Golding's hugely influential 1587 translation
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This is Ovid Englished by Golding (otherwise known as Shakespeare's Ovid as it might have been the version of the Metamorphoses that he read,although he probably read the latin original too). Published in 1587 this had a huge impact on Renaissance literature and it's easy to see why. Managing to walk the fine line between Ovid's latin original and a translation which is politically and religiously acceptable in C16th England, this tells nothing less than the story of the (Graeco-Roman) world from the original chaos to the apotheosis of Augustus.
In robust rhyming fourteeners Golding re-tells the most famous Greek myths: Narcissus and Echo, Daphne and Apollo, the rape of Persephone, Pygmalion, Orpheus etc etc. But this is more than a collection of ancient stories; this is a poetic text in its own right which is, by turn, funny, tragic, warm and chilling. Amazingly Golding manages to capture something of Ovid's own wit and playfulness while bedding his own version down within the world of Renaissance England.
If you haven't experienced Ovid before then I would recommend a more traditional translation like David Raeburn's one for Penguin or the accurate by less elegant Loeb edition. But if you know the original, then this is a fine addition, and essential for anyone interested in or studying the renaissance and its literature and culture.
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