Metamorphoses

The Metamorphoses (Latin: Metamorphoseon libri: "Books of Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem by the Roman poet Ovid, considered his magnum opus. Comprising fifteen books and over 250 myths, the poem chronicles the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar within a loose mythico-historical framework.

One of the most influential works in Western culture, the Metamorphoses has inspired such authors as Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer, and William Shakespeare. Numerous episodes from the poem have been depicted in acclaimed works of sculpture, painting, and music.

Quotes



 * Chaos: rudis indigestaque moles.
 * Chaos, a raw and undivided mass.
 * Book I, line 7 (trans. A. D. Melville)

astra tenent caeleste solum formaeque deorum, cesserunt nitidis habitandae piscibus undae, terra feras cepit, volucres agitabilis aer.'' should have its own distinctive forms of life, the constellations and the shapes of gods occupied the lower part of heaven; the seas gave shelter to the shining fishes, earth received beasts, and flighty air, the birds.
 * ''Neu regio foret ulla suis animalibus orba,
 * And so that every region of the world
 * Book I, lines 72–75 (trans. C. Martin)

deerat adhuc et quod dominari in cetera posset: natus homo est.'' More capable of mind, a sage, a ruler, So Man was born.
 * ''Sanctius his animal mentisque capacius altae
 * But something else was needed, a finer being,
 * Book I, lines 76–78 (trans. R. Humphries)

iussit et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus.'' and ordered him to stand erect and look directly up into the vaulted heavens and turn his countenance to meet the stars.
 * ''Os homini sublime dedit caelumque videre
 * [God] gave to man a face that is uplifted,
 * Book I, lines 85–86 (trans. C. Martin)

sponte sua, sine lege fidem rectumque colebat.'' With heart and soul, obedient to no law, Gave honour to good faith and righteousness.
 * ''Aurea prima sata est aetas, quae vindice nullo,
 * Golden was that first age which unconstrained,
 * Book I, lines 89–90 (trans. A. D. Melville)


 * Amor sceleratus habendi.
 * The damned desire of having.
 * Book I, line 131 (trans. R. Humphries)

Iamque nocens ferrum ferroque nocentius aurum prodierat.'' The root of evil. They found the guilt of iron, And gold, more guilty still.
 * ''Effodiuntur opes, inritamenta malorum.
 * ... all that precious metal,
 * Book I, lines 140–143 (trans. R. Humphries)

ense recidendum, ne pars sincera trahatur.'' to find a cure, but now the surgeon's blade must cut away what is untreatable, lest the infection spread to healthy parts.
 * ''Cuncta prius temptanda, sed inmedicabile curae
 * We have tried everything
 * Book I, lines 190–191 (trans. C. Martin)


 * Nos duo turba sumus.
 * We two are a multitude.
 * Book I, line 355

nec prosunt domino, quae prosunt omnibus, artes!'' With any herb; the arts which cure the others Do me, their lord, no good!
 * ''Ei mihi, quod nullis amor est sanabilis herbis
 * Alas for me, love is incurable
 * Book I, lines 523–524 (trans. R. Humphries)

et dici potuisse et non potuisse refelli.'' unable to respond or to refute them!
 * ''Pudet haec opprobria nobis
 * It shames me that I listened to such insults
 * Book I, lines 758–759 (trans. C. Martin)


 * Materiam superabat opus.
 * Its art surpassed the stuff that it was made of.
 * Book II, line 5 (trans. C. Martin)

non diversa tamen, qualem decet esse sororum.'' nor wholly different, but rather mixed, as those of sisters ought to be.
 * ''Facies non omnibus una,
 * Their features neither utterly alike
 * Book II, lines 13–14 (trans. C. Martin)


 * Medio tutissimus ibis.
 * The middle way is safest.
 * Book II, line 137 (trans. C. Martin)

a guilty conscience in one's countenance!
 * Heu! quam difficile est crimen non prodere vultu!
 * How difficult it is not to reveal
 * Book II, line 447 (trans. C. Martin)

from weeping—for there's nothing here to weep for.
 * Vixque tenet lacrimas, quia nil lacrimabile cernit.
 * [Envy]'s scarcely able to prevent herself
 * Book II, line 796 (trans. R. Humphries)

maiestas et amor.'' Nor long share one abode!
 * ''Non bene conveniunt nec in una sede morantur
 * Ah, majesty and love go ill together,
 * Book II, lines 846–847 (trans. A. D. Melville)

exspectanda dies hominis, dicique beatus ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet.'' A man must wait the final day, and no man Should ever be called happy before burial.
 * ''Ultima semper
 * Always,
 * Book III, lines 135–137 (trans. R. Humphries)

adducitque cutem macies et in aera sucus corporis omnis abit; vox tantum atque ossa supersunt: vox manet.'' reducing her to dried out skin and bones, then voice and bones only; her skeleton turned, they say, into stone. Now, only voice is left of her.
 * ''Extenuant vigiles corpus miserabile curae
 * Unsleeping grief wasted her sad body,
 * Book III, lines 396–399 (trans. C. Martin)


 * Inopem me copia fecit.
 * My riches make me poor.
 * Book III, line 466 (trans. R. Humphries)


 * Quoque magis tegitur, tectus magis aestuat ignis.
 * Fire suppressed burns all the fiercer.
 * Book IV, line 64 (trans. R. Humphries)

their cause has never been revealed before.
 * Causa latet, vis est notissima fontis.
 * For though the fountain's ill effects are famous,
 * Book IV, line 287 (trans. R. Humphries)

nec tenues undas.'' of sunlight, air, and water!
 * ''Nec solem proprium natura nec aera fecit
 * Nature has given no one ownership
 * Book VI, lines 350–351 (trans. C. Martin)


 * Fas est et ab hoste doceri.
 * It is right to learn even from an enemy.
 * Book IV, 428
 * Variant translations:
 * It is right to learn, even from the enemy.
 * Right it is to be taught even by the enemy.
 * It is right to be taught even by an enemy.
 * We can learn even from our enemies.

noctis habent!''
 * ''Pro superi, quantum mortalia pectora caecae
 * Great gods! What darkness fills the human heart!
 * Book VI, lines 472–473 (trans. H. Gregory)

deteriora sequor.'' Things that are good, and yet I follow worse ones.'''
 * ''Video meliora proboque,
 * '''I see, approving,
 * Book VII, lines 20–21 (trans. R. Humphries)

sollicitumque aliquid laetis intervenit.'' Intrudes on happiness.
 * ''Nulla est sincera voluptas,
 * No joy is ever complete, and sorrow always
 * Book VII, lines 453–454 (trans. R. Humphries)


 * Ignavis precibus Fortuna repugnat.
 * Fortune spurns the coward's useless prayers.
 * Book VIII, line 73 (trans. C. Martin)

Good people still, and cherishers are cherished.
 * Cura deum di sint, et, qui coluere, colantur.
 * The gods look after
 * Book VIII, line 724 (trans. R. Humphries)

Is that which conceals art.
 * Ars adeo latet arte sua.
 * The best art, they say,
 * Book X, line 252 (trans. R. Humphries)

cura dedit leges, et quod natura remittit, invida iura negant.'' and makes indecent what Nature freely allows us!
 * ''Humana malignas
 * Human morality gives us such stifling precepts,
 * Book X, lines 329–331 (trans. C. Martin)

et nihil est annis velocius.'' Without our notice; nothing goes more swiftly Than do the years.
 * ''Labitur occulte fallitque volatilis aetas,
 * Time, in its stealthy gliding, cheats us all
 * Book X, lines 519–520 (trans. R. Humphries)


 * In audaces non est audacia tuta.
 * Against the daring, daring is reckless.
 * Book X, line 544 (trans. C. Martin)


 * Audentes deus ipse iuvat!
 * God helps the bold.
 * Book X, line 586 (trans. R. Humphries)


 * Candida de nigris et de candentibus atra.
 * He made white look like black and black like white.
 * Book XI, line 314 (trans. H. Gregory)

pax animi, quem cura fugit, qui corpora duris fessa ministeriis mulces reparasque labori.'' most tranquil, Sleep, of all the deities, the foe of care, the spirit’s gentle balm that soothes us after difficult employment, restoring our powers for the morrow.
 * ''Somne, quies rerum, placidissime, Somne, deorum,
 * O Sleep, that gives your peace to everything,
 * Book XI, lines 623–625 (trans. C. Martin)


 * Pauperis est numerare pecus.
 * Only the poor man counts his cattle.
 * Book XIII, line 824

est in vota locus: sors autem ubi pessima rerum, sub pedibus timor est securaque summa malorum.'' There is room on us for wounds; but when the worst Has happened, fear is trampled underfoot. We are at last secure.
 * ''Dum peiora timentur,
 * As long as there is something left to fear,
 * Book XIV, lines 488–490 (trans. R. Humphries)

visibus humanis, oculis ea pectoris hausit.''
 * ''Quae natura negabat
 * Those things that nature denied to human sight, she revealed to the eyes of the soul.
 * Book XV, lines 63–64

Cuncta fluunt, omnisque vagans formatur imago.'' All things are fluent; every image forms, Wandering through change.
 * ''Nihil est toto, quod perstet, in orbe.
 * Nothing is permanent in all the world.
 * Book XV, lines 177–178 (trans. R. Humphries)

omnia destruitis vitiataque dentibus aevi paulatim lenta consumitis omnia morte!'' With long corruption ruin all the world And waste all things in slow mortality.
 * ''Tempus edax rerum, tuque, invidiosa vetustas,
 * Time, the devourer, and the jealous years
 * Book XV, lines 234–236 (trans. A. D. Melville)

incipere esse aliud, quam quod fuit ante, morique desinere illud idem.'' Is the beginning of a difference, No more than that, and death is only ceasing Of what had been before.
 * ''Nascique vocatur
 * What we call birth
 * Book XV, lines 255–257 (trans. R. Humphries)

cernimus atque illas adsumere robora gentes, concidere has.'' To strength and greatness, others fail and fall.
 * ''Sic tempora verti
 * Times are upset, we see, and nations rise
 * Book XV, lines 420–422 (trans. A. D. Melville)

nec poterit ferrum nec edax abolere vetustas.'' I trust, beyond Jove's anger, fire and sword, Beyond Time's hunger.
 * ''Iamque opus exegi, quod nec Iovis ira nec ignis
 * Now I have done my work. It will endure,
 * Book XV, lines 871–872 (trans. R. Humphries)

ius habet, incerti spatium mihi finiat aevi: parte tamen meliore mei super alta perennis astra ferar, nomenque erit indelebile nostrum.'' which only has my body in its power, and put an end to my uncertain years; no matter, for in spirit I will be borne up to soar beyond the distant stars, immortal in the name I leave behind.
 * ''Cum volet, illa dies, quae nil nisi corporis huius
 * Let that day come then, when it wishes to,
 * Book XV, lines 873–876 (trans. C. Martin)

Quotes about Metamorphoses

 * [Ovid] took the one thing that was to him emotionally real—the love that unites and destroys men and women—and made an epic of it. [...] The Metamorphoses remains unique: it is the only epic of love.
 * Brooks Otis, Ovid As an Epic Poet (1966), as quoted in The Literature 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Novelists, Playwrights, and Poets of All Time (2008) by Daniel S. Burt, p. 97


 * A worke very pleasaunt and delectable.
 * Arthur Golding (1567), title page

Translations
The following translations into English have been used for the quotations:


 * The. xv. Booke of P. Ouidius Naso, entytuled Metamorphosis, trans. Arthur Golding (London: Willyam Seres, 1567)


 * Metamorphoses, trans. Rolfe Humphries (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1955)


 * The Metamorphoses, trans. Horace Gregory (New York: The Viking Press, 1958)


 * Metamorphoses, trans. A. D. Melville (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986)


 * Metamorphoses, trans. Charles Martin (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004)