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The ''Metamorphoses'' ((ラテン語:Metamorphōseōn librī): "Books of Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem by the Roman poet Ovid, considered his ''magnum opus''. Comprising fifteen books and over 250 myths, the poem chronicles the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar within a loose mythico-historical framework. Although meeting the criteria for an epic, the poem defies simple genre classification by its use of varying themes and tones. Ovid took inspiration from the genre of metamorphosis poetry, and some of the ''Metamorphoses'' derives from earlier treatment of the same myths; however, he diverged significantly from all of his models. One of the most influential works in Western culture, the ''Metamorphoses'' has inspired such authors as Dante, Boccaccio, Chaucer, and Shakespeare. Numerous episodes from the poem have been depicted in acclaimed works of sculpture and painting by artists such as Titian. Although interest in Ovid faded after the Renaissance, towards the end of the twentieth century there was a resurgence of attention to his work; today, the ''Metamorphoses'' continues to inspire and be retold through various media. The work has been the subject of numerous translations into English, the first by William Caxton in 1480.〔More, Brookes. Commentary by Wilmon Brewer. (''Ovid's Metamorphoses (Translation)'' ), pp. 353-386, Marshall Jones Company, Francestown, NH, revised edition, 1978. ISBN 978-0-8338-0184-5, .〕 ==Sources and models== Ovid's decision to make myth the dominant subject of the ''Metamorphoses'' was influenced by the predisposition of Alexandrian poetry.〔Galinsky 1975, p. 1.〕 However, whereas it served in that tradition as the cause for moral reflection or insight, he made it instead the "object of play and artful manipulation".〔 The model for a collection of metamorphosis myths derived from a pre-existing genre of metamorphosis poetry in the Hellenistic tradition, of which the earliest known example is Boio(s)' ''Ornithogonia'' — a now-fragmentary poem collecting myths about the metamorphoses of humans into birds. There are three examples of the ''Metamorphoses'' by later Hellenistic writers, but little is known of their contents.〔 The ''Heteroioumena'' by Nicander of Colophon is better known, and clearly an influence on the poem — 21 of the stories from this work were treated in the ''Metamorphoses''.〔 However, in a way that was typical for writers of the period, Ovid diverged significantly from his models. The ''Metamorphoses'' was longer than any previous collection of metamorphosis myths (Nicander's work consisted of probably four or five books)〔Galinsky 1975, pp. 2–3.〕 and positioned itself within a historical framework.〔Galinsky 1975, p. 3.〕 Some of the ''Metamorphoses'' derives from earlier literary and poetic treatment of the same myths. This material was of varying quality and comprehensiveness — while some of it was "finely worked", in other cases Ovid may have been working from limited material.〔Anderson 1998, p. 14.〕 In the case of an oft-used myth such as that of Io in Book I, which was the subject of literary adaptation as early as the fifth century BC, and as recently as a generation prior to his own, Ovid reorganises and innovates existing material in order to foreground his favoured topics and to embody the key themes of the ''Metamorphoses''.〔Anderson 1998, p. 19.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Metamorphoses」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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