Ovid's Metamorphoses and the Environmental Imagination (Paperback)

Francesca Martelli

ISBN 10: 1350268984 / ISBN 13: 9781350268982

Published by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, London, 2025

About this Item

Paperback. This book positions Ovids Metamorphoses as a foundational text in the western history of environmental thought. The poem is about new bodies. Stones, springs, plants and animals materialize out of human origins to create a world of hybrid objects, which retain varying degrees of human subjectivity while taking on new physical form. In bending the boundaries of known categories of being, these hybrid entities reveal both the porousness of human and other agencies as well as the dangers released by their fusion. Metamorphosis unsettles the category of the human within the complex ecologies that make up the world as we know it.Drawing on a range of modern environmental theorists and approaches, the contributors to this volume trace how the Metamorphoses models the relationship between humans and other life forms in ways that resonate with the preoccupations of contemporary eco-criticism. They make the case for seeing the worldview depicted in Ovids poem as an exemplar of the premodern ecological mindset that contemporary environmental thought seeks to approximate. They also highlight critical moments in the history of the poems ecological reception, including reflections by a contemporary poet, as well as studies of Medieval and Renaissance responses to Ovid. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781350268982

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Ovid's Metamorphoses and the Environmental Imagination (Paperback)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, London
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1350268984
• ISBN 13: 9781350268982
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

This book positions Ovid’s Metamorphoses as a foundational text in the western history of environmental thought. The poem is about new bodies. Stones, springs, plants and animals materialize out of human origins to create a world of hybrid objects, which retain varying degrees of human subjectivity while taking on new physical form. In bending the boundaries of known categories of being, these hybrid entities reveal both the porousness of human and other agencies as well as the dangers released by their fusion. Metamorphosis unsettles the category of the human within the complex ecologies that make up the world as we know it. Drawing on a range of modern environmental theorists and approaches, the contributors to this volume trace how the Metamorphoses models the relationship between humans and other life forms in ways that resonate with the preoccupations of contemporary eco-criticism. They make the case for seeing the worldview depicted in Ovid’s poem as an exemplar of the ‘premodern’ ecological mindset that contemporary environmental thought seeks to approximate. They also highlight critical moments in the history of the poem’s ecological reception, including reflections by a contemporary poet, as well as studies of Medieval and Renaissance responses to Ovid.

About the Authors

Giulia Sissa is Distinguished Professor of Political Theory, Classics, and Comparative Literature at
the University of California, Los Angeles, USA. She writes about the political and erotic cultures
of Greece and Rome in a long-term perspective and always from the standpoint of contemporary issues. Among her most recent books are Sex and Sensuality in the Ancient World (2008); Jealousy: A Forbidden Passion (2017); and Le Pouvoir des femmes. Un défi pour la démocratie (2021).

Francesca Martelli is Associate Professor of Classics at UCLA, USA. She is the author of Ovid (2020) and Ovid's Revisions (2013).

Esther Eidinow is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Bristol, UK. She is a series editor for the Bloomsbury series Ancient Environments, co-editor of Cognitive Approaches to Ancient Religious Experience (2022) and author of Envy, Poison and Death: Women on Trial in Classical Athens (2016).

Katharina Lorenz is Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Giessen, Germany. She is a series editor for the Bloomsbury series Ancient Environments, and, among many other publications, is author of Bilder machen Räume (2008) and Mythogical Images and their Interpretation (2016).