Ovid: A Very Short Introduction
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Ovid: A Very Short Introduction Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Llewelyn Morgan (Author), Michael Page (Narrator), Tantor Audio (Publisher)
4.8 4.8 out of 5 stars 57 ratings
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"Vivam" is the very last word of Ovid's masterpiece, the Metamorphoses: "I shall live". If we're still reading it two millennia after Ovid's death, this is by definition a remarkably accurate prophecy. Ovid was not the only ancient author with aspirations to be read for eternity, but no poet of the Greco-Roman world has had a deeper or more lasting impact on subsequent literature and art than he can claim. In the present day, no Greek or Roman poet is as accessible, to artists, writers, or the general listener: Ovid's voice remains a compellingly contemporary one, as modern as it seemed to his contemporaries in Augustan Rome. But Ovid was also a man of his time, his own story fatally entwined with that of the first emperor Augustus, and the poetry he wrote channels in its own way the cultural and political upheavals of the contemporary city, its public life, sexual mores, religion, and urban landscape, while also exploiting the superbly rich store of poetic convention that Greek literature and his Roman predecessors had bequeathed to him.

Llewelyn Morgan explores Ovid's immense influence on later literature and art, spanning from Shakespeare to Bernini. Throughout, Ovid's poetry is revealed as enduringly scintillating, his personal story compelling, and the issues his life and poetry raise of continuing relevance and interest.

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  1. Listening Length
    4 hours and 14 minutes
  2. Author
    Llewelyn Morgan
  3. Narrator
    Michael Page
  4. Audible release date
    December 2, 2020
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Tantor Audio
  7. ASIN
    B08PDTJY73
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 4 hours and 14 minutes
Author Llewelyn Morgan
Narrator Michael Page
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date December 02, 2020
Publisher Tantor Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B08PDTJY73
Best Sellers Rank #279,141 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#132 in Ancient, Classical & Medieval Poetry (Audible Books & Originals)
#182 in Ancient, Classical & Medieval Collections
#1,124 in Ancient & Classical Poetry

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4.8 out of 5 stars
4.8 out of 5
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Chris Tudor
5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant short introduction to Ovid
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 15, 2021
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The Very Short Introduction series from OUP has always been extremely high quality, and this latest edition on the Roman poet Ovid is no exception. One of the difficult things about Ovid is the range of genres he worked in, the layers of playfulness and irony that one finds within individual poems, and the thorny issue of the extent to which any of this maps on to what we know about Ovid's life in Rome and in exile. Llewelyn Morgan has woven all of this together and more in a very readable and informative account that will serve as an excellent primer for anyone reading Ovid for the first time, or indeed for people (like myself) who read a bit of Ovid some time ago and are wondering what the heck it was all about!
One person found this helpful
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C. Knowles
5.0 out of 5 stars A great introduction... and a reminder
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 13, 2020
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Clearly written and engaging, this is the perfect Introduction to Ovid for readers who haven't encountered him before, and I recommend it to all my new university students. More than that, though... Morgan's delight in the poems, with all their fascinating twists and dangerous quirks, prompts readers already familiar with Ovid to go back to the texts and look again, to see things we never noticed before. It's a pocket-sized spark of inspiration.

This book is a keeper, and a worthy addition to an excellent series.
6 people found this helpful
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Andrew Copson
5.0 out of 5 stars Great for the fan as well as the beginner
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 6, 2020
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I came to this book on Ovid having read him twenty years ago but this book made me want to read all his poems again. This book would be perfect for anyone coming to Ovid for the first time but contains just as much to inform and fascinate the more informed reader. and - like all Very Short Introductions - it’s the perfect length. Read it in a morning and then spend the afternoon reading Ovid!
5 people found this helpful
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T. P. Cross
4.0 out of 5 stars Ovid - Short and Sweet
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 2, 2021
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The thing with the Very Short Introduction series is that although they are very short they're dense with information. Morgan's book on Ovid does a fantastic job of dipping you into Ovid's work. It's harder to talk about his life because the information is scant.

Even the reason for his exile isn't clear, although the general consensus is Augustus didn't like his flippant approach to sexual mores, but would that have been enough to get him exiled? After all, Ars Armatoria had been published well before he was exiled. Ovid himself talks of an 'error', but never expands on what that error is.

I have read some Ovid. I read bits of the Metamorphoses and Ars Armatoria while doing Latin at GCSE and A-Level. I read the Penguin translation of the Metamorphoses in full a few years ago so I found this an interesting read.

It definitely made me want to read more of Ovid's work and perhaps re-read Metamorphoses with a slightly more informed mind. Morgan does a great job of pushing the case for Ovid's 'generic instability'. The way he twists stories in interesting ways or uses styles of poetry in unusual ways.

I always felt that Ovid's influence on later writers was the most significant of the Roman poets. Horace and Virgil perhaps but not necessarily into the late-20th and 21st century. But here there is a thing. Except for those who do Latin and academics are we losing touch with the ancient poets? Who now reads Horace, Catullus, Virgil, or Ovid? The plays perhaps have a longer life because they can still be performed. Homer too still seems 'immortal', but who except those who have to read these poets? It would be a shame to lose them and Morgan's book makes me think that Ovid in particular is a writer whose poetry must be read.

Interesting, well-researched, and with a decent bibliography if you want to read further.
4 people found this helpful
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