Metamorphosis in Classical Literature and its Reception in European Modern Literature

变形记在欧洲文学中占有突出的地位。这类作品中最著名的是奥维德用拉丁文写成的《变形记》。公元前然而，甚至在奥维德之前400年，希腊文学中就已经有了许多关于变形的故事。其中，现存最古老的作品是安东尼的《变形记》，其中包含41个变形故事。这部作品意义重大，对奥维德和后来的许多作家都产生了重大影响。然而，它在日本没有得到很好的研究，这本书的日文翻译从未出版过。因此，在本研究项目中，我对安东尼·利伯拉利斯的《变形记》进行了深入的研究，首先将其翻译成日文，然后对文本进行了非常详细的评论，在评论中，我着重讨论了以下几点：（1）“变形”这个概念为什么会在古希腊人的头脑中产生，它对那些把自己定义为“凡人”的人意味着什么？难道他们以为，就算是蜕变了，身份也不会改变？（2）奥维德在创作《变形记》时，受到安东尼·利伯拉利斯作品的影响有多大，奥维德又是如何利用传统母题创造自己的独创性的？关于变形观念在欧洲后期文学中的接受情况的研究在本研究项目中并没有得到很好的展开。这个问题应该留在我以后的研究中。安东尼·利伯拉利斯的《变形记》的日文译本将在一年内与讲谈社的评论一起出版。

The stories of metamorphosis would claim a conspicuous position in the European literature. The most famous work of this genre would be the Metamorphoses by Ovid written in Latin in1C. BC. However, even 400 years before Ovid, many stories of metamorphosis were already composed in Greek Literature. Among them, the oldest extant work is the Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis, which contains 41 stories of metamorphosis. This work was so significant that it made a great influence on Ovid and many other later writers. It has not, however, been well studied in Japan, and the Japanese translation of this book has never been published. So, in this research project, I tried a close study on Antoninus Liberalis' Metamorphoses, firstly translating it into Japanese, and secondly, putting a very detailed commentary on the text.In the commentary, the emphasis was made on the following points :(1)Why did the concept of "metamorphosis" come out of the mind of the Ancient Greek people, and what does it mean for them who defined themselves as "mortal"? Did they think that the identity of the person would be maintained even after he/she experienced metamorphosis?(2)When Ovid composed his Metamorphoses, how much was he affected by the work of Antoninus Liberalis, and how did Ovid create his originality, by using the traditional motifs?The study on the reception of the idea of metamorphosis in the later European literature was not well developed in this research project. This problem should be left in my future studies. The Japanese translation of Antoninus Liberalis' Metamorphoses will be published with its commentary from Kodan-sha in a year.