Sign-In
Cart
Metamorphoses: An Accessible Prose Translation for the Modern Reader
Paperback
Ancient GreeceFiction Anthologies
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Dec 24 2025
Pages: 162
Weight: 0.43
Height: 0.37 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
Gods become beasts. Lovers become trees. Men become monsters. And nothing in the world remains unchanged.
For more than two thousand years, Ovid's Metamorphoses has been one of the great storehouses of Western mythology-a sweeping collection of gods, heroes, monsters, doomed lovers, and miraculous transformations whose stories have inspired generations of poets, painters, playwrights, and storytellers.
Beginning with the creation of the world and ending with the rise of Rome, Ovid moves through more than two hundred myths united by a single idea:
Everything changes.
This edition from The Lyceum Press presents The Metamorphoses as an accessible, abridged prose rendering, preserving the poem's fifteen-book structure, principal narratives, dramatic power, and extraordinary imaginative range while bringing its language to the modern reader.
Within these pages are many of the most enduring stories of the classical world:
- Apollo's relentless pursuit of Daphne and her transformation into the laurel
- Phaethon's disastrous attempt to drive the chariot of the sun
- Narcissus falling hopelessly in love with his own reflection
- Pyramus and Thisbe, the doomed lovers who helped inspire Romeo and Juliet
- Perseus and the terrible power of Medusa
- The abduction of Proserpina and a mother's grief that changes the seasons
- Arachne's challenge to the goddess Minerva
- Jason, the Golden Fleece, and the terrible magic of Medea
- Daedalus and Icarus taking flight on wings of wax and feathers
- Hercules passing from mortal hero to god
- Orpheus descending into the underworld for Eurydice
- Pygmalion falling in love with the statue he created
- King Midas and the disastrous gift of the golden touch
- The Trojan War and the contest for the armor of Achilles
- Aeneas carrying the story of Troy toward Rome
- The apotheosis of Julius Caesar
Yet The Metamorphoses is more than a collection of myths.
Again and again, Ovid returns to transformation as punishment, escape, desire, grief, mercy, violence, and rebirth. Women become trees and fountains. Men become wolves, birds, and stone. Cities rise and disappear. Gods assume mortal forms. Human beings attempt to escape fate only to discover that change itself is unavoidable.
Behind the fantastic stories lies a remarkably modern fascination with identity: what remains of a person when the body changes? What does love become when it cannot possess its object? Can suffering destroy us-or merely transform us into something new?
Ovid carries that idea from the birth of the cosmos all the way to his own age. Near the end of the poem, Pythagoras gives its governing principle:
Everything changes; nothing perishes.
And Ovid closes with one final transformation-his own. Empires may fall and bodies may die, he declares, but his poetry will survive.
He was right.
This edition includes a List of Characters and Glossary of Terms to help readers navigate the gods, heroes, monsters, places, and traditions of the classical world.
For readers discovering Ovid for the first time-or returning to the myths that shaped Western literature-this is a direct path into one of antiquity's most imaginative and influential works.
Also from
The Lyceum Press
The Indica: An Account of India, and of the Voyage of Nearchus from the Indus to Susa
Arrian
Paperback
Also in
Ancient Greece
The American School of Spies: The Archaeologists Who Fought the Nazis and Saved the Treasures of Ancient Greece
Talty, Stephan
Hardcover
Penelope's Bones: A New History of Homer's World Through the Women Written Out of It
Hauser, Emily
Paperback
Band on the Run: Xenophon and the First Great Mercenary Army's Epic Escape from Persia
O'Connell, Robert L.
Hardcover
Classical Mythology of the Constellations: Timeless Tales of the Starry Night Sky
Giesecke, Annette
Hardcover
Tony Stark, Odysseus, and the Myths Behind Marvel: Ancient Heroes in the Modern World
Meineck, Peter
Hardcover
Classical Mythology A to Z: An Encyclopedia of Gods & Goddesses, Heroes & Heroines, Nymphs, Spirits, Monsters, and Places
Giesecke, Annette
Hardcover
The First Clash: The Miraculous Greek Victory at Marathon and Its Impact on Western Civilization
Lacey, James
Paperback
After Jesus Before Christianity: A Historical Exploration of the First Two Centuries of Jesus Movements
Scott, Brandon
Taussig, Hal
Vearncombe, Erin
Paperback
A Story Waiting to Pierce You: Mongolia, Tibet and the Destiny of the Western World
Kingsley, Peter
Paperback
Alexander at the End of the World: The Forgotten Final Years of Alexander the Great
Kousser, Rachel
Paperback
A Brief History of Ancient Greece: Politics, Society, and Culture
Burstein, Stanley M.
Tolbert Roberts, Jennifer
Pomeroy, Sarah B.
Paperback
Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Unconventional Warfare in the Ancient World
Mayor, Adrienne
Paperback
Plato and the Tyrant: The Fall of Greece's Greatest Dynasty and the Making of a Philosophic Masterpiece
Romm, James
Paperback
Plato and the Tyrant: The Fall of Greece's Greatest Dynasty and the Making of a Philosophic Masterpiece
Romm, James
Hardcover
Stolen Legacy: Greek Philosophy Was the Offspring of the Egyptian Mystery System
James, George G. M.
Paperback
Encyclopedia of Mythology: A Collection of Greek and Roman Heroes, Gods, and Monsters with Collectible Ephemera - Includes 16 Beautifully Designed Pie
Editors of Chartwell Books
Hardcover
The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: An Extraordinary New Journey Through History's Greatest Treasures
Hughes, Bettany
Paperback
The Histories (Royal Collector's Edition) (Annotated) (Case Laminate Hardcover with Jacket)
Herodotus
Hardcover
Naked Statues, Fat Gladiators, and War Elephants: Frequently Asked Questions about the Ancient Greeks and Romans
Ryan, Garrett
Paperback
Ancient Wisdom for Polarized Times: Why Humanity Needs Herodotus, the Man Who Invented History
Anhalt, Emily Katz
Hardcover
Women's Life in Greece and Rome: A Source Book in Translation
Fant, Maureen B.
Lefkowitz, Mary R.
Paperback
The Sacred Band: Three Hundred Theban Lovers and the Last Days of Greek Freedom
Romm, James
Paperback
By the Spear: Philip II, Alexander the Great, and the Rise and Fall of the Macedonian Empire
Worthington, Ian
Paperback
Complete Poems of C. P. Cavafy: Including the First English Translation of the Unfinished Poems
Cavafy, C. P.
Paperback
Selected Discourses - The Wisdom of Epictetus: The Stoic Classic
Epictetus
Butler-Bowdon, Tom
Hardcover
Mythology: Captivating Greek, Egyptian, Norse Celtic and Roman Myths of Gods, Goddesses, Heroes, and Monsters
Clayton, Matt
Hardcover
Meet Me in Atlantis: Across Three Continents in Search of the Legendary Sunken City
Adams, Mark
Paperback
The Shortest History of Greece: The Odyssey of a Nation from Myth to Modernity
Heneage, James
Paperback
Lords of the Sea: The Epic Story of the Athenian Navy and the Birth of Democracy
Hale, John R.
Paperback
Alexander at the End of the World: The Forgotten Final Years of Alexander the Great
Kousser, Rachel
Hardcover
Goddess with a Thousand Faces: A One-Of-A-Kind Exploration of Goddesses from Our Ancient Past
Elmer, Jasmine
Paperback
Greek Mythology: Explore The Timeless Tales Of Ancient Greece, The Myths, History & Legends of The Gods, Goddesses, Titans, Heroes, Monsters & More
Brought Alive, History
Paperback
The Cave and the Light: Plato Versus Aristotle, and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization
Herman, Arthur
Paperback
Introducing the Ancient Greeks: From Bronze Age Seafarers to Navigators of the Western Mind
Hall, Edith
Paperback
Primary Sources for Ancient History: Volume I: The Ancient Near East and Greece
Forsythe, Gary
Paperback
The Twelve Caesars (Royal Collector's Edition) (Annotated) (Case Laminate Hardcover with Jacket)
Suetonius
Hardcover
Hermes Runs the Game: Inverted Myth, Sacrifice and Initiation In-Forming the Events of 2020-2024
Crimi, Stephen
Paperback
The Little Book of Stoicism: An Introduction to the Key Thinkers, Ideas and Virtues You Need to Know
Barrage, Rasha
Paperback
A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War
Hanson, Victor Davis
Paperback
Streams of Gold, Rivers of Blood: The Rise and Fall of Byzantium, 955 A.D. to the First Crusade
Kaldellis, Anthony
Paperback
Greek Mythology Book for Teens: A Chronicle of Ancient Tales (Skriuwer.com Edition)
Auke de Haan
Paperback
The Ancient Art of Thinking for Yourself: The Power of Rhetoric in Polarized Times
Reames, Robin
Hardcover
The Founding of Thessaloniki: A Comparison of Literary, Archaeological and Topographical Evidence
Manoledakis, Manolis
Paperback
Antiquity: From the Birth of Sumerian Civilization to the Fall of the Roman Empire
Cantor, Norman F.
Paperback
Masters of Command: Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, and the Genius of Leadership
Strauss, Barry
Paperback
The Muse of History: The Ancient Greeks from the Enlightenment to the Present
Murray, Oswyn
Paperback
Ghost on the Throne: The Death of Alexander the Great and the Bloody Fight for His Empire
Romm, James
Paperback
The War That Killed Achilles: The True Story of Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War
Alexander, Caroline
Paperback
Persia's Greek Campaigns: Kingship, War, and Spectacle on the Achaemenid Frontier
Hyland, John O.
Hardcover