“Brilliantly succeeds at bringing Ovid's passionate and disturbing stories to life. One of the many pleasures offered by this splendid book is discovering that 'the sweet witty soul of Ovid' now lives in Ted Hughes” ―James Shapiro, The New York Times Book Review
When it was published in 1997, this book was immediately recognized as the best rendering of Ovid in generations, a classic in its own right, and a major book in Ted Hughes's oeuvre.
The Metamorphoses of Ovid stands with the works of Homer, Virgil, Dante, and milton as a classic of world poetry. Hughes, one of the most admired and widely read poets of our day, translated twenty-four of its stories, legends connected by their transformational motifs. The result is the most vigorous and supple twentieth-century version of the classic, at once a delight for the Latinist and an appealing introduction to Ovid for the general reader.
"The most memorable transformation of all is that of Ted Hughes and Ovid, separated by the ages yet blending the rough textures of Yorkshire and the sophistication of classical Rome into a seamless whole." - Robert Taylor, The Boston Globe
