Ovid's next work, the Metamorphoses, must also be interpreted against its contemporary literary background, particularly in regard to Virgil's Aeneid. The unique character of Virgil's poem, which had been canonized as the national epic, posed a problem for his successors, since after the Aeneid a straightforward historical or mythological epic would represent an anticlimax. Ovid was warned against that pitfall alike by his instincts and his intelligence; he chose, as Virgil had done, to write an epic on a new plan, unique and individual to himself.