Edmund Spenser's Mutabilitie Cantos, published posthumously in The Faerie Queen, pays homage to several of the mythological figures who play a key role in the classic poetry of Ovid. As William Cummings pointed out in his article "The Influence of Ovid's Metamorphoses on Spenser's Songs of Mutabilities", Ovid played a crucial role in the development of the mythological characters that Spenser used to shape his epic poem; “In summarizing the literary influence exercised by Ovid on Mutabilitie, it appears therefore that Spenser owed him not only a large part of his pictorial style and his pageantry in the two cantos, but also for the greater part of the illustrations given by Mutabilitie . for his defense. Spenser shows a remarkably close knowledge of these two passages from the Metamorphoses” (Cumming 249). Acting as an epilogue to The Faerie Queen, Spenser's Mutabilitie Cantos borrows Ovid's theme of transformation in the Metamorphosis to create the changing world depicted in his poetry. Spenser used The Mutabilitie Cantos to illustrate his inspiration for his epic poem in a truly Ovidian manner by allowing the gods to discuss the great work of the great poet Edmund Spenser; “Until he had paused, Joue spoke thus; / Will the thoughts of mortals never cease to aspire, / In this daring way, to pretend to create Heaven, / And to touch the celestial seats with earthly mire? (Spenser 4-5). Not only did Spenser take on the responsibility of creating one of the great epic mythological poems, but he did so in a way that makes it seem as if Ovid himself had written these lines. Spenser went beyond the role of the typical neoclassical poet by demonstrating his ability not only to imitate Ovid's myths, but also to imitate Ovid's poetic language and authorial tone. Christo...... middle of paper ...... Saylor.org. The Saylor Foundation, 2014. Web. June 2, 2014. Milton, John. “Elegy I”. Complete poems and major prose. (Odyssey Press, 1957). Ed. Merritt Yerkes. Hugues. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2003. 7-10. Print.Ovide, Publius. Metamorphoses. Trans. David Raeburn. London: Penguin, 2004. Print.---. Ovid. Erotic poems. Ed. Peter Green. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin, 1982. Print.Roberts, Jeanne Addison. “Anxiety and influence: Milton, Ovid and Shakespeare. » South Atlantic Review 53.2 (1988): 59-75. JSTOR. Internet. June 5, 2014.Shakespeare, William. Venus and Adonis. Raleigh, NC: Alex Catalog, and eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Internet. June 3, 2014. Spenser, Edmund. “The Cantos Mutabilitie, of the queen of the fairies.” (1609): n. page. Montclair State University. MSU, 2014. Web. June 1 2014. .