Ovid's Metamorphoses is one of the great works in classical literature, and a primary source for our knowledge of much of classic mythology, in which the relentless theme of transformation stands as a primary metaphor for the often cataclysmic dynamics of life itself. For this book, British poets Michael Hofmann and James Lasdun have invited more than forty leading English-language poets to create their own idiomatic contemporary versions of some of the most famous and notorious myths from the Metamorphoses.

Apollo and Daphne, Pyramus and Thisbe, Proserpina, Marsyas, Medea, Baucis and Philemon, Orpheus and Eurydice—these and many other immortal tales are given fresh and startling life in exciting new versions.

Edited by Michael Hofmann and James Lasdun.

Contents:

• Creation / Four Ages / Flood by Ted Hughes
• Flood by Jorie Graham
• Deucalion and Pyrrha by Christopher Reid
• Give: Daphne and Apollo by Alice Fulton
• Io by Kenneth Koch
• Phaeton and the Chariot of the Sun by Glyn Maxwell
• The Grip of Envy by J. D. McClatchy
• Jupiter and Europa by Simon Armitage
• Cadmus and the Dragon by Tom Paulin
• Creation According to Ovid by Robert Pinsky
• Bacchus and Pentheus by Ted Hughes
• Pyramus and Thisbe by Fred D'Aguiar
• Salmacis and Hermaphroditus by Ted Hughes
• Cadmus by Craig Raine
• Atlas by Michael Hofmann
• Perseus and Andromeda by Peter Reading
• Pyreneus and the Muses by Lawrence Joseph
• The Pomegranate by Eavan Boland
• Ascalaphus by Ciaran Carson
• Arethusa Saved by Thom Gunn
• Arachne by Thom Gunn
• Spiderwoman by Michael Longley
• Niobe by William Logan
• The Lycians by Paul Muldoon
• The Flaying of Marsyas by Robin Robertson
• Down Under by Ciaran Carson
• Tereus, Procne, Philomela by David Wheatley and Justin Quinn
• Medea by Amy Clampitt
• The Plague at Aegina by James Lasdun
• Scylla and Minos by Michael Hofmann
• Perdix by Michael Longley
• The Log of Meleager's Life by Micheal Hofmann
• Achelow and Pamela by Karl Kirchwey
• Baucis and Philemon by Michael Longley
• Erisychthon by James Lasdun
• Hercules, Deianira, Nessus by C. K. Williams
• A Ballad of Iole and Dryope by Charles Tomlinson
• Iphis and Ianthe by Fleur Adcock
• Orpheus and Eurydice by Seamus Heaney
• Death of Orpheus by Seamus Heaney
• Orpheus Dies, and the God Seeks Out Silenus by Peter Redgrove
• Apollo and Hyacinthus by J. D. McClatchy
• Pygmalion and Galatea by Derek Mahon
• Ivory and Water by Michael Longley
• Myrrha by Frederick Seidel
• Venus and Adonis by Ted Hughes
• A Flowering by Michael Longley
• In Phrygia, Birthplace of Embroidery by Les Murray
• Mrs Midas by Carol Ann Duffy
• Peleus and Thetis by Jo Shapcott
• Aesacus, the Diver by Mark Rudman
• Hecuba by Ciaran Carson
• Aurora and Memnon by Ciaran Carson
• Acis, Galatea, Polyphemus by Jamie McKendrick
• Circe by Vicki Feaver
• Picus by Stephen Romer
• The Cercopes by Charles Simic
• Olive Tree by James Lasdun
• Phoenix by Michael Longley
• According to Pythagoras by Michael Longley