This groundbreaking translation of Ovid was praised by Ezra Pound as "the most beautiful book in the language (in my opinion, and I suspect Shakespeare's)." Ovid's delightfully witty and moving epic begins with the creation of the world and weaves together a series of ingeniously connected myths and legends in which men and women, often through love, are transformed into flowers, trees, stones, and stars. Golding's powerful use of vernacular was the first major English translation and had a decisive influence on Shakespeare, Spenser, and the character of English Renaissance writing. This edition includes an introduction, a modernized text, a chronology, explanatory notes, and a glossary.