Metamorphoses (Transformations) is a Latin narrative poem by the Roman poet Ovid, considered his magnum opus. Comprising fifteen books and over 250 myths, the poem chronicles the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar within a loose mythico-historical framework. Although meeting the criteria for an epic, the poem defies simple genre classification by its use of varying themes and tones.
Considered one of the most influential works of art in Western culture, particularly European, Metamorphoses has inspired such authors as Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, Dante Alighieri and Giovanni Boccaccio. Numerous episodes from the poem have been depicted in sculptures and paintings by artists such as Titian. Although Ovid's reputation faded after the Renaissance, towards the end of the twentieth century there was a resurgence of interest in his work; today, Metamorphoses continues to inspire and be retold through various media.
Films
Metamorphoses, 1978
Venus and the Sun, 2011
Métamorphoses, 2014
Plays
The myth of Pygmalion and Galatea (Book X) has been adapted into plays by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Pygmalion, 1762), W. S. Gilbert (Pygmalion and Galatea, an Original Mythological Comedy, 1871) and George Bernard Shaw (Pygmalion, premiered October 1913). Gilbert's play was parodied in the musical burlesque Galatea, or Pygmalion Reversed (1883) Shaw's play—in which phonetics professor Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a Cockney flower girl to pass for a duchess by improving her speech—was adapted by Shaw himself into a film version (Pygmalion, 1938), the screenplay of which was later adapted into the Lerner and Loewe musical My Fair Lady (1956), itself adapted into a 1964 musical film. More recent examples include the film Pretty Woman (1990), wherein Julia Roberts plays a sex worker who goes through a similar transformation so that she can take the place of her client's girlfriend after a sudden breakup. In 2002, author Mary Zimmerman adapted some of Ovid's myths into a play by the same title, and the open-air-theatre group London Bubble also adapted it in 2006. Naomi Iizuka's Polaroid Stories bases its format on Metamorphoses, adapting Ovid's poem to modern times with drug-addicted, teenage versions of many of the characters from the original play. In 2010, the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre presented a new adaptation of Metamorphoses at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Literature
In 1613, Spanish poet Luis de Góngora wrote an illustrious poem titled La Fábula de Polifemo y Galatea that retells the story of Polyphemus, Galatea and Acis found in Book XIII of the Metamorphoses. In 1988, author Christoph Ransmayr reworked a great number of characters from the Metamorphoses in his The Last World. In 1997, the British poet laureate Ted Hughes adapted twenty-four stories from the Metamorphoses into his volume of poetry Tales from Ovid. This was later adapted for the stage in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1999, the year after Hughes's death. In 2000, author Phillip Terry edited a collection of modern adaptations of some of Ovid's myths as Ovid Metamorphosed. Contributors included Margaret Atwood. In 2009, British author Adrian Mitchell wrote a collection entitled Shapeshifters: Tales from Ovid's Metamorphoses, intended for young adult readers. This is one of Mitchell's last books, as he died in 2008, and it was published posthumously. Australian writer Ursula Dubosarsky adapted ten of the stories from the Metamorphoses into plays for children. These were first published in the School Magazine, a publication of the New South Wales Department of Education, from 2006. Published in 2018, The Overstory by Richard Powers makes frequent allusion to the Metamorphoses. It contains recurring quotations of the line from a children's translation of Metamorphoses: "Let me sing to you now, about how people turn into other things."