Fasti (Oxford World's Classics)

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.

From an early age I've always had a huge fascination with myths and legends, particularly those of Rome and Greece. I would gobble up children's versions of The Odyssey and delight in the various adventures of Hercules, jason, Theseus, Perseus etc. This love became study once I reached Secondary school where I studied Latin for seven years, and went on to additional Classics courses to suppliment my English degree. However, Ovid was one of those writers who was always on the fringe of both learning and personal reading - school was more focussed on Virgil, Homer, Juvenal, Sallust, while University was mostly a re-tread with the odd sprinkling of Sophocles or Catullus. Eventually we picked up Metamorphoses for a module, but I remember my version of the text was littered with errors including the repetition of around 50 pages, missing out on a large portion of the epic. I think most of the love poems of Ovid were not school friendly, so even 2000 years on he's something of an outcast/rebel. Anyway, enough rambling.Fasti is a book I had not encountered before, and was looking forward to reading. From the opening though, parts of the text seem confused or don't really flow coherently - I'm not sure if this is a problem with the translation or with the original, but this isn't typically a problem with Ovid. I know there is a Penguin edition of the text, maybe it has a different take on things. Once you get use to the rather stilted style, the content shines through, and we get Ovid's often humourous, sometimes poking take on various events and stories. I don't think we can say these touches of sarcasm are due to how Ovid was being portrayed in Rome by certain parties, but certainly as a Revisionist approach it is difficult to separate these points with what happened to Ovid soon after writing. It's unfortunate that we do not, and may never have the remaining 6 months of the year as it is uncertain whether Ovid managed to complete the text once exiled, or if the text is lost like Medea. What we do have is undoubtedly useful as a historical document as many of the practices (and reasons for them) mentioned are done so in detail here unlike anywhere else, and in some cases are only mentioned by Ovid here. It follows that with the lost 6 months we have likely lost some further precious accounts.For readers like me who still like to delve back into nostalgia and childhood, the subversive takes on familiar stories are the most fun - with Hercules, Lucretia, Aeneas and many others, human and God alike getting the treatment. The customs are also interesting, but primarily for those whose interest lies on the factual, historic side of things, rather than the fictional. The text comes with a lengthy introduction which praises the work and mentions how only recently is it becoming regarded highly whereas previously it was merely a footnote in Ovid's bibliography. The introduction features a few timeline diagrams and is likely useful as a study aid. As you would expect, there is a notes section to flick to if you hit an unusual reference in the text, and useful there is both a glossary of terms and an excessive (usefully so) index of names for those who may not be as familiar with the many people mentioned.