OVID
METAMORPHOSES
Translated
by
Ian Johnston
Vancouver Island University
Nanaimo, British Columbia
Canada
This translation is based on the Hugo Magnus edition of the Latin text (1892). It was first published on the internet in 2011. A full recording of the translation was produced by Naxos Audiobooks in 2012.
This document is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC by 4.0 and thus, provided the source is acknowledged, it may be (a) downloaded and distributed, in whole or in part, without permission and without charge and (b) freely edited and adapted to suit the particular needs of the person using it (e.g., for dramatic production).
For a Word (Rich Text Format) or PDF version of this entire translation, please use the following links: Metamorphoses (RTF)orMetamorphoses [PDF]
TABLE OF CONTENTS
For more specific details of the contents of a particular book, consult the summary provided at the opening of that book.
Invocation; Creation; Four Ages, War of the Giants; the Flood; Deucalion and Pyrrha; Apollo and Pytho; Apollo and Daphne; Io, Argus, and Mercury; Pan and Syrinx; Phaëton.
Phaëton; Callisto and Jupiter; Callisto and Arcas; Coronis and Apollo; Ocyroë; Battus and Mercury; Aglauros, Mercury, and Juno; Europa and Jupiter.
Cadmus and the Dragon; Actaeon and Diana; Semele, Jupiter, and Juno; Juno, Jupiter, and Teiresias; Echo and Narcissus, Pentheus and Bacchus.
The Daughters of Minyas; Pyramus and Thisbe; Mars and Venus; the Sun, Leucothea and Clytie; Salmacis and Hermaphroditus; Athamas and Ino; Cadmus and Harmonia, Perseus and Atlas; Perseus and Andromeda.
Perseus and Phineus; the Muses and Minerva; the Daughters of Pierus and the Muses; Typhoeus and the Gods; the Rape of Proserpine; Ceres and Cyrene; Arethusa and Alpheus; Triptolemus and Lyncus.
Arachne and Minerva; Niobe; Leto and the Lycians; Marsyas; Tereus and Philomela; Orithyia and Boreas.
Jason and Medea, Medea and Aeson, Medea and Pelias, Medea and Aegeus, Aeacus and the Myrmidons, Cephalus and Procris.
Minos and Scylla, Daedalus and Icarus, Calydonian Boar Hunt, Althaea and Meleager, Permela and Achelous, Baucis and Philemon, Erysichthon and Maestra.
Hercules and Achelous, Nessus and Hercules, Galanthis, Dryope, Iolaus, Byblis and Caunus, Iphis and Iänthe.
Orpheus and Eurydice, Attis and Cybele, Cyparissus, Hyacinthus and Apollo, The Propoetides, Pygmalion, Myrrha and Cinyras, Atalanta and Hippomenes, Adonis.
Death of Orpheus, Midas and Bacchus, Midas, Pan and Apollo, Peleus and Thetis, Chione and Daedalion, Peleus and Psamathe, Ceyx and Halcyone, Aesacus and Hesperië.
Agamemnon at Aulis, Cycnus and Achilles, Caeneus, the Centaurs and Lapiths, Periclymenus and Hercules, Death of Achilles.
Ajax and Ulysses, Hecuba and Polymnestor, Memnon, Aeneas and Acis, Galatea and Polyphemus, Glaucus.
Scylla and Circe, The Cercopes, The Cumaean Sibyl, Ulysses, Polyphemus and Circe, Picus and Circe, Diomedes in Italy, Aeneas in Latium; Vertumnus and Pomona; Iphis and Anaxarete; Romulus.
Mysceleus, Croton, Pythagoras. Egeria, Hippolytus, Tages, Cipus, Aesculapius, Julius Caesar, Augustus.
GLOSSARY AND INDEX
LIST OF TRANSFORMATIONS
Lecture on Ovid’s Metamorphoses
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
In this translation, the numbers in square brackets refer
to Ovid’s Latin text, the numbers without brackets refer to the English text. In
the latter, partial lines are counted together in the reckoning, so that two or
three consecutive short lines are equivalent to one full line.
The explanatory endnotes, the side headings, and the summaries at the start of each
book have been added by the translator.
Note that in this English text, the possessives of words ending in -s
is usually indicated by an apostrophe and an -s (e.g. (e.g., Bacchus,
Bacchus’s). This form of the possessive adds a syllable to the word
(the sound -iz): hence, Bacchus has two syllables; whereas,
Bacchus’s has three. Sometimes, however, for metrical
reasons, the possessive is indicated simply by an apostrophe (e.g., Perseus,
Perseus’). This convention does not add the extra syllable to the name;
Perseus and Perseus’ are both three-syllable words.
A word on pronunciation of names: the letters –eus and –aus at the end of a name
are normally two syllables in this translation: (e.g., Orpheus is pronounced
Ór-phe-us,
Pentheus is pronounced Pén-the-us, Menelaus is pronounced
Me-ne-lá-us, and so
on); a dieresis over a vowel indicates that it is pronounced by itself (e.g.,
Danaë is pronounced Dá-na-e, not Dá-nai, Nereïds
is pronounced Né-re-ids, Caÿster is pronounced Ca-y-ster, and so on; final vowels are pronounced by
themselves (as in Calliope, Penelope, Achaea, and so on), although there are
several exceptions, usually when the name has long been adopted into English
(e.g., Crete, Palatine, Rome, Ganymede, Nile).
Ovid’s text sometimes creates minor confusion with names either because he does
not use a specific name (or uses it very sparingly) or because he identifies
someone with a phrase which is not always immediately clear to the modern reader
(e.g., “girl from Arcady,” “descendant of Abas,” “Cyllenean god,” and so on). I
have in many cases inserted the more familiar name (e.g., Perseus, Mercury,
Callisto), sometimes in addition to the original phrase, sometimes in place of
it.
Another source of minor confusion is Ovid’s habit of changing verb tenses
frequently from present to past and back again, often in mid-sentence. While
this stylistic habit is not uncommon in conversational English, it is rare in
formal English. Different translators handle this feature in different ways.
Some put all verbs into the past tense, while others follow Ovid’s changes
faithfully. Most recent translations (so far as I can tell) retain the movement
back and forth between present and past tenses, but do so less frequently than
Ovid does, so that there is more consistency within short passages of the
English. This last-mentioned practice is the one I have followed in this
translation.
Finally, Ovid’s speeches are sometimes difficult to keep track of, because he
will have a speaker telling us what someone else said, and that account may
include more direct speech also containing direct speech. At one point he has
speeches within a speech within a speech within a speech. To avoid complex,
awkward, and confusing punctuation, I have tried to stick to a simple use of
quotation marks (double quotation marks for direct speech, and single quotation
marks for all speeches within speeches) and have indented the left margin
appropriately to indicate how direct or indirect a particular speech is.
I would like to acknowledge the great help I have received from other
translations and commentaries, above all those by Mary M. Innes, A. S. Kline,
Henry T. Riley, and A. D. Melville.