Prologue:

"My soul would sing of metamorphoses.
But since, o gods, you were the source of these
bodies becoming other bodies, breathe
your breath into my book of changes: may
the song I sing be seamless as its way
weaves from the world's beginning to our day."
-Ovid, page 3

(I really liked the way that sounded and knew that paraphrasing it just wouldn't do it justice.)