Ovid

Roman poet whose Metamorphoses — a mythological epic of transformations from the creation of the world to the deification of Julius Caesar — became one of the most influential literary works in Western culture.

Metamorphoses: 250 myths organized around the theme of transformation, told with wit, psychological insight, and narrative sophistication. Provides the canonical Latin versions of most Greek myths that shaped medieval and Renaissance culture. Philosophically significant for questions about identity through radical change.