"Tales from Ovid" by Ted Hughes: A Frequently Banned Book

Description

The Roman poet Ovid has been upsetting censors for more than two thousand years. The emperor Augustus exiled Ovid from Rome shortly after the publication of his Metamorphoses. All Ovid's works were burned by Savonarola in the infamous "bonfire of the vanities" in 1497. And when Shakespeare's rival Christopher Marlowe translated Ovid a century later, the translation was set on fire again in the "Bishop's Ban." Then the U.S. Customs censored some of Ovid's work again in 1930.

To celebrate Banned Books Week, we'll be reading aloud and discussing "Tales from Ovid: 24 Passages from the Metamorphoses," an award-winning retelling by the longtime British poet laureate Ted Hughes. Come to class and hear for yourself what all fuss is about!

Note: Bring your own copy of the book.

Facilitator

Mary C. English, Professor and Deputy chair, received her PhD at Boston University. Her research interests include Greek drama and the reinterpretation of these plays by contemporary American playwrights. She has also published extensively on Latin pedagogy. She teaches a variety of courses including Greek and Latin language classes at all levels, as well as courses in classical civilization and literature. She is the author, most recently, of A New Latin Primer with Georgia L. Irby, which was published in 2015 by Oxford University Press.