8 BCEOvid
Ovid
Metamorphoses
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Quotes
Quotes · Metamorphoses
Passages worth saving.
"My intention is to tell of bodies changed to different forms."
The opening lines of the poem and its complete statement of purpose. Ovid announces his subject in one sentence — transformation — and the directness of it is characteristic. He is not invoking a Muse or claiming divine inspiration. He is simply telling you what he is going to do.p. Book 1, L 1-2 "Let me be loved, or let me be hated — so long as I am noticed."
Jupiter speaks this while pursuing Europa, and it captures something essential about desire in Ovid — it is less about the beloved than about the lover's own need to be felt and acknowledged. Desire in the Metamorphoses is almost always about power.p. Book 2, L 846-847 "He who flees will conquer."
Apollo to Daphne, just before she transforms into a laurel tree. It is a line of startling cruelty dressed in the language of a lover's game. Daphne does not conquer by fleeing. She survives by ceasing to exist as herself.p. Book 1, L 504-505 "I am the daughter of a king, yet I burn."
Myrrha speaking to herself as she struggles against her forbidden love for her father. The line captures the essential Ovidian tragedy of desire — it does not respect rank, reason, or morality. It simply burns.p. Book 10, L 320-321 "Everything changes, nothing is lost."
Pythagoras's central argument, and Ovid's too. It is the philosophical heart of the poem — transformation is not destruction, death is not ending, the world is in constant motion but nothing truly disappears.p. Book 15, L 165-166 "I shall live."
Ovid's last words in the poem, his declaration that his poetry will make him immortal. After fifteen books of transformations imposed on others by gods, Ovid performs his own transformation — from mortal to immortal — through the act of writing. It is the most confident final line in Latin literature.p. Book 15, Final lines