Metamorphoses Lesson Plan

Publius Ovidius Naso, called "Ovid" in English, was born in Sulmo (now Sulmona), Italy. He is considered one of the most important poets of Latin literature, along with Virgil. Ovid is also the first of the Roman poets to live wholly during the Augustan Empire, a time when literature and art flourished. Though we know little about his personal life, much of Ovid's verse is extant. Many call him the master of the elegiac couplet, a writing scheme frequently used for love poetry in which a line of dactylic hexameter -- six feet, where each foot is a dactyl (a long syllable followed by two short syllables)-- is followed by a line of dactylic pentameter -- five feet, where each foot is a...