On Translating Ovid’s Metamorphoses

Less than 150 lines into the first book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, the world, created out of chaos when the poem begins, degenerates into widespread corruption, fraud, and treachery (mankind’s doing), and is subsequently devastated by a flood (Jupiter’s doing). Only two people, Pyrrha and Deucalion, husband and wife who are also cousins, survive.