflict. The 21st century is by no means free of wars, terrorism, riots, famine, nor epidemics. We may attempt to solve the challenges of our times by uniting the humanistic disciplines of philosophy, science, and technology. Our modern reality requires a fundamental understanding of the problems beleaguering our existence. Science and literature are key tools for gaining this insight. The wisdom accumulated throughout the centuries by scientists, philosophers, and writers is a solid foundation on which modern man can build the future.
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Timestamps
- By randy on 01-16-25
By: Aristotle, and others
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Homer Box Set: Iliad & Odyssey
- By: Homer, W. H. D. Rouse - translator
- Narrated by: Anthony Heald
- Length: 25 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are unquestionably two of the greatest epic masterpieces in Western literature. Though more than 2,700 years old, their stories of brave heroics, capricious gods, and towering human emotions are vividly timeless. The Iliad can justly be called the world’s greatest war epic. The terrible and long-drawn-out siege of Troy remains one of the classic campaigns. The Odyssey chronicles the many trials and adventures Odysseus must pass through on his long journey home from the Trojan wars to his beloved wife.
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Oddball Translation
- By Joel Jenkins on 05-11-17
By: Homer, and others
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The Aeneid
- By: Virgil, Robert Fitzgerald - translator
- Narrated by: Christopher Ravenscroft
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Abridged
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Profoundly poetic yet gloriously accessible, this is the best way to experience a work that has remained a centerpiece of Western civilization for 2,000 years. Fitzgerald's rendering speaks directly to the modern listener, inviting us to share the excitement, adventure, and human tears as Aeneas, the warrior hero, escapes from the burning city of Troy, embarks on a long and perilous journey, and eventually, triumphantly establishes a new nation: Rome.
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Not complete
- By Martin E Sargent on 04-16-16
By: Virgil, and others
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The Iliad & the Odyssey
- By: Homer
- Narrated by: Joey Clark
- Length: 25 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Nearly three thousand years after they were composed, The Iliad and The Odyssey remain two of the most celebrated and widely read stories ever told, yet next to nothing is known about their author. He was certainly an accomplished Greek bard, and he probably lived in the late eighth and early seventh centuries BCE Authorship is traditionally ascribed to a blind poet named Homer, and it is under this name that the works are still published.
By: Homer
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Ovid
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Llewelyn Morgan
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 4 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Llewelyn Morgan explores Ovid's immense influence on later literature and art, spanning from Shakespeare to Bernini. Throughout, Ovid's poetry is revealed as enduringly scintillating, his personal story compelling, and the issues his life and poetry raise of continuing relevance and interest.
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great, but technical
- By Jonathan L. on 08-15-24
By: Llewelyn Morgan
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The Golden Bough
- A Study in Magic and Religion
- By: Sir James George Frazer
- Narrated by: Andrew Cullum
- Length: 44 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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The Golden Bough, the monumental study of religious rites and practices in ‘primitive’ societies, was one of the earliest influential texts in anthropology. Its author, Sir James Frazer, surveyed the wide range of cultural habits, taboos and beliefs in communities across the world concluding that there was an observable pattern in the way magic developed into religion, though formal expression emerged in different ways.
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Epic
- By Mississippi Hippy on 08-01-23
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Faust
- By: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Narrated by: Auriol Smith, Gunnar Cauthery, Stephen Critchlow, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 58 mins
- Abridged
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Faust is one of the pillars of Western literature. This classic drama presents the story of the scholar Faust, tempted into a contract with the Devil in return for a life of sensuality and power. Enjoyment rules, until Faust’s emotions are stirred by a meeting with Gretchen, and the tragic outcome brings Part 1 to an end. Part 2, written much later in Goethe’s life, places his eponymous hero in a variety of unexpected circumstances, causing him to reflect on humanity and its attitudes to life and death.
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Mixed Feelings
- By Kyle on 12-04-11
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The Aeneid
- By: Virgil, John Dryden - translator
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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After a century of civil strife in Rome and Italy, the poet Virgil wrote The Aeneid to honor the emperor Augustus by praising Aeneas, Augustus's legendary ancestor. As a patriotic epic imitating Homer, The Aeneid also set out to provide Rome with a literature equal to that of Greece.
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A Classic
- By T. McG. on 11-13-11
By: Virgil, and others
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The Iliad
- Penguin Classics
- By: Homer, E. V. Rieu, D. C. H. Rieu, and others
- Narrated by: Steve John Shepherd
- Length: 17 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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One of the foremost achievements in Western literature, Homer's Iliad tells the story of the darkest episode in the Trojan War. At its centre is Achilles, the greatest warrior-champion of the Greeks, and his refusal to fight after being humiliated by his leader, Agamemnon. But when the Trojan Hector kills Achilles' close friend Patroclus, he storms back into battle to take revenge - although knowing this will ensure his own early death.
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Slow Start, Strong Finish
- By joshua on 08-09-23
By: Homer, and others
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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My callow youth aside, I suspect the lack of rhyme and regular meter to be at the heart of my lack of interest in Humphries’ translation. When reading I need the handholds of form, especially with extended poetic ventures.
Listening, however, is a completely different experience. Intricate poetic invention, the completely unexpected (but absolutely perfect) word or phrase, the inverted syntax that adds grandeur or emphasis, is easier to take in with the eye. What the ear needs is a coherent story that skims along. Ian Johnston’s translation does just that; it is straightforward and unadorned. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying it’s simple-minded. After all, this is Ovid’s Metamorphoses. There is enough invention here even without conscious poetic craft to dazzle the imagination.
One example will suffice. As in every printed version I’m familiar with, this epic of transformations is itself one continuous transformation. You’re listening to one story and then realize with a start that you’re in the middle of the next one. By the slightest of slight-of-hand, Ovid has used one character or location or detail in the first tale to segue into the next. Like the stones rising into men and women or Arachne’s shrinking into a spider, the poem is in a constant state of flux. It is a technique that, irony of ironies, gives the work its permanence and coherence.
David Horovitch’s performance is simply superb. His pacing is as easy on the ear as Johnston’s translation. His voice is a treat to listen to. And he understands the shape of sentences and ideas, presenting them with just the right edge of humor, horror or wonder.
The Perfect Translation for Audio
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excellent reading
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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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