1. Brown, Sarah Annes. The Metamorphosis of Ovid: From Chaucer to Ted Hughes. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd., 1999. (Andrea Nevistic)

     This text was inspiring on the grounds that it looked at Ovid’s Metamorphoses, as well as other works by Ovid, as a window into who Ovid the poet and who Ovid the man were and how the images presented affected and reflected the beliefs and works of latter generations.  Brown argues that each of the characters presented in the Metamorphoses are reflection of Ovid himself and of the struggles he faced in love and life.  Brown is not the only author to believe this hypothesis.  In my research, I found that this is a fairly common belief.  I chose Brown’s text, “The Metamorphosis of Ovid: From Chaucer to Ted Hughes” because the entire text was dedicated to this subject as well as to the impact of Ovid’s images in latter text and generations.
      Brown points out, through the use of post Ovid texts that reference Ovid’s work, that many readers of Ovid do not fully comprehend the purpose of the text or the representations of Ovid in the characters that he chose to write about.  As we discussed in class, the audiences that Ovid was writing for would have been familiar with the stories and characters that Ovid wrote about in the Metamorphoses.  However, Ovid changes the traditional stories to fit a specific mold.  That mold in his works was the reflection of multiples sides of Ovid’s personal character.  At the end of the Metamorphoses Ovid wrote, “Yet I’ll be borne, the finer part of me, above the stars, Immortal, and my name shall never die. . . . If truth at all is established by poetic prophecy, my fame shall live to all eternity.” (Metamorphoses, a new translation by A.D. Melville/ Oxford world’s classics).  Brown interprets this as Ovid’s declaration that he knows that he will live forever. 
     In class, I commented that Ovid seemed self absorbed in that he took it upon himself to change the familiar stories of his day.  Although I have not read enough of Ovid’s texts to have an expert opinion on this subject, I would most likely agree with Brown’s views that Ovid is writing about himself. 
      Brown explores further by taking the hypothesis that Ovid is writing about himself and then applies this to Ovid’s latter texts, finding the results to be the same.  She also looks at the impact that Ovid had on Homer and on Virgil and also how Ovid’s Metamorphoses disrupted the authority of these two prominent and important authors.  Going further, Brown looks at the intertextuality used by later authors, such as Shakespeare, and the problems of misinterpretation of Ovid’s work throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.  She explores possible reasons why Ovid’s works inspired later generations and how these authors have secured Ovid’s immortality. 
      Not only do we have an entire text dedicated to Ovid and the Metamorphoses, Brown helps those researching this subject by providing a list of alternate texts as well as articles and other authors that have written on this subject.  She also provides us with the names of the texts that influenced her views.

2. Chenetier, Marc. “Metamorphoses of the Metamorphoses: Patricia Eakins, Wendy Walker, Don Webb.” New Literary History (1992): 383-400. (Nicole Kerby)

      This article was not quite what I was expecting and wasn’t very helpful.  It was very wordy and the word “metamorphosis” was in practically every sentence.  The topic, while having to do with Ovid’s Metamorphoses was mainly focused on why society is so fascinated by metamorphoses and it also names a few more modern authors that have used metamorphoses in their work.  The author believes that part of the reason that we love metamorphoses is because it satisfies the kid within us.  It is also appealing because of mankind’s dream of being someone else and by transforming; we can avoid death and live on.  After comparing the modern-day writers (who are listed in the title) to Ovid, Chenetier finishes off by questioning whether metamorphoses should be used simply to attain one’s ends.  While he doesn’t answer this question directly, he does say that good, effective literature is that which is in a state of constant metamorphoses.

3. Gildenhard, Ingo, and Andrew Zissos. “ ‘Somatic Economies’:Tragic Bodies and Poetic Design in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.” Ovidian Transformations. Eds. Philip Hardie, Alessandro Barchiesi, and Stephen Hinds.  Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999. 162-181. (Jessica Woodell)

     This article was interesting because it used a modern definition of tragedy, rather than the traditional Aristotelian approach, to analyze the tragic elements largely ignored in Metamorphoses due to historical emphasis on elegiac, epic, and Callimachean principles. The authors acknowledge that the incongruity of wit with grisly subject matter often nullifies the tragic element in Ovid’s writing, especially when attempting to apply Aristotle’s definitions to Ovid’s “untragic presentation of tragic material” (165). However, according to Gian Biagio Conte’s approach, genre cannot be reduced to a specific type of emotional response, but is instead a “generically constituted vision of reality” (163). Once the critic is able to look past the Ovidian style, epic genre and Roman culture obscuring the tragic elements of the text, the tragic elements embedded in the narrative becomes apparent. 
       The three major elements of tragedy identified in Metamorphoses in “Tragic Bodies and Poetic Design” are paradox, tragic themes and dramatic action. Since Ovid’s applications are somewhat out of the ordinary, the authors rely on the modern definition to support the generalizations and trends presented as evidence. The use of paradox, for instance, is claimed an essential element of tragedy which Ovid applies liberally in the numerous scenes describing a “collapse of conceptual distinctions” in his characters (169). This occurs in the rape of Philomela and in Procne’s reactions to the outrage suffered by her sister. For them, the cosmic order of things seems to have collapsed and there is only a choice between two equally undesirable courses of action , thus Procne’s murder of her son creates a tragic situation. The Ovidian style further increases the tragic element in books three and four by addressing Theban history.  The authors assert that Thebes itself is one of history’s most tragic stages, where no relief came from the resolution of conflict and all forms of strife and perversion were everyday occurrences. Throughout all of this is laced dramatic action where “seeing and being seen” is an essential element of the storyline, such as Actaeon’s spying on Diana and Juno’s blinding of Tiresias (168). 
       Although I agree Aristotle’s definitions are often too narrow to encompass the full scope of tragic writing, I feel they are still a good guideline for defining the genre. I wasn’t quite persuaded that Ovid wasn’t intentionally disregarding the rules of traditional genre writers. After all, he had been abandoned by traditional society, why should he still play by their rules?

4. Glenn, Edgar. The Metamorphoses: Ovid’s Roman Games. Lanham: University Press of America, 1986. XIII-XIX, 115-129. (Nicole Kerby)

      This book discusses interpretations for each little story that comprises The Metamorphoses and the author gives his opinion of what Ovid is trying to accomplish in his poem.  His view is that Ovid is playing three different intellectual games with his readers.  The first is creating rapid changes in mood or tone.  For example, Hercules goes from dying a horrible death to realizing he has become a god.  Secondly is how Ovid tried to outdo the Greeks by artistically re-writing their myths.  Third of all, Ovid is opposing Augustus’ program of moral reform in areas of marriage and sexual behavior.  The author then divides up the rest of the book into chapters that are grouped by different metamorphoses that share some sort of common theme.  He explains that while the transition from one metamorphosis to another may seem unrelated, Ovid did have a reason for ordering them in the manner that he did and it is logical.  Often the myths have similar themes or you need to know one first as background to better understand some that come later on.
      I found this book to be pretty helpful in better understanding The Metamorphoses and why it was organized as it was.  The author gave me insight into much of the symbolism that takes place in the book and aided me in understanding the deeper meaning of what was going on (beyond everyone changing into birds).  As the author says though, this book would be better read at the same time as one is reading The Metamorphoses so that you can find your own meanings and then consider some of his.

5. Hinds, Steven. “After Exile: Time and Teleology From Metamorphoses To Ibis” Ovidian Transformations, Essays On Ovid’s Metamorphoses And Its Reception. Cambridge Philological Society. Supplementary Volume no.23. 2000. 49-67. (Gregory Albert)

      This essay, authored by a classicist, was a particularly interesting piece about the ways Ovid presents the concepts of time in the Metamorphoses, and how those presentations are used as references in his later work. His works, Tristia and Ibis particularly and repeatedly reference his use of tempora in Metamorphoses. The author argues that he does this mostly to reconcile the absurdity and disruption of his life antecedent to his exile. One of the most interesting of the examples is his reference to the original text in the beginning of Metamorphoses, “…and from the first origin of the world spin a continuous song down to my own times”, which is referred to by revision in his blatant address to Augustus in Tristia 2, “And would that you might recall your mind awhile from wrath and bid a few lines of this be read to you at leisure, a few lines, in which starting from the first beginning of the Universe I spun the work, Caesar, down to your times!” Regarding this, Hinds argues, “The passage begins with the relegated poet’s recurrent claim that the interruption of the exile cheated the Metamorphoses of their final polish”. He further argues that the poet has made such deliberate references to time and so integrated Metamorphoses with the concepts that it becomes impossible to divorce any discussion of time in his later work in exile from the references to the past work. Moreover, all the references he uses seem to have some sort of purpose of condemning his situation or making a commentary on those who put him into it. 

6. Kenney, E.J. Introduction. Metamorphoses.  By Ovid.  New York: Oxford. 1986. xiiv-xxix. (Jesse Trueman)

     Herein many things that make the reading of Ovid easier and more beneficial are expounded.  Among the things covered are pieces of the history of Ovid’s times, how to read the subject, Ovid’s physiological delving, how to read the artful meanderings (and how they have been read.)  Its basic function is to enable modern readers to get from the poem as much as possible.  It does not however explain why the Metamorphosis is as important as it is, or the ways it has influenced other works.
 

7. Knox, Peter E. Ovid’s Metamorphoses and the Traditions of Augustan Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. (Jessica Woodell)

     Knox makes a convincing argument against classifying Metamorphoses as an epic, proposing instead that Ovid’s work was a unique combination of Augustan tradition and Callimachian form that had a distinctly elegistic style. He claims historians of classical literature “succumbed to the urge to classify” in regards to Metamorphoses and that its epic elements are only of minor significance when considering it as a whole (1). Not only does the story lack the proper unity to be an epic, but the appropriate subject matter as well, containing stories Knox characterizes as bizarre tales of love and passion. He also refutes the assumptions that metamorphoses is the single unifying theme, instead asserting that “the many separate narratives have been combined by the sheer force of the personality of the poet” (6). This is one of the defining characteristics of Metamorphoses that Knox emphasizes repeatedly in arguing for a Callimachian/elegistic style, citing numerous examples where Ovid has modeled his narrative after Callimachus and poets from the Alexandrian tradition. 
     He further supports his proposal that Ovid’s work was a unique “product of literary background” by providing examples of Ovid’s unusual application of traditionally epic themes and motifs (6). One such argument is that the Augustan subject matter and irregular hexameter of the poem, rather than automatically qualify Metamorphoses as an epic like some critics concluded, reinforce the originality of the text. Knox supports this argument using Ovid’s purposeful reinterpretations of Augustan motifs and traditional figures while interpreting the rearrangement of the elegiactic couplet to be Ovid’s way of provoking the reader,. He continues this line or argument with other examples used to support an epic heading, such as Ovid’s opening cosmogony. Knox disagrees, stating that, although it is superfluously akin to Lucretius’ in its narrative approach, the cosmogony is in itself a literary precedent because it draws upon several schools of philosophy when describing creation. 
     This is a well-written argument that amply supports the thesis and the author’s logic. The only problem I have with it is Knox’s tendency to lean towards intertextuality as a means of classifying Ovid’s work. 

8. Lorch, Maristella, and Lavinia Lorch. “Metaphor and Metamorphosis: Purgatorio 27 and Metamorphoses 4.” Dante and Ovid: Essays and Intertextuality. Binghamton, NY: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1991. 99 – 121. (Andrea Nevistic)

     This text covers essays on Ovid’s influences in Dante’s work. This particular essay, “Metaphor and Metamorphosis: Purgatorio 27 and Metamorphoses 4”, looks specifically at the Metaphors that Ovid used to describe himself within his text “Metamorphoses” and how Dante used these metaphors within his own work to describe himself.  This essay is important to the theory that Ovid’s Metamorphoses is a reflection of himself through the use of his characters, suggesting that Dante believed in and understood that the Metamorphoses was written by Ovid as his own personal biography. 
       Maristella and Lavinia Lorch suggest that Dante’s movement through Hell and Purgatory with his immortal guide Virgil was a reflection of Ovid moving through the Metamorphoses.  Ovid not Virgil was the honored author.  As for Dante, he is not aspiring to be like Ovid he wants to be greater then Ovid.  Ovid’s declaration of his own greatness at the end of the Metamorphoses seems to have been a challenge to Dante to prove his own superiority to Ovid.  The authors go as far as to suggest that Dante recognizes Ovid’s greatness as an author along side Virgil, Homer, etc.. and himself, yet he then silences Ovid. “Concerning Cadmus and Arethusa let Ovid be silent” was a direct attack on Ovid’s declaration that “Whenever through the lands beneath her sway the might of Rome extends, my world shall be upon the lips of men.” (Metamorphoses, a new translation by A.D. Melville/ Oxford world’s classics).  These authors are suggesting that Dante was rewriting and reversing Ovid by replacing Ovid with himself.
      The Lorch’s used the original texts, translating important passages.  They provide references to a large number of authors who have written on Ovid, the Metamorphoses, Dante and Christianity. 
 I have not read the entire “Inferno” by Dante nor the entire text of the “Metamorphoses” by Ovid, yet I do believe that the suggestion of Dante and Ovid’s belief in their personal superiority has merit.

9. Martindale, Charles., ed. Ovid Renewed: Ovidian Influences on Literature and Art From the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century.  New York: Cambridge, 1988. (Jesse Trueman)

The articles collected in this book all pertain to how Ovid’s language and works influenced other authors and works.  Included are articles on Chaucer’s use of Ovid, Shakespeare’s use of Ovidian characters and Elizabethan and middle age variations on Ovidian readings.  This collection is highly pertinent to any reader seeking a closer view on interpretations of language and Ovid’s influence: However if what is desired is a deeper understanding of Ovidian literature itself this is hardly the place to look.
 

10. Pranger, M. “Continuity in the Metamorphoses.”  The Classical Review. 52 (2000): 65-66. (Grace Kim)

      For those who are skeptical in believing that Ovid’s Metamorphoses is a “carmen perpetuum” (65) or a continuous poem, Pranger argues about intratextual aspects that make Metamorphoses continuous.  First, she contends that Ovid’s repetition, specifically with the use of examples such as the disastrous stories of the creation, the flood, and Phaethon’s wild ride, advances the poem gradually and unifies it as well.  Ovid uses repetition as a poetic device to show the cyclical nature of history and humanity.  While it is arguable that Ovid’s transitions are rather weak, Pranger contends that Ovid complements the dynamic repetition by linking episodes together through interweaving and shows his genius by grafting the episodes together.  She focuses on the transition between the story of Daphne and that of Io, which indicates that the stories should be read together as a continuing drama. I think this article was too brief, and Pragner’s points could have been explained in more detail to make her arguments stronger. Consequently, I didn’t find this article particularly helpful. 

11. Reeson, James. Ovid Heroides 11,13 & 14: A Commentary. Leiden-Boston-Köln: Brill, 2001. (Gregory Albert)

      This book offers alternate suggestions to the criticism Ovid received in 1984 regarding his misuse of intertextuality in the Heroides. The author immediately suggests that Ovid never intended to make the stories objectively perfect, regarding what was considered more authoritative texts. Instead, he offers the suggestion that, because Ovid was writing epistles under the pseudonyms of the heroines in the larger Greco-Roman mythological schema, he was constrained not by the conviction of the reader that the stories were accurate, but by the need to accurately write from the heroines’ own subjective perspective. He makes an example of Penelope, who convinced that she must make a postman out of the first newcomer to Ithaca, gives a letter to a beggar. The beggar however, is Odysseus, as we know from the larger schema of the Greco-Roman myth. Thus, we can see that taken in the context of Penelope’s perspective, the story must be a different one and moreover, anything otherwise would do a disservice to the reader who ought to expect a first-person perspective. He also makes an example of Hypermestra, who writes to Lynceus. Hypermestra is supposed to kill Lynceus on their wedding night, but eventually decides not to. It is largely a myth as to why she failed to do so and readers of Ovid appeal to her epistles to find out why. However, the letters are not intended to shed light on the larger mystery, but rather are questioning her relationship with Lynceus to the end of reconciling her frustrated feelings. The reader cannot expect more than a monologue to Lynceus and while fault has been placed on Ovid for not successfully portraying the reasoning for her decision, but fault, if any is warranted, should be placed on the critics for misunderstanding the purpose of Heroides.

12. Solodow, Joseph B. The World of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press, 1988. (Grace Kim)

     Solodow gives readers a comprehensive analysis of Ovid’s Metamorphoses.  Although literary criticism differs by critic, this book is still particularly helpful in understanding Metamorphoses for first time Ovid readers, like myself.  Solodow’s book is conveniently divided into six sections which include: the structure of Metamorphoses, the role of the narrator, Ovid’s use of mythology, comparisons between Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and Vergil’s Aeneid, the metamorphoses in the text, and metamorphosis as art. 
 Solodow argues that “the thematic link between the stories in Metamorphoses is deceptive and any grand scheme of significance in their arrangement is illusory” (2).  However, overall unity and constancy comes from the theme of metamorphosis and the omnipresence of the narrator.  One approach I found particularly interesting was Solodow’s examination of the organization and disorganization of Metamorphoses.  Metamorphoses is unified by not only Ovid’s organization and narrative links that serve to create the poem as a continuous whole, but the disorganization of the poem working in the opposite direction.  This concept is resolved by Ovid’s reminder that the conventions and artificialities of story telling need not be accepted.  Solodow points out that Ovid’s aim is to liberate the readers from whatever trust we place in literature and traditional story telling.  Each story strives toward a kind of pictorial realization, which is usually found in each metamorphosis.  The metamorphosis as a whole in this case would be from Ovid’s narrative towards image or from story to icon. 
      The last section of the book discusses metamorphosis as art.  The acceptance of this idea would make Ovid, clearly aware of his own role in manipulating the story, an artist.  The idea suggests that the processes of metamorphosis and creation of art are alike.  Solodow explicates this idea through many examples and close reading of Ovid’s word choice.  With the popular doctrine that art is an imitation of nature, Ovid was novel in portraying images in which nature imitates art.  Solodow accordingly gives examples to support this claim; some of these examples are quite remarkable and brilliant.  He concludes by stating that Ovid’s Metamorphoses has come to play an important role in our Western tradition in shaping our perceptions of art and experience.