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“Such [an] impressive, virtuosically skillful translation of metrical ancient poetry.”—Emily Wilson
This fresh translation revives the politics and power at play in classical mythology’s foremost source
Centuries of conservative translators have robbed the Metamorphoses of its subversive force. In this boldly lyrical translation, C. Luke Soucy revives the magnum opus of Rome’s most clever and creative poet, faithfully matching the epic’s wit and style while confronting the sexuality, violence, and politics so many previous translations have glossed over.
Soucy’s powerful version breathes new life into Ovid's mythic world, where canonical power dynamics are challenged from below to drain heroes of their heroism, give victims their say, and reveal an earth holier than heaven. Incorporating the latest scholarship alongside annotations, illustrations, and glossary, this edition brings fresh insights to both returning and new readers.
Price: $17.95
Pages: 680
Publisher: University of California Press
Imprint: University of California Press
Series: World Literature in Translation
Publication Date:
07 November 2023
Trim Size: 7.75 X 5.00 in
ISBN: 9780520394858
Format: Paperback
"S[oucy]’s translation has great merit. It is more poetic than any current version."
"Soucy’s Commentary gives lavishly helpful guidance to the piecemeal reader, noticing links and making comparisons between different tales. . . . He’s refreshingly sensitive to the way contemporary concerns with sexual and identity politics can feel urgently addressed by the Metamorphoses. Equally refreshing, from the other side, is the fact that as a scholar he feels the value and importance of seeing past attitudes clearly, neither discreetly veiling elements in them that might affront a contemporary sensibility – as many translators have done with divine rapes – nor reading them as if Ovid were our contemporary and saw life as we do."
"Soucy's version of the Metamorphoses which is dynamic, attractive, and up to date in every way—in its laudable close engagement with the latest critical Latin text, its focus on the politics of sex, race, and gender, and its lively presentation of Ovid to the latest generation of younger readers."
“Following in the path of Stephanie McCarter’s translation, C. Luke Soucy’s book, Ovid’s Metamorphoses: A New Translation, handles the most unsavory aspects of this work with brazen clarity. Soucy argues that 'Ovid’s poem contains an incisive investigation into the abuse of power; it is a task of the translator not to occlude it.' Soucy takes this challenge head-on by making explicit what others have glossed.”
". . . Soucy’s translation is in blank verse, i.e. in unrhymed iambic pentameter, and unlike other translators, Soucy prides himself on keeping exactly the same number of lines as Ovid’s original. The result is a translation that conveys very well the pace and the witty, lively character of the Ovidian text and that is a pleasure to read."
— Emily Wilson, translator of The Odyssey
"Soucy’s Commentary gives lavishly helpful guidance to the piecemeal reader, noticing links and making comparisons between different tales. . . . He’s refreshingly sensitive to the way contemporary concerns with sexual and identity politics can feel urgently addressed by the Metamorphoses. Equally refreshing, from the other side, is the fact that as a scholar he feels the value and importance of seeing past attitudes clearly, neither discreetly veiling elements in them that might affront a contemporary sensibility – as many translators have done with divine rapes – nor reading them as if Ovid were our contemporary and saw life as we do."
"Soucy's version of the Metamorphoses which is dynamic, attractive, and up to date in every way—in its laudable close engagement with the latest critical Latin text, its focus on the politics of sex, race, and gender, and its lively presentation of Ovid to the latest generation of younger readers."
“Following in the path of Stephanie McCarter’s translation, C. Luke Soucy’s book, Ovid’s Metamorphoses: A New Translation, handles the most unsavory aspects of this work with brazen clarity. Soucy argues that 'Ovid’s poem contains an incisive investigation into the abuse of power; it is a task of the translator not to occlude it.' Soucy takes this challenge head-on by making explicit what others have glossed.”
". . . Soucy’s translation is in blank verse, i.e. in unrhymed iambic pentameter, and unlike other translators, Soucy prides himself on keeping exactly the same number of lines as Ovid’s original. The result is a translation that conveys very well the pace and the witty, lively character of the Ovidian text and that is a pleasure to read."
"I wish I’d written this book . . . [an] impressive, virtuosically skillful translations of metrical ancient poetry.”
— Emily Wilson, translator of The Odyssey
C. Luke Soucy is a translator, poet, and vocal Minnesota native. In addition to literary translation, he has worked in regional theatre, in a chromatography lab, and as a university bureaucrat. Soucy is a 2019 graduate of Princeton University, where he received the E. E. Cummings Society Prize of the Academy of American Poets.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Translator’s Note
METAMORPHOSES
Book 1
Prologue • The First Creation • The Ages of Man • The Gigantomachy •
Lycaön • The Deluge • Deucalion and Pyrrha • The Second
Creation: Python • Apollo and Daphne • Io, Part 1 • Argus:
Pan and Syrinx • Io, Part 2 • Phaëthon, Part 1
Book 2
Phaëthon, Part 2 • The Heliads and Cygnus • Callisto • The Raven
and the Crow • Ocyrhoë • Battus • The Envy of Aglauros • Europa
Book 3
Cadmus and the Dragon’s Teeth • Actaeon • Semele • Tiresias •
Echo and Narcissus • Pentheus and Acoetes
Book 4
The Daughters of Minyas, Part 1 • Pyramus and Thisbe • The Loves
of the Sun • Hermaphroditus and Salmacis • The Daughters of
Minyas, Part 2 • Athamas and Ino • Cadmus and Harmonia • Perseus,
Atlas, and Andromeda • Perseus and Medusa
Book 5
Perseus and Phineus • Proetus and Polydectes • Pyreneus and the
Muses • The Pierides, Part 1 • The Rape of Proserpine • Arethusa •
Lyncus and Triptolemus • The Pierides, Part 2
Book 6
Arachne and Minerva • Niobe • Latona and the Lycians • Marsyas •
Pelops • Tereus, Procne, and Philomela • Boreas and Orithyia
Book 7
Medea • Theseus • The War with Minos • The Myrmidons • Cephalus
and Procris
Book 8
Scylla and Nisus • The Minotaur • Daedalus • The Calydonian
Hunt • Althaea and Meleäger • Acheloüs • Baucis and
Philemon • Mestra and Erysichthon • Acheloüs and Hercules, Part 1
Book 9
Acheloüs and Hercules, Part 2 • The Death of Hercules • Lucina
and Galanthis • Dryope and Lotus • Iolaüs and Themis • Byblis and
Caunus • Iphis and Ianthe
Book 10
Orpheus and Eurydice • Cyparissus • Ganymede and
Hyacinth • The Cerastae, the Propoetides, and
Pygmalion • Myrrha • Venus and Adonis
Book 11
The Death of Orpheus • Midas • Peleus and Thetis • Daedalion
and Chione • The Wolf of Psamathe • Ceÿx and Alcyone • Aesacus
Book 12
The Greeks at Aulis • The House of Rumor • Achilles and Cygnus •
Caenis Becomes Caeneus • The Centauromachy • Hercules and
Periclymenus • The Death of Achilles
Book 13
The Judgment of Arms • The Sorrows of Hecuba • Memnon •
The Daughters of Anius • Galatea, Acis, and Polyphemus • Scylla
and Glaucus, Part 1
Book 14
Scylla and Glaucus, Part 2 • The Sibyl of Cumae • Polyphemus • Ulysses
and Circe • Picus and Canens • The Crew of Diomedes • The Apotheosis
of Aeneas • Pomona and Vertumnus • The Apotheoses of
Romulus and Hersilie
Book 15
Hercules and Croton • Pythagoras • Egeria and Hippolytus •
Cipus • Aesculapius • The Apotheosis of Julius Caesar • Epilogue
Commentary
Appendix: Text and Translation Notes
Acknowledgments
Selected Bibliography
Glossary of Names and Places
About the Translator
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Translator’s Note
METAMORPHOSES
Book 1
Prologue • The First Creation • The Ages of Man • The Gigantomachy •
Lycaön • The Deluge • Deucalion and Pyrrha • The Second
Creation: Python • Apollo and Daphne • Io, Part 1 • Argus:
Pan and Syrinx • Io, Part 2 • Phaëthon, Part 1
Book 2
Phaëthon, Part 2 • The Heliads and Cygnus • Callisto • The Raven
and the Crow • Ocyrhoë • Battus • The Envy of Aglauros • Europa
Book 3
Cadmus and the Dragon’s Teeth • Actaeon • Semele • Tiresias •
Echo and Narcissus • Pentheus and Acoetes
Book 4
The Daughters of Minyas, Part 1 • Pyramus and Thisbe • The Loves
of the Sun • Hermaphroditus and Salmacis • The Daughters of
Minyas, Part 2 • Athamas and Ino • Cadmus and Harmonia • Perseus,
Atlas, and Andromeda • Perseus and Medusa
Book 5
Perseus and Phineus • Proetus and Polydectes • Pyreneus and the
Muses • The Pierides, Part 1 • The Rape of Proserpine • Arethusa •
Lyncus and Triptolemus • The Pierides, Part 2
Book 6
Arachne and Minerva • Niobe • Latona and the Lycians • Marsyas •
Pelops • Tereus, Procne, and Philomela • Boreas and Orithyia
Book 7
Medea • Theseus • The War with Minos • The Myrmidons • Cephalus
and Procris
Book 8
Scylla and Nisus • The Minotaur • Daedalus • The Calydonian
Hunt • Althaea and Meleäger • Acheloüs • Baucis and
Philemon • Mestra and Erysichthon • Acheloüs and Hercules, Part 1
Book 9
Acheloüs and Hercules, Part 2 • The Death of Hercules • Lucina
and Galanthis • Dryope and Lotus • Iolaüs and Themis • Byblis and
Caunus • Iphis and Ianthe
Book 10
Orpheus and Eurydice • Cyparissus • Ganymede and
Hyacinth • The Cerastae, the Propoetides, and
Pygmalion • Myrrha • Venus and Adonis
Book 11
The Death of Orpheus • Midas • Peleus and Thetis • Daedalion
and Chione • The Wolf of Psamathe • Ceÿx and Alcyone • Aesacus
Book 12
The Greeks at Aulis • The House of Rumor • Achilles and Cygnus •
Caenis Becomes Caeneus • The Centauromachy • Hercules and
Periclymenus • The Death of Achilles
Book 13
The Judgment of Arms • The Sorrows of Hecuba • Memnon •
The Daughters of Anius • Galatea, Acis, and Polyphemus • Scylla
and Glaucus, Part 1
Book 14
Scylla and Glaucus, Part 2 • The Sibyl of Cumae • Polyphemus • Ulysses
and Circe • Picus and Canens • The Crew of Diomedes • The Apotheosis
of Aeneas • Pomona and Vertumnus • The Apotheoses of
Romulus and Hersilie
Book 15
Hercules and Croton • Pythagoras • Egeria and Hippolytus •
Cipus • Aesculapius • The Apotheosis of Julius Caesar • Epilogue
Commentary
Appendix: Text and Translation Notes
Acknowledgments
Selected Bibliography
Glossary of Names and Places
About the Translator