Introduction

The fifteen books of the Metamorphoses run from the birth of the universe out of chaos to Caesar's transformation into a star after his death, linking more than two hundred and fifty Greek and Roman myths through the single theme of change of form. Daphne becomes a laurel to escape Apollo, Narcissus falls in love with his own reflection and becomes a flower, Pygmalion's ivory statue comes to life, and the tragedy of Pyramus and Thisbe later becomes the source of Romeo and Juliet. It has been an inexhaustible treasury of myth for European literature and art, from Dante and Shakespeare to Titian and Bernini.