The Metamorphoses of Ovid

Metamorphoses of Ovid, by
Publius Ovidius Naso

Project Gutenberg's The Metamorphoses of Ovid, by Publius Ovidius
Naso This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Metamorphoses of Ovid Vol. I, Books I-VII
Author: Publius Ovidius Naso
Translator: Henry Thomas Riley
Release Date: June 8, 2007 [EBook #21765]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
METAMORPHOSES OF OVID ***

Produced by Louise Hope, Steve Schulze and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

[Transcriber's Note:

This e-text is intended for users whose text readers cannot display the
"real" or Unicode (utf-8) version of the file. Greek words in the Notes
have been transliterated and shown between +marks+. The "oe"
ligature is written as the separate letters "oe".
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