Although nearly all scholars acknowledge that the Metamorphoses appears to engage with pastoral poetry, there has not been a monograph specifically designed to address and explore the interaction between pastoral and epic in the Metamorphoses. This book fills in this gap, building on modern approaches to intertextuality, Ovidian, and pastoral studies.

The present book is comprised from five main chapters: 1. Pastoral Encounters, 2. Female Pastoral, 3. Mourning Pastoral, 4. Pastoral Ascent in the Metamorphoses, 5. Pastoral, Golden Age and the Metamorphoses). The chapters are often in dialogue with one another, thus offering a more sustained examination of the topic. Alongside the lack of comprehensive monograph on pastoral in the Metamorphoses, the preseny book's originality and contribution lie on the exploration of pastoral in the Metamorphoses through the lenses of fiction, heroics, and gender, notions which are interwoven throughout the chapters.

This modern approach to generic interaction will be useful for scholars working on Ovid and across the range of Greek and Roman literature, as well as for students of Classics.