Metamorphoses Author:Ovid Ovid (43 BC - AD 17) was among the most sophisticated of Latin writers, yet he was also a prince of storytellers, and his Metamorphoses, a poem in fifteen books, is a fresh, charming collection of tales. These he culled from Greek poems and myths, Latin folk-lore, and even from Babylon and the East. The unity of theme is that of transformation: ... more »of chaos changed into harmony, of animals turned into stone, of men and women who became trees or stars. The whole of western European literature has derived inspiration from the Metamorphoses, which are translated here by Mary M. Innes.« less