Avid for Ovid
Ancient myths are exciting poets again—and mythology means Ovid
THE last poet laureate to translate Ovid was John Dryden. Nearly 300 years later, the current holder of that title, Ted Hughes, has memorably translated two dozen passages from the Latin poet's “Metamorphoses”, a work that retells virtually every Greek myth in which somebody turns into something—a bull, a tree, a star.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Avid for Ovid”
From the May 10th 1997 edition
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