The World of Ovid's Metamorphoses

by Joseph B. Solodow

Overview

Synthesizing a wealth of detailed observations, Joseph Solodow studies the structure of Ovid's poem Metamorphoses, the role of the narrator, Ovid's treatment of myth, and the relationship between Ovid's and Virgil's presentations of Aeneas. He argues that for Ovid metamorphosis is an act of clarification, a form of artistic creation, and that the metamorphosed creatures in his poem are comparable to works of art. These figures ultimately aid us in perceiving and understanding the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807854341
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	06/30/2002
Edition description:	1
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.66(d)

About the Author

Joseph B. Solodow is professor of foreign languages at Southern Connecticut State University.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

This is a first-rate book, and one which not only should stimulate scholars but also can be put in the hands of an intelligent undergraduate: highly recommended as . . . the best general book on the Metamorphoses in English.—Greece and Rome



Solodow's arguments for interpreting metamorphosis as 'clarification' and as a 'kind of art' reveal considerable subtlety and challenge readers familiar with the contradictory interpretations of the Metamorphoses to look at some aspects of the poem in a new way.—Choice



Sodolow does well in stressing, throughout his book, the personal and private character of the Metamorphoses and its protangonists. . . . Furthermore, the phenomenon can be usefully connected with the 'cult of the individual episode' in the Silver Latin epics. . . . Useful for its careful discussion and documentation of major aspects of the Metamorphoses . . . A welcome and sensible contribution to elucidating the poem and its maker.—American Journal of Philology



Solodow's The World of Ovid's Metamorphosesb is a welcome addition to a field by no means overcrowded. Solodow takes the poem in its entirety and consideres issues in teh Metamorphoses currently of much interest to Ovidian scholars, such as the nature of art and perception, Ovid's relation to the mythological tradition, and his place in his own poem.—Phoenix