Notes from Michele Delattre

Translation for Working Group:

• Rolfe Humphries. Ovid: Metamorphoses. Indiana University Press. 1955 (renewed 1983)
  This is an affordable, good verse translation that is compact enough to carry around easily.

For a more readable, but larger and more expensive are below. As an poetic read I love Mandelbaum, but Latin teachers would have a harder time with it since it strays far from the Latin original. The Charles Martin is also wonderful and I believe more faithful to the Latin. Some of the older versions and the Latin text are on-line (see the links at the bottom of the page).

Allen Mandelbaum. The Metamorphoses of Ovid. Harcourt, Inc. 1993.
Charles Martin. Metamorphoses a New Translation. W. W. Norton (paperback coming out in January 2005)

Guest Lecturer: Edan Dekel, Classics Department

Working Group questions (from Michele Delattre):

We'll be using the concept of constructing identity as our comparative thread in this series. With that in mind you might consider some of these questions while you are reading Ovid.

A notion of the Ages of Man is a popular way of constructing a collective human identity for both modern and ancient historians. Notice how often we identify national character as part of an Age (of Bronze, Iron, Enlightenment, Exploration, etc.). Is this true of our construction of Chinese or Arab history as well? Compare the qualities of Ovid's ages of man and the ages of man from California social studies standards - hunter gatherers, early farmers, rise of cities, trade, war and nation building.

In the process of creation, in what way do shapes become defined by virtue of their relationships to other shapes or creatures? How much of our identity is a product of how other people see and interact with us? Why are the gods alarmed by the prospect of the complete destruction of the human race?

Notice how identity is tested in the stories - through disguises, transformations, and tests. In the stories of gods and humans to what extent is identity predetermined and to what extent flexible? In the stories of Io, Syrinx, and Daphne what aspects of identity survive transformation?

Selected links:

The Ovid Collection http://etext.virginia.edu/latin/ovid/
Historic texts, translations and illustrations

Latin text http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/ovid.html

Curran, Leo C., "Transformation and Anti-Augustanism in Ovid's 'Metamorphoses'", Arethusa, 5:1 (1972:Spring)
Extracted from PCI Full Text, published by ProQuest Information and Learning Company

ORIAS Working Groups are established to provide professional development support for K-14 teachers with shared interests in international studies. The working groups provide teachers with the opportunity to extend their content knowledge by participating in seminars with University scholars; meet with colleagues to share resources and experiences; and work independently or collaboratively on classroom materials with ORIAS staff.

Co-sponsored by the Office of Resources for International and Area Studies (ORIAS), the Bay Area Global Education Program (BAGEP) at the World Affairs Council of Northern California and the Robbins Collection at the School of Law, U. C. Berkeley.

For further information contact Michele Delattre at ORIAS: 510-643-0868 or orias@berkeley.edu