The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books I-VII

Ovid’s dazzling epic gathers the myths of the classical world into a flowing tapestry of transformation, where gods, mortals, and nature are forever changing shape—Daphne into a laurel, Narcissus into a flower, Arachne into a spider. Witty, sensual, and endlessly inventive, the Metamorphoses became the single greatest storehouse of mythology for later art and literature, shaping Chaucer, Shakespeare, and countless painters. This selection presents the first books of the poem in English translation. A cornerstone of the Western imagination, it brings the ancient myths to vivid, shimmering life and reveals why Ovid has enchanted readers for two thousand years.