Change Will Do You Good.(METAMORPHOSES; YOU'RE AN ANIMAL, VISKOVITZ!)(Brief Article)

Ovid's Metamorphoses, says Madeleine Foray, "changes in the hands of each new translator and adapter." Her introduction to a new edition of Arthur Golding's 1567 English translation of the METAMORPHOSES (Johns Hopkins) shows how he Christianizes Ovid, transforming his temples into churches with spires. The translation was influential with Shakespeare and Spenser, but its bombastic style later fell out of fashion. One recent editor complains that Golding turned "the sophisticated Roman into a ruddy country gentleman with tremendous gusto and a gift for energetic doggerel."

A few years ago, the sensual savagery of Ted Hughes's TALES FROM OVID (Farrar, Straus, & Giroux) won wide acclaim. Meanwhile, novels like David Malouf's AN IMAGINARY LIFE (Vintage) and Jane Alison's THE LOVE ARTIST (Picador) have built their narratives on what ...