Fasti (Oxford World’s Classics) by Ovid (MOBI)

Description

Times and their reasons, arranged in order through the Latin year, and constellations sunk beneath the earth and risen, I shall sing.’Ovid’s poetical calendar of the Roman year is both a day by day account of festivals and observances and their origins, and a delightful retelling of myths and legends associated with particular dates. Written in the late years of the emperor Augustus, and cut short when the emperor sent the poet into exile, the poem’s tone ranges from tragedy to farce, and its subject matter from astronomy and obscure ritual to Roman history and Greek mythology. Among the stories Ovid tells at length arethose of Arion and the dolphin, the rape of Lucretia, the shield that fell from heaven, the adventures of Dido’s sister, the Great Mother’s journey to Rome, the killing of Remus, the bloodsucking birds, and the murderous daughter of King Servius. The poem also relates a wealth of customs and beliefs,such as the unluckiness of marrying in May.This new prose translation is lively and accurate, and is accompanied by a contextualizing introduction and helpful notes.ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World’s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford’s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐People have lately been making big claims for “Fasti,” which Ovid began as a sort of follow-up to “Metamorphoses.” Here, instead of telling stories that were related by their all being about transformations, he is telling stories related by their all being connected with particular days of the year. There’s nothing actually wrong with this idea, it’s just not as good as the idea behind “Metamorphoses.” Maybe Ovid realized it. He only got halfway through the year (if he had finished the year up, he would have had another ‘epic’ about the size of “Metamorphoses”). People have made all sorts of fancy excuses as to why, but I think maybe he just lost interest. (He was also deported to the Black Sea, which can ruin anyone’s day.) This is a prose translation which of course leaves out a lot of what makes Ovid great, but if you buy it with the Loeb edition (which has its own problems, see my review) you can refer occasionally to the original Latin and be reminded about what a thing of beauty Ovid turned that pedestrian language into.

⭐This translation of Ovid’s “Fasti” is easy to read and well written. The book is important for scholars wishing to understand some of the relations between the Caesar cults and early forms of Christianity.

⭐Ovid’s Fasti is a myriad of roman lore and time honored tradition. I have been studying the classical world for several years and still I find myself lost without the scholarly notes furnished at the back pages of the book. The Introduction of this book is quite enervating as well.

⭐This is a good prose translation of Ovid’s Fasti. The Fasti is a didactic work that describes seasons, celestial phenomena, and festivals. I came to this work wanting to get a better feeling for how educated Romans who were not scholars talked about calendars, and I believe that this translation would be improved by giving significantly more commentary for the modern readers about ancient calendars. The Roman audience would have much more tacit knowledge of ancient calendars than a modern reader will have, and to remedy this we need more than brief commonplaces about the Julian calendar reform. For example, modern readers who are not stargazing hobbyists will have an order of magnitude weaker feeling for the night sky than ancient readers had, and therefore will likely not understand the connection between calendars and the repeated statements Ovid makes about the Pleiades or Dog Star rising. Following the ancient and medieval commentary tradition, the Fasti would be a good text on which to write a commentary explaining ancient calendars and observational astronomy.

⭐This is a clear and very comprehensible translation of Ovid’s Roman calendar, and the explanatory notes, which are keyed to the text by means of asterisks, are helpful. There is also a glossary of Latin terms and an extensive name index at the end, in which names of divinities, mythological heroes, cults and places are listed in alphabetical order.I removed one star from the rating because this Oxford edition contains no maps of any kind, so the reader needs to be familiar with the Mediterranean area, and, if possible, with Rome’s configuration prior to diving into the text…Other than that, it’s a recommendable read for those who enjoy mythology and anthropology, and the Oxford edition succeeds in demystifying a highly allusive and erudite text.For first-time Ovid readers though, better start with “Ars Amatoria”, even if “Fasti” is a pleasant read as well – it’s just not as funny and lively as his love poems 🙂

⭐A very nice translation with extensive explanatory notes, which really add to the reader’s understanding of the text. Fasti does pale in comparison with some of Ovid’s other work but it is nonetheless highly enjoyable.

⭐I can thoroughly recommend this book , it was a work of Ovid I had not come across before andit has been immensely helpful for meNew book great value arrived promtly

⭐This is a clear and very comprehensible translation of Ovid’s Roman calendar, and the explanatory notes, which are keyed to the text by means of asterisks, are helpful. There is also a glossary of Latin terms and an extensive name index at the end, in which names of divinities, mythological heroes, cults and places are listed in alphabetical order.I removed one star from the rating because this Oxford edition contains no maps of any kind, so the reader needs to be familiar with the Mediterranean area, and, if possible, with Rome’s configuration prior to diving into the text…Other than that, it’s a recommendable read for those who enjoy mythology and anthropology, and the Oxford edition succeeds in demystifying a highly allusive and erudite text.For first-time Ovid readers though, better start with “Ars Amatoria”, even if “Fasti” is a pleasant read as well – it’s just not as funny and lively as his love poems 🙂

⭐Fasti is the great final poem by Augustan Rome’s most versatile poet. Yet it is possibly his least read. Written in Ovid’s final years before and during his exile, Fasti is an aetiological poem accounting for the feast days and festivals of the Roman calendar for the first six months of the year.I suppose the greatest use of Fasti today is as a mine of mainly Roman myth and legend. There is some overlap with the early books of Livy’s History and in the background there is also the mighty presence of Virgil’s Aeneid. Ovid delights in subverting these works. The glorious tale of Dido’s sister Anna and her own odyssey to Italy and fateful re-encounter with Aeneas delights on many levels, not least in how Ovid provides new viewpoints on both Aeneas and his Italian wife Lavinia.The representation of Augustus and his achievements is another central theme in the work. Is he critical of Augustus and his new Rome? Is Fasti a politically subversive piece? The student of Augustus will have much to think about here.A prospective purchaser of a translation of Fasti has two major editions to choose from, this Oxford World’s Classic and the Penguin of Boyle and Woodward (2000). If there is such a creature as a general reader, then this edition is probably the one to be preferred. This Oxford Classic takes a relatively simple and uncomplicated approach to the text. It is suitable for someone who is curious about but generally ignorant of the poem. The Penguin edition by contrast is an academically more ambitious piece of work. To illustrate: its introduction which includes detailed maps is more than twice the length of the Oxford edition; its notes and glossary are almost 200 pages against just over 50 in the Oxford; its translation is written in elegiac couplets while the Oxford is a straightforward prose version. For the student or academic then, the Penguin is to be preferred, for the novice or generally interested reader, this new Oxford is more than satisfactory.

⭐This new translation of Ovid’s Fasti aims to be accurate, and has therefore not attempted to put it into verse. IMHO for the versification, speaking it in the original Latin was best, even if I didn’t fully understand it then as part of my ‘O’ levels.So I am very happy to have had the pleasure of reading this version with its academic rigour, and the accompanying bonuses of full notes, references, glossary, indices, and a comprehensive introduction with a clear contextual time-line to help with understanding Ovid’s reasoning for writing what he did. This book is perfect for the student preparing for an exam, or for anyone else wanting to fully understand what Ovid was trying to tell us. There are other translations in couplets with more detailed notes for the intensive academics, but this one seems to hit the mark well enough for most of us.Coming to it now, presented to us with clear English and no fudging the words to fit a metre or rhyme scheme, I can finally see why Ovid was so popular and has stood the test of time; he is wise, witty, cynical, moral, double-dealing, obtuse, mystical, and above all instructive in the ways of life, this philosophical cocktail is cunningly wrapped in the guise of an erudite Calendar explaining what is relevant to the different times of year. The only problem with the book is one that Ovid himself suffered; he was unable to complete the Calendar and stopped at the end of June (Book 6) when he was sent into exile by the emperor Augustus, and in those days you didn’t argue with the big boss.I do so wish I had had a copy of this when I was doing my own exams all those years ago. Latin would then have been more like fun rather than a difficult chore struggling with apparently meaningless and obscure translations.

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