Читать книгу A Student's Commentary on Ovid's Metamorphoses Book 10 - Shawn O'Bryhim - Страница 7

Of Ovid’s many works, Book 10 of the Metamorphoses has had perhaps the greatest impact on western culture. Its tales of Orpheus and Eurydice, Pygmalion and his statue, and Venus and Adonis have inspired artists, poets, writers, and composers from the Middle Ages to the modern era. Because most commentaries on Ovid’s Metamorphoses survey large portions of the epic, the attention that they are able devote to individual books is limited. Bömer’s German commentary is a scholarly resource that provides a wealth of information on the individual myths that constitute Book 10, but offers little analysis of their significance to the book as a whole. Although the German commentary on the Metamorphoses by Haupt, Korn, Ewaldt, and von Albrecht is better for literary analysis, the space devoted to Book 10 is limited by the commentary’s broad scope. The same can be said of Bosselaar’s Metamorphoseon in Dutch and Galasso’s Le metamorfosi in Italian. Although Anderson’s commentary on Books 6–10 is very good, it rarely ventures beyond literary analysis, as does Hill’s short commentary on Books 9–12, which is intended for students of literature. Reed’s Ovidio: Metamorfosi, vol. 5, a volume devoted to Books 10–13, is excellent, but it is in Italian and is far too advanced for undergraduates. Fratantuono’s stand-alone commentary on Book 10 offers some observations on Orphism, but otherwise is purely literary. This book deals not only with the literary, grammatical, and textual matters that are integral parts of any commentary on a classical text but also examines the religious, archaeological, and cultural background of the myths. For Book 10, this background is not only Greek and Roman but also Near Eastern. It is my hope that this multidisciplinary approach will facilitate a more holistic understanding of Book 10, especially at a time when a broader conception of classics is coming to the fore – a conception that encompasses the contribution of the Near East to the Greek and Roman world.

This commentary is intended primarily for undergraduate students of Latin who have completed at least two years of language instruction. It may also be of use to graduate students, and perhaps even to researchers who are unfamiliar with some of the nonliterary elements of Book 10. Its focus, however, is on its primary audience. Since these students will have already mastered the basics of Latin grammar, only its more uncommon aspects receive comment here. While literary interpretations of some of the myths of Book 10 abound, several are not mentioned in this commentary for a variety of reasons, but they can be introduced during class to promote discussion, if the instructor so chooses. The text follows that of Tarrant and Anderson, with the substitution of some readings from other editors and from the manuscripts.