Book 1: Lines 1—162

The major theme of the Metamorphoses is introduced in the poem's first sentence: "I want to speak about bodies changed into new forms." The theme of metamorphosis, or change, is the unifying and distinguishing feature of Ovid's work. In lines 1—162 of Book 1, Ovid describes the creation of the world, how the chaos that ruled the universe metamorphosed into the Earth as people know it. Ovid opens with his version of the cosmogony, or the origins of the universe, and follows that with a description of the evolution of the myth of ages and his version of the gigantomachy, or the battle of the giants for control of the universe.

In the beginning was Chaos, a lifeless, warring mass. The great Creator of the universe separates Earth from sky, and from the Earth, Prometheus molds man. What distinguishes man from other living creatures is that...