Outlines for the Metamorphoses (adapted from Brooks Otis, Ovid as an Epic Poet)
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

Paper Assignment

Grade Evaluation

Schedule of Assignments

January 13--Introduction to Ovid and his works: read the introduction to your text on the Ars Amatoria; translate Bk. I, 1-66 (Ovid: Selections from Ars Amatoria/Remedia Amoris, Thompson).

January 15--Ovid's other works and his place among Roman poets; continue translating the Ars Amatoria, Book I, lines 89-252.

January 20--Ars Amatoria, Bk. II lines 107-235.

January 22--Introduction to Ovid's Metamorphoses; read Anderson's introduction to Books 1-5, pp. 3-39. Translate Bk. I, lines 1-31.

January 27--Creation stories: Metamorphoses Bk. I, lines 32-75.

January 29 --Destruction by fire or flood: Metamorphoses Bk. I, lines 262-312.

February 3--Continue translating Deucalion and Pyrrha: Metamorphoses Bk. I, lines 313-410.

February 5--Io: Metamorphoses Bk. I, lines 411-440; 583-624.

February 10--Io continued: Bk. I, 625-688. Begin Phaethon: Metamorphoses Bk. II, lines 1-18.

February 12--Phaethon: Bk. II, 19-105; Callisto: Metamorphoses Bk. II, lines 400-508 (read in translation).

Images of stories in this section

February 17--Examination #1

February 19--The family of Cadmus of Thebes: Metamorphoses Bk. III, lines 1-126

February 24--Actaeon: Metamorphoses Bk. III, lines 127-252

February 26--Echo and Narcissus: Metamorphoses Bk. III, lines 339-510

March 3--Continue Echo and Narcissus

March 5--Perseus: Metamorphoses Bk. IV, lines 604-803.

March 10--Continue Perseus, Bk. IV.

Spring Break--March 11 (5:00PM)-March 23 (8:00AM)

March 24--Read Books V & VI (through line 400) in translation; student reports: Perseus VS Phineus; Muses VS Pierides; Proserpina VS Hades; Minerva VS Arachne; Latona VS Niobe

March 26--Examination #2

March 31--Tereus, Procne, and Philomela: Metamorphoses Bk. VI, lines 424-674

April 2--Tereus, Procne, and Philomela continued.

April 7--Jason and Medea (read in translation); Cephalus and Procris: Metamorphoses Bk. VII, lines 690-865.

April 9--Cephalus and Procris continued.

April 14-Read Metamorphoses Bk VIII: Nisus and Scylla, Daedalus and Icarus, and Calydonian boar hunt in tranlsation; translate Baucis and Philemon, Metamorphoses Bk. VIII, lines 620-725.

April 16--Baucis and Philemon continued.

April 21--Read in translation Metamorphoses Books IX-XV; Student reports: Book XI, Ceyx and Alcyone; Book XII, Ovid's Trojan War story; Book XIII, the quarrel between Ajax and Ulysses; Book XIV, the story of Aeneas; Bk XV, Pythagoras and Roman greatness?

April 23--Student Reports continued. Papers due.

April 28--The Roman Books

Final Examination--Saturday, May 2 at 2:00 PM

Suggested Bibliography (reference)

General Books
• G. Karl Galinskey, Ovid's Metamorphoses: An Introduction to the Basic Concepts (Berkeley, 1975)
• Joseph B. Solodow, The World of Ovid's Metamorphoses (Chapel Hill, 1988)
• Stephen M. Wheeler, A Discourse of Wonders (Philadelphia, 1999)
• Sara Mack, Ovid (New Haven, 1988)
• K. Sara Myers, Ovid's Causes: Cosmogony and Aetiology in the Metamorphoses(Ann Arbor, 1994)
• Elain Fantham, Ovid's Metamorphoses (Oxford, 2004)
• L. P. Wilkinson, Ovid Recalled (Cambridge, 1955)
• Brooks Otis, Ovid As An Epic Poet(Cambridge, 1970)
  Readings for Special Topics
• Creations stories: Eva Thury and Margaret Devinney, Intoduction to Mythology, Part II A and B, pp. 23-118 (Oxford, 2005);
  Frank Egleston Robbins, "The Creation Story in Ovid," Classical Philology 8 (1913): 401-414;
  Stephen M. Wheeler, "Imago Mundi: Another View of the Creation in Ovid's Metamorphoses," American Journal of Philology, 116 (1995), 95-121.
• Ovid's treatment of Divine Love: Wade Stephens, "Cupid and Venus in Ovid's Metamorphoses," Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, 89 (1958) 286-300
• The story of Phaethon: R. C. Bass, "Some Aspects of the Structure of the Phaethon Episode in Ovid's Metamorphoses, The Classical Quartery, 27 (1977), 402-408.
• The family of Cadmus: Hugh Parry, "Ovid's Metamorphoses: Violence in a Pastoral Landscape," Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, 95 (1964), 268-282.
• The Heroes in Ovid: Elaine Fantham, Ovid's Metamorphoses, pp 89-104.
• Cephalus and Procris: R. J. Tarrant, "The Silence of Cephalus: Text and Narrative Technique in Ovid, Metamorphoses, 7.685ff., Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, 125 (1995),99-111.
• Baucis and Philemon: Alan H.F.Griffin, "Philemon and Baucis in Ovid's Metamorphoses," Greece and Rome, 38 (1991) 62-74.