Metamorphoses

Critique • Quotes • Translations

Notable lines

Bodies, I have in mind, and how they can change to assume
new shapes—I ask the help of the gods, who know the trick:
inspire me now, change me, let me glimpse the secret
and sing, better than I know how, of the world's birthing,
this creation of all things from first to the very latest.

— First lines, trans. Slavitt

Such art his art concealed.

— "Pygmalion", trans. Melville

All things change, nothing is extinguished. There is nothing in the whole world which is permanent. Everything flows onward; all things are brought into being with a changing nature; the ages themselves glide by in constant movement.

— "Pythagoras"

Upon my brow I have one
single eye.
But it is huge, like some vast
shield. What then?
Does not the mighty sun see
from the sky
All things on earth? Yet the
sun's orb is one.

—"Cyclops", trans. Melville

If truth at all
Is stabllsshed by poetic prophecy,
My fame shall live to all eternity.

— "Epilogue", trans. Melville

— Eric

 

Critique • Quotes • Translations

See also:

The Epic of Gilgamesh

The Odyssey

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Metamorphoses

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