Editing Metamorphoses (section)

===Metamorphosis===
{{see also|Metamorphoses in Greek mythology}}
{{Centered pull quote|In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas / corpora;
| author = Ov.
| source = ''Met.'', [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/ovid/ovid.met1.shtml Book I], lines 1–2.
}}

[[Metamorphosis]] or transformation is a unifying theme amongst the episodes of the ''Metamorphoses''. Ovid raises its significance explicitly in the opening lines of the poem: ''In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas / corpora;'' ("I intend to speak of forms changed into new entities;").<ref>{{cite journal|last=Swanson|first=Roy Arthur|title=Ovid's Theme of Change|journal=[[The Classical Journal]]|year=1959|volume=54|issue=5|pages=201–05|jstor=3295215}} {{subscription required}}</ref> Accompanying this theme is often violence, inflicted upon a victim whose transformation becomes part of the natural landscape.<ref name="Johnston">{{cite web|last=Johnston|first=Ian|title=The Influence of Ovid's Metamorphoses|url=http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/silver/frame.cgi?ovid,influ|work=Project Silver Muse|publisher=University of Texas at Austin|access-date=15 April 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407101129/http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/silver/frame.cgi?ovid,influ|archive-date=7 April 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> This theme amalgamates the much-explored opposition between the hunter and the hunted<ref>Segal, C. P. Landscape in ''Ovid's Metamorphoses'' (Wiesbaden, 1969) 45</ref> and the thematic tension between art and nature.{{sfn|Solodow|1988|pp=208–213}}

There is a great variety among the types of transformations that take place: from human to inanimate objects (Nileus), [[constellation]]s (Ariadne's Crown), animals (Perdix), and plants (Daphne, Baucis and Philemon); from animals (ants) and fungi (mushrooms) to human; from one sex to another (hyenas); and from one colour to another (pebbles).<ref name="Johnston VIU">{{cite web|last=Ian|first=Johnston|title=The Transformations in Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''|url=http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/ovid/transformations.htm|publisher=Vancouver Island University|access-date=9 May 2013|archive-date=6 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170106184207/http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/ovid/transformations.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> The metamorphoses themselves are often located metatextually within the poem, through grammatical or narratorial transformations. At other times, transformations are developed into humour or absurdity, such that, slowly, "the reader realizes he is being had",{{sfn|Galinsky|1975|p=181}} or the very nature of transformation is questioned or subverted. This phenomenon is merely one aspect of Ovid's extensive use of illusion and disguise.<ref>Von Glinski, M. L. ''Simile and Identity in Ovid's Metamorphoses''. Cambridge: 2012. p. 120 ''inter alia''</ref>