He flees through places where he’d often chased
He flees from his own pets! He yearned to shout,
“I am Actaeon‒recognize your master!”
The longed–for words won’t come. Barks fill the air.
Blackfur is first to gash his back with wounds,
Beast–tamer next. Highlander bites his shoulder;
he’s set out last but took a mountain shortcut
and got there first. As they hold down their master,
the whole pack gathers round and bites his flesh
until there’s no room left for wounds. He groans,
sounding not human nor like a stag,
and fills familiar woods with wretched cries.—from Ovid’s Metamorphoses 3.240-252, translated by Stephanie McCarter [1]
This month’s Book Club selection is taken from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. We previously read Books 1 and 2 in May 2023. This time we will read Books 3 and 4. Book 3 continues where Book 2 left off. The connecting thread which weaves Books 2 and 3 together is Zeus, who “sheds the likeness of the bull” and resumes his natural form, having finished with Europa. The subject of Books 3 and 4 is Ovid’s Theban Cycle in which Europa’s brother Cadmus is a central figure. In August, we will continue with the Metamorphoses and read the next two books.
Publius Ovidius Naso was born at Sulmo in 43 BCE [2] and initially studied law, but soon pursued his love of poetry, and the amorous side of life in Rome—illustrated in his early works, the Amores and Ars Amatoria, The Art of Love, which includes allusions to classical myths. The Metamorphoses incorporates a series of mythological stories, connected with various narrative devices and with the broad theme of transformation.
He was initially held in favor by the emperor Augustus until, apparently due to some indiscretion, Ovid was exiled from Rome to Tomis on the Black Sea [3] where he continued to write. He completed his last three major works while in an unhappy exile from Rome. In one of these, the Tristia, he laments not having had enough time to refine the Metamorphoses before he had to depart Rome.[4] He died in Tomis in 17 CE.
You can read any translation you like. Here is a selection of versions that are available online for free:
A.S. Kline—online, at the University of Virginia
Frank Justus Miller (1916)—read online or download in various file formats, at archive.org
Brookes More (1922)—online at Perseus, where you can also find the Latin text. More’s translation is also online at theoi.com and as a Librivox audio recording at archive.org
Mary Innes (1955)—to read online or download, at archive.org
Henry T. Riley (1889)— to read online or download, at archive.org
Stanley Lombardo (2010)—read online or download at Purdue University Fort Wayne, IN
Ian Johnston (2011)—read online or download at Ian Johnston’s website, Johnstonia Texts
Discussion starts and continues in the Forum, and we will meet via Zoom on Tuesday, July 30 at 11 a.m. EDT.
Happy reading!
Notes
1 Ovid, Metamorphoses, translated by Stephanie McCarter (United States, Penguin Books, 2022) 76.
2 Ovid, Introduction to Metamorphoses, translated by Mary M. Innes (London, Penguin Books, 1955) 10–12.
3 Wikipedia article Exile of Ovid
4 Samuel J. Huskey Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Tristia I, 1 (University of Oklahoma, Academia.edu) 1.
Image credit
Based on an image from the Smithsonian American Art Museum website, Gift of the artist, Paul Manship, 1925.