The Metamorphoses of Ovid | Page 6

the
colony of Tomi, on the shore of the Euxine sea. Leaving behind him a
wife to whom he was devotedly attached he obeyed the edict of his
emperor and entered upon an exile from which he was destined never
to return. He died in banishment at Tomi in the year 18 A.D.
The exact reason for Ovid's banishment has never been clear, though
there have been many conjectures as to the cause. About two years
previous to his exile Ovid had published a composition which had
greatly displeased Augustus, on account of its immoral tendency.
Almost coincident with this publication was the discovery of the
scandal relating to Julia, daughter of the emperor. It is probable that the

proximity of these two events tended to intensify the imperial
displeasure, and when some time later there was made public the
intrigue of the emperor's granddaughter, the indignation of Augustus
gave itself vent in the banishment of Ovid.
The writings of Ovid consist of the Amores in three books; the Heroic
Epistles, twenty-one in number; the Ars Amatoria; the Remedia Amoris;
the Metamorphoses, in fifteen books; the Fasti, in six books; the Tristia,
in five books; the Epistles, in four books, and a few minor poems. In
the following pages will be found a translation of the Metamorphoses.

THE METAMORPHOSES.

BOOK THE FIRST.
THE ARGUMENT. [I.1-4]
My design leads me to speak of forms changed into new bodies.[1] Ye
Gods, (for you it was who changed them,) favor my attempts,[2] and
bring down the lengthened narrative from the very beginning of the
world, {even} to my own times.[3]
[Footnote 1: Forms changed into new bodies.--Ver. 1. Some
commentators cite these words as an instance of Hypallage as being
used for 'corpora mutata in novas formas,' 'bodies changed into new
forms;' and they fancy that there is a certain beauty in the circumstance
that the proposition of a subject which treats of the changes and
variations of bodies should be framed with a transposition of words.
This supposition is perhaps based rather on the exuberance of a fanciful
imagination than on solid grounds, as if it is an instance of Hypallage,
it is most probably quite accidental; while the passage may be
explained without any reference to Hypallage, as the word 'forma' is
sometimes used to signify the thing itself; thus the words 'formæ
deorum' and 'ferarum' are used to signify 'the Gods,' or 'the wild beasts'
themselves.]

[Footnote 2: Favor my attempts.--Ver. 3. This use of the word
'adspirate' is a metaphor taken from the winds, which, while they fill
the ship's sails, were properly said 'adspirare.' It has been remarked,
with some justice, that this invocation is not sufficiently long or
elaborate for a work of so grave and dignified a nature as the
Metamorphoses.]
[Footnote 3: To my own times.--Ver. 4. That is, to the days of Augustus
Cæsar.]
FABLE I. [I.5-31]
God reduces Chaos into order. He separates the four elements, and
disposes the several bodies, of which the universe is formed, into their
proper situations.
At first, the sea, the earth, and the heaven, which covers all things, were
the only face of nature throughout the whole universe, which men have
named Chaos; a rude and undigested mass,[4] and nothing {more} than
an inert weight, and the discordant atoms of things not harmonizing,
heaped together in the same spot. No Sun[5] as yet gave light to the
world; nor did the Moon,[6] by increasing, recover her horns anew. The
Earth did not {as yet} hang in the surrounding air, balanced by its own
weight, nor had Amphitrite[7] stretched out her arms along the
lengthened margin of the coasts. Wherever, too, was the land, there also
was the sea and the air; {and} thus was the earth without firmness, the
sea unnavigable, the air void of light; in no one {of them} did its
{present} form exist. And one was {ever} obstructing the other;
because in the same body the cold was striving with the hot, the moist
with the dry, the soft with the hard, things having weight with {those}
devoid of weight.
To this discord God and bounteous Nature[8] put an end; for he
separated the earth from the heavens, and the waters from the earth, and
distinguished the clear heavens from the gross atmosphere. And after
he had unravelled these {elements}, and released them from {that}
confused heap, he combined them, {thus} disjoined, in harmonious
unison, {each} in {its proper} place. The element of the vaulted

heaven,[9] fiery and without weight, shone forth, and selected a place
for itself in the highest region; next after it, {both} in lightness and in
place, was the air; the Earth was more weighty than these, and drew
{with it} the more ponderous atoms, and was pressed together by its