Translator's introduction: (a) To the work as a whole. The "Fasti" is a six-book Latin poem by Ovid concentrating on the Roman calendar or 'Fasti', and each of its separate books deals with the first six months of the year, January to June. The books contain some brief astronomical details, but their principal sections discuss the religious festivals of the Romans, the rites which were involved in them, and their mythological explanations. The poem contains much Roman mythological and religious lore which would otherwise have been lost. The poem was...

Introduction. Readers are referred to Sabidius' translation of Book VIII of Ovid's "Metamorphoses" which was published on his blog on 25th March 2010 for information about this great poem. The text of this extract is taken from the 'Cambridge Latin Anthology', Cambridge University Press, 1996. Ll. 354-360, 368-399. The story opens when Narcissus is out hunting one day. A babbling nymph, who has learned neither to keep quiet for (someone) talking, nor to speak first herself, the answering Echo, espied him (i.e. Narcissus), driving some frightened deer into his net. Still,...