My spirit moves to tell of shapes transformed
into new bodies.
— from Metamorphoses, translated by Stephanie McCarter

"All things are subject to the power of change: bodies, landscapes, cities, nations—even the cosmos," writes Stephanie McCarter in the introduction to her translation of Metamorphoses. The themes of Ovid's epic—power, defiance, art, love, abuse, grief, rape, war, beauty—are as changing as the transformations that take place on its pages. Ovid is keenly interested in the way power transforms those of us who have it and those of us who do not. 

In this three-part seminar, McCarter, the first female translator of Metamorphoses into English in over sixty years, examined how the epic poem upturns almost every convention. Each session was devoted to an in-depth discussion of Ovid's poetic technique and his interpretation of violence and defiance, piety, art, women's experience, and mutual love, among other topics. 

Class met from 2:30 - 3:45 p.m. EDT on Mondays: September 16, 23, and 30.

McCarter referenced her translation of Metamorphoses (Penguin, 2023), winner of the Academy's Harold Morton Translation Award.

On-demand opportunity! Tuition, which is being offered at a discount, includes access to presentations, recordings, syllabus and transcripts for a limited only.