Synopsis of Ovid’s Metamorphoses
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Book 1
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Book 2
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Phaethon (continuation) 1-400 pp. 51-64
Callisto 401-530
Apollo and Coronis (The Raven and the Crow) 531-675
Mercury
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and Battus 676-707
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and Aglauros 708-832
Europa 833-875
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Theban Cycle * * *
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Proemium 1-4 p. 15
The First Creation * * *
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Cosmogony 5-88 pp. 15-18
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Myth of Ages 89-150 pp. 18-21
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Gigantomachy 151-162 p. 21
The Second Creation * * *
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Council of the Gods 163-261 pp. 21-2
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Story of Lycaon (told by Jupiter) 211-243 pp. 22-5
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Flood 262-312 pp. 25-7
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Deucalion and Pyrrha 313-415 pp. 27-32
The Third Creation * * * (For Charles Martin p. 32 here begins the Second Creation)
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Pytho 416-451 pp. 32-3
The Loves of the Gods * * *
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Apollo and Daphne 452-567 pp. 33-8
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Io 568-750 pp. 38-43
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Pan and Syrinx pp. 43-4
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Io pp. 44-6
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Phaethon (beginning) 751-779 pp. 46-7
Book 3
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Book 4
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Arrival of Cadmus 1-137
Actaeon 138-252
Semele (birth of Bacchus) 253-315
Tiresias 316-338
Narcissus and Echo 339-510
Pentheus and Bacchus 511-733
Daughters of Minyas
First daughter (unnamed):
o Pyramus and Thisbe 55-166
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Second daughter (Leucippe)
o Mars and Venus 167-189
o Sol and Leucothoe 190-256
o Sol and Clytie 256-270
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Third daughter (Alcithoe)
o Salmacis and Hermaphroditus 271-388
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Metamorphosis of the Daughters of Minyas 389-415
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Athamas and Ino 416-562
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Metamorphosis of Cadmus 563-603
Perseus Cycle
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Perseus' birth 604-611
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Perseus and Medusa 612-620
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Perseus and Atlas 621-662
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Perseus and Andromeda 663-771
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Perseus and Medusa 772-803
Book 5
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Perseus and Cepheus 1-249
Contests
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Minerva
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Hippocrene 250-294
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Pierides v. Muses 295-678
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Book 6
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Pierides: Typhoeus 317-340
One of the Muses: Ceres and Persephone 341-678
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abduction of Proserpina 341-408
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Cyane 409-437
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Stellio 438-461
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Arethusa (a) 462-508
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Ceres and Jupiter 509-532
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Ascalaphus 533-551
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Sirens 551-563
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Division of the year 564-571
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Arethusa (b) 572-641
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Triptolemus 642-661
o Judgment of the nymphs of Helicon 662-678
Minerva v. Arachne
Latona
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v. Niobe
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Lycian Peasants
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Apollo v. Marsyas
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Pelops
Athenian Cycle
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Tereus, Procne, and Philomela
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Erechtheus, Boreas, and Orithyia
Book 7
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Jason and Medea
Theseus (7.404-9.97)
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in Crete
o Minos
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Book 8
on Aegina
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Plague of Aegina
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Myrmidons
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Cephalus and Procris
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at Megara
o Scylla
Daedalus
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the Labyrinth
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Ariadne
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Daedalus and Icarus
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Perdix
in Aetolia
o Meleager
o Achelous
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Perimele
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Philemon and Baucis
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Proteus
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Erysichthon
Book 9
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Book 10
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Hercules Cycle
Dryope
Iolaus and the Sons of Callirhoe
Byblis
Iphis and Ianthe
Orpheus Cycle
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Orpheus and Eurydice
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Descent to the Underworld
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Cyparissus
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Songs:
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Ganymede
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Hyacinthus
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Cerastae
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Book 11
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Book 12
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Book 13
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Trojan War
Achilles and Cycnus
Caenis
Lapiths and Centaurs
Nestor and Hercules
Death of Achilles
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Ajax and Ulysses
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Sack of Troy
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Hecuba, Polyxena, and Polydorus
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Memnon
Little "Aeneid"
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Aeneas
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Acis, Galatea, and Polyphemus
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Scylla and Glaucus
Book 14
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Death of Orpheus
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Midas
Trojan Cycle
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Foundation of Troy
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Peleus and Thetis
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Daedalion
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Cattle of Peleus
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Ceyx and Alcyone
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Aesacus
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Propoetides
Pygmalion
Myrrha
Venus and Adonis
Atalanta and Hippomenes
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Rome
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Scylla and Glaucus
Circe
Picus and Canens
Apotheosis of Aeneas
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Epilogue
Numa
Pythagoras
Hippolytus
Cipus
Aesculapius
Julius Caesar
Pomona and Vertumnus
Romulus
Book 15
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Ovid as a person
• 43 BCE, March 20, born at Sulmo (= Sulmona, a town in today's Italian Abruzzi)
• Studied forensic rhetoric. Abandoned public life for poetry >> commonplace in Roman elegiac
autobiography. We know of his life from his own autobiographical elegy (Tristia 4.10) he included in
his verse collections he wrote in exile.
• Exiled for some unknown reason connected to the imperial house (maybe some sex-scandal involving
Julia, Augustus' daughter?) Can an author be prosecuted for the ideas expressed in his writings?
• 17 AD Died in exile at Tomis, remote town on Black Sea (= ancient Pontus)
Ovid as an author (among the largest corpora in extant classical Latin)
• Amores (Loves): poem collection in elegiac meter (exquisite and entertaining account of Ovid's love
affair with an upper-class married woman)
• Heroides (Heroines) Letters in elegiac meter for mythological female figures to absent husbands/lovers
(admiration of Euripides)
• Medicamina faciei feminae (Cosmetics for the female face): Didactic poem in elegiac meter about
facial make-up
• Ars Amatoria (Art of Love): Didactic poem in elegiac meter on courtship and erotic intrigue; the
mechanics of sexual technique receive but limited attention
• Remedia amoris (Remedies for love): some kind of recantation of the former; also in elegiac meter
• Metamorphoses (Transformations): unorthodox epic in 15 books
• Fasti (Calendar): poetical calendar of Roman festivals in elegiac meter
• Tristia (Sorrows): series of books dispatched from exile between AD 8-12, containing poems
addressed to his wife and other people in Rome; also in elegiac meter
• Epistulae ex Ponto (Epistles from Pontus): four books of poems in elegiac meter, differing from the
Sorrows only in that the addressees are named
• Ibis (the ibis is a fetid bird with unclean habits): elaborate curse poem in elegiac meter
Lost work:
•A tragedy, Medea, of which only two verses survive
•Latin translation from Greek of Aratus' Phaenomena, didactic poem about astronomy
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