OVID

It's the birthday of the poet Ovid, (books by this author) born in the village of Sulmo, just east of Rome (43 B.C.). After having written many light, popular works, Ovid began his masterpiece, The Metamorphoses (c. 8 A.D.), a collection of all the Greek and Roman myths that deal with transformation, told in chronological order from the origin of the universe to the death of Julius Caesar. It begins,

"Of bodies changed to various forms I sing:

Ye gods, from whom these miracles did spring."

Ovid wrote:

"There's nothing constant in the world,All ebb and flow, and every shape that's bornBears in its womb the seeds of change."