Ovid’s Metamorphoses: A Reader for Students in Elementary College Latin

Ovid’s Metamorphoses is a Latin reader designed to partner existing elementary Latin textbooks.

The book features thirty compelling stories, graduated in difficulty and adapted from Ovid’s epic Metamorphoses into prose. The original poem contains many different stories united thematically by the transformation which occurs in all of them; the epic features romance, seduction, humour, violence, monsters, and misbehaving gods.

Each chapter contains:

a Latin passage adapted from the epic

an accompanying vocabulary list

a short commentary to help with translation

a concise review of the specific grammar covered

a brief comment on a literary aspect of the poem, or featured myth.

Suitable for college students studying Latin at the elementary level, Ovid’s Metamorphoses is designed to be used alongside elementary Latin textbooks. Preserving Ovid’s language and highly vivid descriptions, this reader introduces students to the epic masterpiece, allows them to consolidate their understanding of Latin prose, and offers opportunities for literary discussion.

Christine Albright is the 2020 recipient of the CAMWS Bolchazy Pedagogy Book Award.