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The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books I-VII

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Title: The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books I-VII

Author: Ovid

Translator: Henry T. Riley

 
Release date: June 8, 2007 [eBook #21765]
 Most recently updated: June 28, 2021

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21765

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE METAMORPHOSES OF OVID, BOOKS I-VII ***

 [Transcriber's Note:

 In the original text, words and phrases supplied by the translator
 were printed in _italics_. In this e-text they are shown in {braces}.
 Italics in the notes and commentary are shown conventionally with
 _lines_, boldface by =marks=.

 Line numbers from the original Latin poem were printed as headnotes
 on each page. For this e-text, only the line numbers of each complete
 "Fable" are given. Line numbers used in footnotes are retained from
 the original text; these, too, refer to the Latin poem and are
 independent of line divisions in the translation.

 Parts of this e-text use material from another edition of the Riley
 translation of the _Metamorphoses_: George Bell (London, 1893).
 Details are given at the end of the text, before the Errata. Each
 segment of the introductory material is individually identified.]

 THE
 METAMORPHOSES OF OVID

 Vol. I--Books I-VII

LITERALLY TRANSLATED WITH NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS

 by
 HENRY T. RILEY, M.A.

 With an Introduction by
 EDWARD BROOKS, JR.

 Copyright, 1899, By David McKay

 Press Of
 Sherman & Co., Philadelphia

INTRODUCTION.

 [From Bell edition.]

The Metamorphoses of Ovid are a compendium of the Mythological
narratives of ancient Greece and Rome, so ingeniously framed, as to
embrace a large amount of information upon almost every subject
connected with the learning, traditions, manners, and customs of
antiquity, and have afforded a fertile field of investigation to the
learned of the civilized world. To present to the public a faithful
translation of a work, universally esteemed, not only for its varied
information, but as being the masterpiece of one of the greatest Poets
of ancient Rome, is the object of the present volume.

To render the work, which, from its nature and design, must, of
necessity, be replete with matter of obscure meaning, more inviting
to the scholar, and more intelligible to those who are unversed in
Classical literature, the translation is accompanied with Notes and
Explanations, which, it is believed, will be found to throw considerable
light upon the origin and meaning of some of the traditions of heathen
Mythology.

In the translation, the text of the Delphin edition has been generally
adopted; and no deviation has been made from it, except in a few
instances, where the reason for such a step is stated in the notes;
at the same time, the texts of Burmann and Gierig have throughout been
carefully consulted. The several editions vary materially in respect to
punctuation; the Translator has consequently used his own discretion in
adopting that which seemed to him the most fully to convey in each
passage the intended meaning of the writer.

The Metamorphoses of Ovid have been frequently translated into the
English language. On referring to Mr. Bohn's excellent Catalogue of the
Greek and Latin Classics and their Translations, we find that the whole
of the work has been twice translated into English Prose, while five
translations in Verse are there enumerated. A prose version of the
Metamorphoses was published by Joseph Davidson, about the middle of
the last century, which professes to be "as near the original as the
different idioms of the Latin and English will allow;" and to be
"printed for the use of schools, as well as of private gentlemen." A few
moments' perusal of this work will satisfy the reader that it has not
the slightest pretension to be considered a literal translation, while,
by its departure from the strict letter of the author, it has gained
nothing in elegance of diction. It is accompanied by "critical,
historical, geographical, and classical notes in English, from the best
Commentators, both ancient and modern, beside a great number of notes,
entirely new;" but notwithstanding this announcement, these annotations
will be found to be but few in number, and, with some exceptions in the
early part of the volume, to throw very little light on the obscurities
of the text. A fifth edition of this translation was published so
recently as 1822, but without any improvement, beyond the furbishing up
of the old-fashioned language of the original preface. A far more
literal translation of the Metamorphoses is that by John Clarke, which
was first published about the year 1735, and had attained to a seventh
edition in 1779. Although this version may be pronounced very nearly to
fulfil the promise set forth in its title page, of being "as literal as
possible," still, from the singular inelegance of its style, and the
fact of its being couched in the conversational language of the early
part of the last century, and being unaccompanied by any attempt at
explanation, it may safely be pronounced to be ill adapted to the
requirements of the present age. Indeed, it would not, perhaps, be too
much to assert, that, although the translator may, in his own words,
"have done an acceptable service to such gentlemen as are desirous of
regaining or improving the skill they acquired at school," he has, in
many instances, burlesqued rather than translated his author. Some of
the curiosities of his version will be found set forth in the notes;
but, for the purpose of the more readily justifying this assertion, a
few of them are adduced: the word "nitidus" is always rendered "neat,"
whether applied to a fish, a cow, a chariot, a laurel, the steps of a
temple, or the art of wrestling. He renders "horridus," "in a rude
pickle;" "virgo" is generally translated "the young lady;" "vir" is
"a gentleman;" "senex" and "senior" are indifferently "the old blade,"
"the old fellow," or "the old gentleman;" while "summa arx" is "the very
tip-top." "Misera" is "poor soul;" "exsilio" means "to bounce forth;"
"pellex" is "a miss;" "lumina" are "the peepers;" "turbatum fugere" is
"to scower off in a mighty bustle;" "confundor" is "to be jumbled;" and
"squalidus" is "in a sorry pickle." "Importuna" is "a plaguy baggage;"
"adulterium" is rendered "her pranks;" "ambages" becomes either "a long
rabble of words," "a long-winded detail," or "a tale of a tub;"
"miserabile carmen" is "a di

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