Ovid's Metamorphoses

Catalog description

Ovid’s epic Metamorphoses, a prime source for ancient mythology from the Renaissance to Disney films, has often been received as a delightful compendium of older myths retold with urbane wit; yet its blithe treatment of horrific mythological events can also unsettle, as when its place in the Columbia University curriculum recently prompted a discussion of “trigger warnings.” We will read it in English translation, exploring its capacity to inspire disparate responses. What must we suppress to find the Metamorphoses pleasant or menacing? How does it create its tensions? How do they get projected onto a later culture’s assumptions?