I am in a group that is reading Virgil's Aneid, A good, among other things, nationalist epic. On the other hand, I just picked up David Raeburn's 2004 (Penquin Classic) translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses. It, too, does a history of everything, and then some. Some even argue, I hear, that Metamorphoses is more significant than Virgil when it comes to putting Rome and its origins and myths all together under one roof.
The little that I have read is great. Take this first line from Book 9, the story of Achelous and Hercules: ("A" is the River God that can morph into either snake or bull).
"Why are you sighing and why is the horn on your forehead broken?"
Theseus asked Achelous..." (Like he has just had one very bad Friday night at the bar, stolen girl friend, et al)
("A" is arrogant, and nasty and has offended Hercules' birth line. "A" has paid the price in a morph filled battle).
Ironically, "A"s humiliation, broken horn et al becomes the source of the fabled 'horn of plenty.' (Another morphing,)
I suspect Ovid will get the new treatment of Herodutus (man of diversion, story and marginalia) in opposition to Thucidyes (Sp), who is now taken as Rumsfeld 'real politic' stiff. Ovid, to the contrary, is full of pleasure, a lift up from the sincerities of Virgil. I find.
Stephen V
http://stephenvincent.net/blog/
Recommended, as they say.
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