Earth, heavier than either of these, drew down the largest elements, and was compressed by its own weight. The weightless fire, that forms the heavens, darted upwards to make its home in the furthest heights. When he had disentangled the elements, and freed them from the obscure mass, he fixed them in separate spaces in harmonious peace. This conflict was ended by a god and a greater order of nature, since he split off the earth from the sky, and the sea from the land, and divided the transparent heavens from the dense air. Nothing retained its shape, one thing obstructed another, because in the one body, cold fought with heat, moist with dry, soft with hard, and weight with weightless things. Though there was land and sea and air, it was unstable land, unswimmable water, air needing light. There was no Titan yet, shining his light on the world, or waxing Phoebe renewing her white horns, or the earth hovering in surrounding air balanced by her own weight, or watery Amphitrite stretching out her arms along the vast shores of the world. You, gods, since you are the ones who alter these, and all other things, inspire my attempt, and spin out a continuous thread of words, from the world's first origins to my own time.īefore there was earth or sea or the sky that covers everything, Nature appeared the same throughout the whole world: what we call chaos: a raw confused mass, nothing but inert matter, badly combined discordant atoms of things, confused in the one place. I want to speak about bodies changed into new forms. Bk I:765-779 Phaethon sets out for the Palace of the Sun.Bk I:722-746 Io is returned to human form.Bk I:689-721 Mercury tells the story of Syrinx.

Bk I:668-688 Jupiter sends Mercury to kill Argus.

Bk I:642-667 Inachus finds Io and grieves for her.Bk I:622-641 Juno claims Io and Argus guards her.Bk I:601-621 Jupiter transforms Io to a heifer.Bk I:525-552 Daphne becomes the laurel bough.Bk I:504-524 Phoebus begs Daphne to yield to him.Bk I:438-472 Phoebus kills the Python and sees Daphne.Bk I:416-437 Other species are generated.Bk I:381-415 The human race is re-created.Bk I:313-347 Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha.Bk I:244-273 Jupiter invokes the floodwaters.Bk I:199-243 Lycaon is turned into a wolf.Bk I:177-198 Jupiter threatens to destroy humankind.This work may be freely reproduced, stored and transmitted, electronically or otherwise, for any non-commercial purpose. Kline © Copyright 2000 All Rights Reserved

Ovid scansion