Tales from Ovid: 24 Passages from the Metamorphoses

by Ted Hughes and Ovid

Book Overview

A powerful version of the Latin classic by England's late Poet Laureate, now in paperback.

When it was published in 1997, Tales from Ovid was immediately recognized as a classic in its own right, as the best rendering of Ovid in generations, and as a major book in Ted Hughes's oeuvre. The Metamorphoses of Ovid stands with the works of Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Milton as a classic of world poetry; Hughes translated twenty-four...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374525870
• ISBN13: 9780374525873
• Release Date: March 1999
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.79 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

brilliant stuff

As an appropriation of an appropriation, hughes' manages to bring to life the classic tales of greek mythology and modernize ovid's original tales yet at the same time keeping up the essential message that ovid was bringing across 2000 years ago. Even if you do'nt speak English one could understand teh works of hughes' perfectly, his range of vocabulary is genius in itself. the language slips and slides around your mouth, burning like brimstone or as languid as lagoons. try this for size: Violence is an extrapolation Of the cutting edge Into the orbit of the smile Rivers of milk mingled with rivers of nectar and out of the black oak oozed amber honey I must confess I have to read this for my literature course, but I am so glad that I did! I never would have picked it up otherwise, whilst seemingly sophisticated and slippery it is simultaneously so simple and easy to relate to in a way that hardly condescends or patronizes the reader's understanding. I strongly recommend this book to anyone, even if you don't speak english, even if you don't understand some of the words, it's the way it sounds that counts. Read it with your eyes closed, you will never want to put it down.

The Best Modern Rendering of Ovid

While not very strict or literal in its translation, this is still the most lively Ovid you will find. Here is Ovid at his best: swift, penetrating, conclusive: Hughes picked the best and then stripped them down to a heart racing sleekness.

Fast, vigorous and poetic

Some translations of Ovid are slow. Not this one. The Humphries -- long standard -- is clear but slow and earthbound. This is the most poetic translation I have found. Plus Hughes keesp all the "good bits."Not of course a full translation, but the right place for the curious to start.

One of those golden books you'll want to return to often.

Anyone who may have seen the brilliant Anthony Hopkins' movie, TITUS, a movie based on Shakespeare's most Ovidian play, 'Titus Andronicus,' and one which actually features Ovid's book, and who may now have a yen to read or re-read Ovid, could do worse than take a look at Ted Hughes' reworkings, in modern idiom, of Ovid's fascinating tales. Hughes, in his brief but quite informative Preface, finds in both Shakespeare and Ovid a "common taste for tortured subjectivity and catastrophic extremes of passion." He continues : "Above all, Ovid was interested in passion. Or rather, in what a passion feels like to the one possessed of it. Not just ordinary passion either, but passion 'in extremis'" (pages viii-ix).As a passionate man himself, one can understand the appeal that Ovid has for Hughes, and may suspect that he, if anyone, was the man to give us a modernized Ovid. Personally I found myself enthralled by Ted Hughes' versions of these tales. So what, if in furtherance of his poetic aims, he has reworked the tales to some extent? Hughes is an exceptionally talented poet, and I'll leave it to those who are his equals in poetic talent to argue with his procedures. I doubt there can be many.Hughes' incredible skill as a poet is everywhere in evidence on these pages. His handling of image and sound and rhythm and line length, his lucid diction, and his stunning ability to find precisely the right word - as in such lines as "no earth / spun in empty air on her own magnet" (pages 3-4), or "Everwhere he taught / the tree its leaf" (page 5), or "Echo collapsed in sobs, / As her voice lurched among the mountains" (page 77), or "And there she was - the Arcadian beauty, Callisto. / He stared. Lust bristled up his thighs / And poured into the roots of his teeth" (page 46) - such skill leaves me in awe. Let purists rage, but if this isn't exactly what Ovid said, then perhaps it's what he should have said, or would have said if he too had been a vigorous Northerner like Hughes. There are free translations of Ovid such as that of Ted Hughes. There are also more literal translations such as that of Rolfe Humphries. Both have their uses and it isn't the case that one is good and the other is bad. Hughes is good and Humphries is not bad either. I suppose what it comes down to is whether you prefer major poet Ovid as filtered through the sensibility of another major poet, or Ovid as filtered through the mind of a Latin scholar (persons who are not usually noted for their poetic abilities, though Housman was an exception). But if it's 'poetry' you are interested in, you won't be going far wrong in plumping for Hughes. It's one of those golden books you'll want to return to often.

Antiquity Renewed

Erotic, comical, dramatic, shocking, and mystical, this is a fascinating collection of some of Ovid's greatest stories. Adapted for the stage, these ancient stories embody some of the most pressing issues in modern society, while paying homage to their deep roots in classical antiquity. A must-read for the student of classical studies and mythology, and anyone with an imagination or a yen for the fanciful. The characters of Juno, Jupiter, Bacchus and others are brought to life and highlighed with amazing color and depth. This is your chance to acquaint - or refamiliarize yourself - with the ancient world. You will not be disappointed!