Publius Ovidius Naso (Latin:[ˈpuːbliʊsɔˈwɪdiʊsˈnaːsoː]; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English asOvid (/ˈɒvɪd/OV-id),[2][3] was aRoman poet who lived during the reign ofAugustus. He was a younger contemporary ofVirgil andHorace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the threecanonical poets ofLatin literature. TheImperial scholarQuintilian considered him the last of the Latin loveelegists.[4] Although Ovid enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime, the emperor Augustusexiled him toTomis, the capital of the newly organised province ofMoesia, on theBlack Sea, where he remained for the last nine or ten years of his life. Ovid himself attributed his banishment to acarmen et error ("poem and a mistake"), but his reluctance to disclose specifics has resulted in much speculation among scholars.
Ovid wrote more about his own life than most other Roman poets. Information about his biography is drawn primarily from his poetry, especiallyTristia 4.10,[6] which gives a lengthy autobiographical account of his life. Other sources includeSeneca the Elder andQuintilian.
His father wanted him to studyrhetoric so that he might practice law. According to Seneca the Elder, Ovid tended to the emotional, not the argumentative pole of rhetoric. Following the death of his brother at 20 years of age, Ovid renounced law and travelled toAthens,Asia Minor, andSicily.[9] He held minor public posts, as one of thetresviri capitales,[10] as a member of theCentumviral court[11] and as one of thedecemviri litibus iudicandis,[12] but resigned to pursue poetry probably around 29–25 BC, a decision of which his father apparently disapproved.[13]
Ovid's first recitation has been dated to around 25 BC, when he was eighteen.[14] He was part of the circle centered on the esteemed patronMarcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, and likewise seems to have been a friend of poets in the circle ofMaecenas. InTristia 4.10.41–54, Ovid mentions friendships with Macer,Propertius, Ponticus and Bassus, and claims to have heardHorace recite. He only barely metVirgil andTibullus, a fellow member of Messalla's circle, whose elegies he admired greatly.[15]
He married three times and had divorced twice by the time he was thirty. He had one daughter and grandchildren through her.[16] His last wife was connected in some way to the influentialgens Fabia and helped him during his exile in Tomis (nowConstanța in Romania).[17]
Ovid spent the first 25 years of his literary career primarily writing poetry inelegiac meter with erotic themes.[18] The chronology of these early works is not secure, but scholars have established tentative dates. His earliest extant work is thought to be theHeroides, letters of mythological heroines to their absent lovers, which may have been published in 19 BC, although the date is uncertain as it depends on a notice inAm. 2.18.19–26 that seems to describe the collection as an early published work.[19]
Ovid's next poem, theMedicamina Faciei (a fragmentary work on women's beauty treatments), preceded theArs Amatoria (theArt of Love), a parody ofdidactic poetry and a three-book manual about seduction and intrigue, which has been dated to AD 2 (Books 1–2 would go back to 1 BC[20]). Ovid may identify this work in his exile poetry as thecarmen, or song, which was one cause of his banishment. TheArs Amatoria was followed by theRemedia Amoris in the same year. This corpus of elegiac, erotic poetry earned Ovid a place among the chief Roman elegists Gallus, Tibullus, and Propertius, of whom he saw himself as the fourth member.[19]
By AD 8, Ovid had completedMetamorphoses, a hexameterepic poem in 15 books, which comprehensively catalogs the metamorphoses in Greek and Roman mythology, from the emergence of the cosmos to theapotheosis ofJulius Caesar. The stories follow each other in the telling of human beings transformed to new bodies: trees, rocks, animals, flowers,constellations, etc. Simultaneously, he worked on theFasti, a six-book poem in elegiac couplets on the theme of the calendar ofRoman festivals and astronomy. The composition of this poem was interrupted by Ovid's exile,[c] and it is thought that Ovid abandoned work on the piece in Tomis. It is probably in this period that the double letters (16–21) in theHeroides were composed, although there is some contention over their authorship.
In AD 8, Ovid was banished toTomis, on theBlack Sea, by the exclusive intervention of the EmperorAugustus without any participation of theSenate or of anyRoman judge.[23] This event shaped all his following poetry. Ovid wrote that the reason for his exile wascarmen et error – "a poem and a mistake",[24] claiming that his crime was worse than murder,[25] more harmful than poetry.[26]
TheJulian marriage laws of 18 BC, which promotedmonogamous marriage to increase the population's birth rate, were fresh in the Roman mind. Ovid's writing in theArs Amatoria concerned the serious crime ofadultery. He may have been banished for these works, which appeared subversive to the emperor's moral legislation. However, in view of the long time that elapsed between the publication of this work (1 BC) and the exile (AD 8), some authors suggest that Augustus used the poem as a mere justification for something more personal.[28]
In exile, Ovid wrote two poetry collections,Tristia andEpistulae ex Ponto, which illustrated his sadness and desolation. Being far from Rome, he had no access to libraries, and thus might have been forced to abandon hisFasti, a poem about the Roman calendar, of which only the first six books exist – January through June. He learnedSarmatian and Getic.[29]
The five books of the elegiacTristia, a series of poems expressing the poet's despair in exile and advocating his return to Rome, are dated to AD 9–12. TheIbis, an elegiac curse poem attacking an unnamed adversary, may also be dated to this period. TheEpistulae ex Ponto, a series of letters to friends in Rome asking them to effect his return, are thought to be his last compositions, with the first three books published in AD 13 and the fourth book between AD 14 and 16. The exile poetry is particularly emotive and personal. In theEpistulae he claims friendship with the natives of Tomis (in theTristia they are frightening barbarians) and to have written a poem in their language (Ex Ponto, 4.13.19–20).
Statue of Roman poet Ovid inConstanța. In 1925, an identical replica was made in Sulmona, Italy.
Yet he pined for Rome – and for his third wife, addressing many poems to her. Some are also to the Emperor Augustus, yet others are to himself, to friends in Rome, and sometimes to the poems themselves, expressing loneliness and hope of recall from banishment or exile.[30]
The obscure causes of Ovid's exile have given rise to much speculation by scholars. The medieval texts that mention the exile offer no credible explanations: their statements seem incorrect interpretations drawn from the works of Ovid.[31] Ovid himself wrote many references to his offense, giving obscure or contradictory clues.[32]
In 1923, scholar J. J. Hartman proposed a theory that is little considered among scholars of Latin civilization today: that Ovid was never exiled from Rome and that all of his exile works are the result of his fertile imagination. This theory was supported and rejected[clarification needed] in the 1930s, especially by Dutch authors.[33]
In 1985, a research paper by Fitton Brown advanced new arguments in support of Hartman's theory.[34] Brown's article was followed by a series of supports and refutations in the short space of five years.[35] Among the supporting reasons Brown presents are: Ovid's exile is only mentioned by his own work, except in "dubious" passages byPliny the Elder[36] andStatius,[37] but no other author until the 4th century;[38] that the author ofHeroides was able to separate the poetic "I" of his own and real life; and that information on the geography of Tomis was already known byVirgil, byHerodotus and by Ovid himself in hisMetamorphoses.[d][39]
Most scholars, however, oppose these hypotheses.[40] One of the main arguments of these scholars is that Ovid would not let hisFasti remain unfinished, mainly because this poem meant his consecration as an imperial poet.[41]
TheHeroides ("Heroines") orEpistulae Heroidum are a collection of twenty-one poems in elegiac couplets. TheHeroides take the form of letters addressed by famous mythological characters to their partners expressing their emotions at being separated from them, pleas for their return, and allusions to their future actions within their own mythology. The authenticity of the collection, partially or as a whole, has been questioned, although most scholars would consider the letters mentioned specifically in Ovid's description of the work atAm. 2.18.19–26 as safe from objection. The collection comprises a new type of generic composition without parallel in earlier literature.[44]
The first fourteen letters are thought to comprise the first published collection and are written by the heroinesPenelope,Phyllis,Briseis,Phaedra,Oenone,Hypsipyle,Dido,Hermione,Deianeira,Ariadne,Canace,Medea,Laodamia, andHypermnestra to their absent male lovers. Letter 15, from the historicalSappho toPhaon, seems spurious (although referred to inAm. 2.18) because of its length, its lack of integration in the mythological theme, and its absence from Medieval manuscripts.[45] The final letters (16–21) are paired compositions comprising a letter to a lover and a reply.Paris andHelen,Hero and Leander, andAcontius andCydippe are the addressees of the paired letters. These are considered a later addition to the corpus because they are never mentioned by Ovid and may or may not be spurious.
TheHeroides markedly reveal the influence of rhetorical declamation and may derive from Ovid's interest in rhetoricalsuasoriae, persuasive speeches, andethopoeia, the practice of speaking in another character. They also play with generic conventions; most of the letters seem to refer to works in which these characters were significant, such as theAeneid in the case of Dido andCatullus 64 for Ariadne, and transfer characters from the genres of epic and tragedy to the elegiac genre of theHeroides.[46] The letters have been admired for their deep psychological portrayals of mythical characters, their rhetoric, and their unique attitude to the classical tradition of mythology.[by whom?] They also contribute significantly to conversations on how gender and identity were constructed in Augustan Rome.[47]
A popular quote from the Heroides anticipates Machiavelli's "the end justifies the means". Ovid had written "Exitus acta probat" – the result justifies the means.
TheAmores is a collection in three books of love poetry in elegiac meter, following the conventions of the elegiac genre developed byTibullus andPropertius. Elegy originates with Propertius and Tibullus, but Ovid is an innovator in the genre. Ovid changes the leader of his elegies from the poet, to Amor (Love or Cupid). This switch in focus from the triumphs of the poet, to the triumphs of love over people is the first of its kind for this genre of poetry. This Ovidian innovation can be summarized as the use of love as a metaphor for poetry.[48] The books describe the many aspects of love and focus on the poet's relationship with a mistress called Corinna. Within the various poems, several describe events in the relationship, thus presenting the reader with some vignettes and a loose narrative.
Book 1 contains 15 poems. The first tells of Ovid's intention to write epic poetry, which is thwarted whenCupid steals a metrical foot from him, changing his work into love elegy.Poem 4 is didactic and describes principles that Ovid would develop in theArs Amatoria. The fifth poem, describing a noon tryst, introduces Corinna by name. Poems 8 and 9 deal with Corinna selling her love for gifts, while 11 and 12 describe the poet's failed attempt to arrange a meeting. Poem 14 discusses Corinna's disastrous experiment in dyeing her hair and 15 stresses the immortality of Ovid and love poets.
The second book has 19 pieces; the opening poem tells of Ovid's abandonment of aGigantomachy in favor ofelegy. Poems 2 and 3 are entreaties to a guardian to let the poet see Corinna, poem 6 is a lament for Corinna's dead parrot; poems 7 and 8 deal with Ovid's affair with Corinna's servant and her discovery of it, and 11 and 12 try to prevent Corinna from going on vacation. Poem 13 is a prayer toIsis for Corinna's illness, 14 a poem against abortion, and 19 a warning to unwary husbands.
Book 3 has 15 poems. The opening piece depicts personified Tragedy and Elegy fighting over Ovid. Poem 2 describes a visit to the races, 3 and 8 focus on Corinna's interest in other men, 10 is a complaint toCeres because of her festival that requires abstinence, 13 is a poem on a festival ofJuno, and 9 a lament forTibullus. In poem 11 Ovid decides not to love Corinna any longer and regrets the poems he has written about her. The final poem is Ovid's farewell to the erotic muse. Critics have seen the poems as highly self-conscious and extremely playful specimens of the elegiac genre.[49]
About a hundred elegiac lines survive from this poem on beauty treatments for women's faces, which seems to parody serious didactic poetry. The poem says that women should concern themselves first with manners and then prescribes several compounds for facial treatments before breaking off. The style is not unlike the shorterHellenistic didactic works ofNicander andAratus.
Si quis in hoc artem populo non novit amandi, hoc legat et lecto carmine doctus amet.[50]
TheArs Amatoria is a didactic elegiac poem in three books that sets out to teach the arts of seduction and love. The first book addresses men and teaches them how to seduce women, the second, also to men, teaches how to keep a lover. The third addresses women and teaches seduction techniques. The first book opens with an invocation to Venus, in which Ovid establishes himself as apraeceptor amoris (1.17) – a teacher of love. Ovid describes the places one can go to find a lover, like the theater, a triumph, which he thoroughly describes, or arena – and ways to get the girl to take notice, including seducing her covertly at a banquet. Choosing the right time is significant, as is getting into her associates' confidence.
Ovid emphasizes care of the body for the lover. Mythological digressions include a piece on therape of the Sabine women,Pasiphaë, andAriadne. Book 2 invokes Apollo and begins with a telling of the story ofIcarus. Ovid advises men to avoid giving too many gifts, keep up their appearance, hide affairs, compliment their lovers, and ingratiate themselves with slaves to stay on their lover's good side. The care of Venus for procreation is described as is Apollo's aid in keeping a lover; Ovid then digresses on the story ofVulcan's trap for Venus and Mars. The book ends with Ovid asking his "students" to spread his fame. Book 3 opens with a vindication of women's abilities and Ovid's resolution to arm women against his teaching in the first two books. Ovid gives women detailed instructions on appearance telling them to avoid too many adornments. He advises women to read elegiac poetry, learn to play games, sleep with people of different ages, flirt, and dissemble. Throughout the book, Ovid playfully interjects, criticizing himself for undoing all his didactic work to men and mythologically digresses on the story ofProcris andCephalus. The book ends with his wish that women will follow his advice and spread his fame sayingNaso magister erat, "Ovid was our teacher". (Ovid was known as "Naso" to his contemporaries.[51])
This elegiac poem proposes a cure for the love Ovid teaches in theArs Amatoria, and is primarily addressed to men. The poem criticizes suicide as a means for escaping love and, invoking Apollo, goes on to tell lovers not to procrastinate and be lazy in dealing with love. Lovers are taught to avoid their partners, not perform magic, see their lover unprepared, take other lovers, and never be jealous. Old letters should be burned and the lover's family avoided. The poem throughout presents Ovid as a doctor and utilizes medical imagery. Some have interpreted this poem as the close of Ovid's didactic cycle of love poetry and the end of his erotic elegiac project.[52]
TheMetamorphoses, Ovid's most ambitious and well-known work, consists of a 15-book catalogue written indactylic hexameter about transformations in Greek and Roman mythology set within a loose mytho-historical framework. The word "metamorphoses" is of Greek origin and means "transformations". Appropriately, the characters in this work undergo many different transformations. Within an extent of nearly 12,000 verses, almost 250 different myths are mentioned. Each myth is set outdoors where the mortals are often vulnerable to external influences. The poem stands in the tradition of mythological and etiological catalogue poetry such asHesiod'sCatalogue of Women,Callimachus'Aetia,Nicander'sHeteroeumena, andParthenius'Metamorphoses.
In analyzing theMetamorphoses, scholars have focused on Ovid's organization of his vast body of material. The ways that stories are linked by geography, themes, or contrasts creates interesting effects and constantly forces the reader to evaluate the connections. Ovid also varies his tone and material from different literary genres;G. B. Conte has called the poem "a sort of gallery of these various literary genres".[53] In this spirit, Ovid engages creatively with his predecessors, alluding to the full spectrum of classical poetry. Ovid's use of Alexandrian epic, or elegiac couplets, shows his fusion of erotic and psychological style with traditional forms of epic.
A concept drawn from the Metamorphoses is the idea of the white lie orpious fraud: "pia mendacia fraude".
Six books in elegiacs survive of this second ambitious poem that Ovid was working on when he was exiled. The six books cover the first semester of the year, with each book dedicated to a different month of theRoman calendar (January to June). The project seems unprecedented in Roman literature. It seems that Ovid planned to cover the whole year, but was unable to finish because of his exile, although he did revise sections of the work at Tomis, and he claims atTrist. 2.549–52 that his work was interrupted after six books. Like theMetamorphoses, theFasti was to be a long poem and emulated etiological poetry by writers likeCallimachus and, more recently,Propertius and his fourth book. The poem goes through the Roman calendar, explaining the origins and customs of important Roman festivals, digressing on mythical stories, and giving astronomical and agricultural information appropriate to the season. The poem was probably dedicated toAugustus initially, but perhaps the death of the emperor prompted Ovid to change the dedication to honorGermanicus. Ovid uses direct inquiry of gods and scholarly research to talk about the calendar and regularly calls himself avates, a seer. He also seems to emphasize unsavory, popular traditions of the festivals, imbuing the poem with a popular,plebeian flavor, which some have interpreted as subversive to the Augustan moral legislation.[54] While this poem has always been invaluable to students of Roman religion and culture for the wealth of antiquarian material it preserves, it recently has been seen as one of Ovid's finest literary works and a unique contribution to Roman elegiac poetry.
TheIbis is an elegiac poem in 644 lines, in which Ovid uses a dazzling array of mythic stories to curse and attack an enemy who is harming him in exile. At the beginning of the poem, Ovid claims that his poetry up to that point had been harmless, but now he is going to use his abilities to hurt his enemy. He cites Callimachus'Ibis as his inspiration and calls all the gods to make his curse effective. Ovid uses mythical exempla to condemn his enemy in the afterlife, cites evil prodigies that attended his birth, and then in the next 300 lines wishes that the torments of mythological characters befall his enemy. The poem ends with a prayer that the gods make his curse effective.
TheTristia consist of five books of elegiac poetry composed by Ovid in exile in Tomis.
Book 1 contains 11 poems; the first piece is an address by Ovid to his book about how it should act when it arrives in Rome. Poem 3 describes his final night in Rome, poems 2 and 10 Ovid's voyage to Tomis, 8 the betrayal of a friend, and 5 and 6 the loyalty of his friends and wife. In the final poem Ovid apologizes for the quality and tone of his book, a sentiment echoed throughout the collection.
Book 2 consists of one long poem in which Ovid defends himself and his poetry, uses precedents to justify his work, and begs the emperor for forgiveness.
Book 3 has 14 poems focusing on Ovid's life in Tomis. The opening poem describes his book's arrival in Rome to find Ovid's works banned. Poems 10, 12, and 13 focus on the seasons spent in Tomis, 9 on the origins of the place, and 2, 3, and 11 his emotional distress and longing for home. The final poem is again an apology for his work.
The fourth book has ten poems addressed mostly to friends. Poem 1 expresses his love of poetry and the solace it brings; while 2 describes a triumph of Tiberius. Poems 3–5 are to friends, 7 a request for correspondence, and 10 an autobiography.
The final book of theTristia with 14 poems focuses on his wife and friends. Poems 4, 5, 11, and 14 are addressed to his wife, 2 and 3 are prayers toAugustus andBacchus, 4 and 6 are to friends, 8 to an enemy. Poem 13 asks for letters, while 1 and 12 are apologies to his readers for the quality of his poetry.
TheEpistulae ex Ponto is a collection in four books of further poetry from exile. TheEpistulae are each addressed to a different friend and focus more desperately than theTristia on securing his recall from exile. The poems mainly deal with requests for friends to speak on his behalf to members of the imperial family, discussions of writing with friends, and descriptions of life in exile. The first book has ten pieces in which Ovid describes the state of his health (10), his hopes, memories, and yearning for Rome (3, 6, 8), and his needs in exile (3). Book 2 contains impassioned requests to Germanicus (1 and 5) and various friends to speak on his behalf at Rome while he describes his despair and life in exile. Book 3 has nine poems in which Ovid addresses his wife (1) and various friends. It includes a telling of the story ofIphigenia in Tauris (2), a poem against criticism (9), and a dream of Cupid (3). Book 4, the final work of Ovid, in 16 poems talks to friends and describes his life as an exile further. Poems 10 and 13 describe Winter and Spring at Tomis, poem 14 is halfhearted praise for Tomis, 7 describes its geography and climate, and 4 and 9 are congratulations on friends for their consulships and requests for help. Poem 12 is addressed to a Tuticanus, whose name, Ovid complains, does not fit into meter. The final poem is addressed to an enemy whom Ovid implores to leave him alone. The last elegiac couplet is translated: "Where's the joy in stabbing your steel into my dead flesh?/ There's no place left where I can be dealt fresh wounds."[55]
One loss, which Ovid himself described, is the first five-book edition of theAmores, from which nothing has come down to us. The greatest loss is Ovid's only tragedy,Medea, from which only a few lines are preserved.Quintilian admired the work a great deal and considered it a prime example of Ovid's poetic talent.[56]Lactantius quotes from a lost translation by Ovid ofAratus'Phaenomena, although the poem's ascription to Ovid is insecure because it is never mentioned in Ovid's other works.[57]A line from a work entitledEpigrammata is cited byPriscian.[58]Even though it is unlikely, if the last six books of theFasti ever existed, they constitute a great loss. Ovid also mentions some occasional poetry (Epithalamium,[59] dirge,[60] even a rendering inGetic[61]) which does not survive. Also lost is the final portion of theMedicamina.
TheConsolatio is a long elegiac poem of consolation toAugustus' wifeLivia on the death of her sonNero Claudius Drusus. The poem opens by advising Livia not to try to hide her sad emotions and contrasts Drusus' military virtue with his death. Drusus' funeral and the tributes of the imperial family are described as are his final moments and Livia's lament over the body, which is compared to birds. The laments of the city of Rome as it greets his funeral procession and the gods are mentioned, and Mars from his temple dissuades the Tiber river from quenching the pyre out of grief.[62]
Grief is expressed for his lost military honors, his wife, and his mother. The poet asks Livia to look for consolation inTiberius. The poem ends with an address by Drusus to Livia assuring him of his fate in Elysium. Although this poem was connected to theElegiae in Maecenatem, it is now thought that they are unconnected. The date of the piece is unknown, but a date in the reign of Tiberius has been suggested because of that emperor's prominence in the poem.[62]
TheHalieutica is a fragmentary didactic poem in 134 poorly preserved hexameter lines and is considered spurious. The poem begins by describing how every animal possesses the ability to protect itself and how fish usears to help themselves. The ability of dogs and land creatures to protect themselves is described. The poem goes on to list the best places for fishing, and which types of fish to catch. AlthoughPliny the Elder mentions aHalieutica by Ovid, which was composed at Tomis near the end of Ovid's life, modern scholars believe Pliny was mistaken in his attribution and that the poem is not genuine.[63]
This short poem in 91 elegiac couplets is related toAesop's fable of "The Walnut Tree" that was the subject of human ingratitude. In a monologue asking boys not pelt it with stones to get its fruit, the tree contrasts the formerly fruitfulgolden age with the present barren time, in which its fruit is violently ripped off and its branches broken. In the course of this, the tree compares itself to several mythological characters, praises the peace that the emperor provides and prays to be destroyed rather than suffer. The poem is considered spurious because it incorporates allusions to Ovid's works in an uncharacteristic way, although the piece is thought to be contemporary with Ovid.[64]
This poem, traditionally placed atAmores 3.5, is considered spurious. The poet describes a dream to an interpreter, saying that he sees while escaping from the heat of noon a white heifer near a bull; when the heifer is pecked by a crow, it leaves the bull for a meadow with other bulls. The interpreter interprets the dream as a love allegory; the bull represents the poet, the heifer a girl, and the crow an old woman. The old woman spurs the girl to leave her lover and find someone else. The poem is known to have circulated independently and its lack of engagement with Tibullan or Propertian elegy argue in favor of its spuriousness; however, the poem does seem to be datable to the early empire.[65][66]
Ovid is traditionally considered the final significant love elegist in the evolution of the genre and one of the most versatile in his handling of the genre's conventions. Like the other canonical elegiac poets Ovid takes on apersona in his works that emphasizes subjectivity and personal emotion over traditional militaristic and public goals, a convention that some scholars link to the relative stability provided by the Augustan settlement.[67][68] However, althoughCatullus,Tibullus andPropertius may have been inspired in part by personal experience, the validity of "biographical" readings of these poets' works is a serious point of scholarly contention.[69]
Ovid has been seen as taking on a persona in his poetry that is far more emotionally detached from his mistress and less involved in crafting a unique emotional realism within the text than the other elegists.[70] This attitude, coupled with the lack of testimony that identifies Ovid's Corinna with a real person[71] has led scholars to conclude that Corinna was never a real person, and that Ovid's relationship with her is an invention for his elegiac project.[72] Some scholars have even interpreted Corinna as ametapoetic symbol for the elegiac genre itself.[73]
Ovid has been considered a highly inventive love elegist who plays with traditional elegiac conventions and elaborates the themes of the genre;[74] Quintilian even calls him a "sportive" elegist.[4] In some poems, he uses traditional conventions in new ways, such as theparaklausithyron ofAm. 1.6, while other poems seem to have no elegiac precedents and appear to be Ovid's own generic innovations, such as the poem on Corinna's ruined hair (Am. 1.14). Ovid has been traditionally seen as far more sexually explicit in his poetry than the other elegists.[75]
His erotic elegy covers a wide spectrum of themes and viewpoints; theAmores focus on Ovid's relationship with Corinna, the love ofmythical characters is the subject of theHeroides, and theArs Amatoria and the other didactic love poems provide a handbook for relationships and seduction from a (mock-)"scientific" viewpoint. In his treatment of elegy, scholars have traced the influence of rhetorical education in hisenumeration, in his effects of surprise, and in his transitional devices.[76]
Some commentators have also noted the influence of Ovid's interest in love elegy in his other works, such as theFasti, and have distinguished his "elegiac" style from his "epic" style.Richard Heinze, in his famousOvids elegische Erzählung (1919), delineated the distinction between Ovid's styles by comparing theFasti andMetamorphoses versions of the same legends, such as the treatment of theCeres–Proserpina story in both poems. Heinze demonstrated that, "whereas in the elegiac poems a sentimental and tender tone prevails, the hexameter narrative is characterized by an emphasis on solemnity and awe..."[77] His general line of argument has been accepted byBrooks Otis, who wrote:
Thegods are "serious" in epic as they are not in elegy; the speeches in epic are long and infrequent compared to the short, truncated and frequent speeches of elegy; the epic writer conceals himself while the elegiac fills his narrative with familiar remarks to the reader or his characters; above all perhaps, epic narrative is continuous and symmetrical... whereas elegiac narrative displays a marked asymmetry ...[78]
Otis wrote that in the Ovidian poems of love, he "wasburlesquing an old theme rather than inventing a new one".[79] Otis states that theHeroides are more serious and, though some of them are "quite different from anything Ovid had done before [...] he is here also treading a very well-worn path" to relate that the motif of females abandoned by or separated from their men was a "stock motif ofHellenistic andneoteric poetry (the classic example for us is, of course,Catullus 66)".[79]
Otis also states thatPhaedra andMedea,Dido andHermione (also present in the poem) "are clever re-touchings ofEuripides andVergil".[79] Some scholars, such as Kenney and Clausen, have compared Ovid with Virgil. According to them, Virgil was ambiguous and ambivalent while Ovid was defined and, while Ovid wrote only what he could express, Virgil wrote for the use oflanguage.[80]
A 1484 figure fromOvide Moralisé, edition by Colard Mansion
Ovid's works have been interpreted in various ways over the centuries with attitudes that depended on the social, religious and literary contexts of different times. It is known that since his own lifetime, he was already famous and criticized. In theRemedia Amoris, Ovid reports criticism from people who considered his books insolent.[81] Ovid responded to this criticism with the following:
Gluttonous Envy, burst: my name's well known already it will be more so, if only my feet travel the road they've started. But you're in too much of a hurry: if I live you'll be more than sorry: many poems, in fact, are forming in my mind.[82]
After such criticism subsided, Ovid became one of the best known and most loved Roman poets during theMiddle Ages and theRenaissance.[83]
Writers in the Middle Ages used his work as a way to read and write about sex and violence without orthodox "scrutiny routinely given to commentaries on the Bible".[84] In the Middle Ages the voluminousOvide moralisé [fr;nl], a French work that moralizes 15 books of theMetamorphoses, was composed. This work then influencedChaucer. Ovid's poetry provided inspiration for the Renaissance idea ofhumanism, and more specifically, for many Renaissance painters and writers.
Likewise,Arthur Golding moralized his own translation of the full 15 books, and published it in 1567. This version was the same version used as a supplement to the original Latin in the Tudor-era grammar schools that influenced such major Renaissance authors asChristopher Marlowe andWilliam Shakespeare. Many non-English authors were heavily influenced by Ovid's works as well.Montaigne, for example, alluded to Ovid several times in hisEssais, specifically in his comments onEducation of Children when he says:
The first taste I had for books came to me from my pleasure in the fables of theMetamorphoses of Ovid. For at about seven or eight years of age I would steal away from any other pleasure to read them, inasmuch as this language was my mother tongue, and it was the easiest book I knew and the best suited by its content to my tender age.[85]
Miguel de Cervantes also used theMetamorphoses as a platform of inspiration for his prodigious novelDon Quixote. Ovid is both praised and criticized by Cervantes in hisDon Quixote, where he warns against satires that can exile poets, as happened to Ovid.[86]
In the 16th century, someJesuit schools ofPortugal cut several passages from Ovid'sMetamorphoses. While the Jesuits saw his poems as elegant compositions worthy of being presented to students for educational purposes, they also felt his works as a whole might corrupt students.[87] The Jesuits took much of their knowledge of Ovid to the Portuguese colonies. According toSerafim Leite [pt] (1949), theratio studiorum was in effect inColonial Brazil during the early 17th century, and in this period Brazilian students read works like theEpistulae ex Ponto to learnLatingrammar.[88]
In the 16th century, Ovid's works were criticized in England. TheArchbishop of Canterbury and theBishop of London ordered that a contemporary translation of Ovid's love poems bepublicly burned in 1599. ThePuritans of the following century viewed Ovid as apagan, thus as animmoral influence.[89]John Dryden composed a famous translation of theMetamorphoses into stopped rhyming couplets during the 17th century, when Ovid was "refashioned [...] in its own image, one kind of Augustanism making over another".[83]
TheRomantic movement of the 19th century, in contrast, considered Ovid and his poems "stuffy, dull, over-formalized and lacking in genuine passion".[83] Romantics might have preferred his poetry of exile.[90] The pictureOvid among the Scythians, painted byDelacroix, portrays the last years of the poet in exile inScythia, and was seen byBaudelaire,Gautier andEdgar Degas.[91] Baudelaire took the opportunity to write a long essay about the life of an exiled poet like Ovid.[92] This shows that the exile of Ovid had some influence in 19th-century Romanticism since it makes connections with its key concepts such aswildness and themisunderstood genius.[93]
The exile poems were once viewed unfavorably in Ovid's oeuvre.[94] They have enjoyed a resurgence of scholarly interest in recent years, though critical opinion remains divided on several qualities of the poems, such as their intended audience and whether Ovid was sincere in the "recantation of all that he stood for before".[95]
In 1992, classical scholar Amy Richlin published an influential article critiquing the prevalence of rape within Ovid'sMetamorphoses,[96] and there has been renewed focus on sexual assault within Ovid's poetry since the#MeToo Movement in 2017.[97] In the 21st century, there have been several feminist reinterpretations of Ovid'sMetamorphoses which directly or indirectly criticize his treatment of women in his texts.Ali Smith's novelGirl Meets Boy (2007), published as part of theCanongate Myth Series, reimagines the lesbian relationship between Iphis and Ianthe in Book 9 of theMetamorphoses.[98]Madeleine Miller's novellaGalatea (2013) is a retelling of a passage from Book 10 of theMetamorphoses, in which sculptorPygmalion carves a statue (Galatea) and falls in love with her after she is brought to life by the gods.[99] InGalatea, Miller imagines Galatea grappling with her identity as a statue-turned-woman and gives her the space to exhibit her resilience and resistance to her husband's oppressive control. InFiona Benson's Forward Prize-winning poetry anthologyVertigo and Ghost (2019),[100] the poet experiments with different forms to represent Ovid's depictions of the female victims of Zeus' rape and sexual violence in theMetamorphoses, includingDanaë,Semele,Cyane andIo.[101]Nina MacLaughlin likewise focused on the theme of sexual assault in Ovid'sMetamorphoses for her collection of short stories,Wake Siren (2019).[102]
(1820s) During hisOdessa exile,Alexander Pushkin compared himself to Ovid; memorably versified in theepistleTo Ovid (1821). The exiled Ovid also features in his long poemGypsies, set inMoldavia (1824), and in Canto VIII ofEugene Onegin (1825–1832).
(1920s) The title of the second poetry collection byOsip Mandelstam,Tristia (Berlin, 1922), refers to Ovid's book. Mandelstam's collection is about his hungry, violent years immediately after theOctober Revolution.
(1960s–2010s)Bob Dylan has made repeated use of Ovid's wording, imagery, and themes.
(2006) His albumModern Times contains songs with borrowed lines from Ovid'sPoems of Exile, fromPeter Green's translation. The songs are "Workingman's Blues #2", "Ain't Talkin'", "The Levee's Gonna Break", and "Spirit on the Water". "Huck's Tune" also quotes from Green's translation.
(1988) The novelThe Last World byChristoph Ransmayr uses anachronisms to weave together parts of Ovid's biography and stories from theMetamorphoses in an uncertain time setting.
(2000)The Art of Love byRobin Brooks, a comedy emphasizing Ovid's role as lover. Broadcast 23 May on BBC Radio 4, withBill Nighy andAnne-Marie Duff (not to be confused with the 2004 radio play by the same title on Radio 3).
(2004)The Art of Love byAndrew Rissik, a drama, part of a trilogy, which speculates on the crime that sent Ovid into exile. Broadcast 11 April on BBC Radio 4, withStephen Dillane andJuliet Aubrey (not to be confused with the 2000 radio play by the same title on Radio 4).[105]
(2007) the playThe Land of Oblivion by Russian-American dramatist Mikhail Berman-Tsikinovsky was published in Russian by Vagrius Plus (Moscow). The play was based on author's new hypothesis unrevealing the mystery of Ovid's exile to Tomis by Augustus.
(2008) "The Love Song of Ovid", a two-hour radio documentary by Damiano Pietropaolo, recorded on location in Rome (the recently restored house ofAugustus on the Roman forum), Sulmona (Ovid's birthplace) and Constanta (modern day Tomis, in Romania). Broadcast on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBC Radio One, 18 and 19 December 2008.
(2012)The House Of Rumour, a novel by British authorJake Arnott, opens with a passage fromMetamorphoses 12.39–63, and the author muses on Ovid's prediction of the internet in that passage.
(2013) Mikhail Berman-Tsikinovsky's "To Ovid, 2000 years later, (A Road Tale)" describes the author's visits to the places of Ovid's birth and death.
(2015) InThe Walking Dead season 5, episode 5 ("Now"), Deanna begins making a long-term plan to make her besieged community sustainable and writes on her blueprint a Latin phrase attributed to Ovid: "Dolor hic tibi proderit olim".[106] The phrase is an excerpt from the longer phrase, "Perfer et obdura, dolor hic tibi proderit olim" (English translation: Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you").[107]
(2017) "...and while there he sighs" for 31-tone organ and mezzo-soprano by composerFabio Costa is based on the Syrinx and Pan scene from Metamorphoses, with performances in Amsterdam (2017, 2019).[108][109]
(2017) Canadian composerMarc Sabat and German poetUljana Wolf collaborated on a free homophonic translation of the first 88 lines of Ovid'sMetamorphoseon to create the cantataSeeds of skies, alibis premiered by the vocal ensemble Ekmeles in New York on 22 February 2018.[110]
(2024 - 2025) Hanseatic Thespian artists and writers Regina Anacker and Ludwig Jurich from Dortmund, FRG created the spectacle "Geschöpfe" and the stage reading "Echos" based on the poetic work Metamorphoses by Publius Ovidius Naso. Vocal ensemble "Sprechchor Dortmund" under the guidance of Regina Anacker implemented on stage this Ovidius legacy in Dortmund - Tremonia.
(2011) A stage adaptation ofMetamorphoses byPeter Bramley, entitledOvid's Metamorphoses was performed by Pants on Fire, presented by theCarol Tambor Theatrical Foundation at theFlea Theater in New York City and toured the United Kingdom
(2012) "The Song of Phaethon", apost-rock/musique concrète song written and performed by Ian Crause (former leader ofDisco Inferno) in Greek epic style, based on aMetamorphoses tale (as recounted in Hughes'Tales from Ovid) and drawing parallels between mythology and current affairs
^ThecognomenNaso means "the one with thenose" (i.e. "Bignose"). Ovid habitually refers to himself by his nickname in his poetry because the Latin nameOvidius does not fit intoelegiac metre.
^It was a pivotal year in thehistory of Rome. A year before Ovid's birth, the murder ofJulius Caesar took place, an event that precipitated the end of therepublican regime. After Caesar's death, a series of civil wars and alliances followed (SeeRoman civil wars), until the victory of Caesar's nephew, Octavius (later calledAugustus) overMark Antony (leading supporter of Caesar), from which arose a new political order.[7]
^Fasti is, in fact, unfinished.Metamorphoses was already completed in the year of exile, missing only the final revision.[21] In exile, Ovid said he never gave a final review on the poem.[22]
^Ovid citesScythia in I 64, II 224, V 649, VII 407, VIII 788, XV 285, 359, 460, and others.
^abOvid (1800). J. Juvencius & M.A. Amar (ed.).Metamorphoseon. Paris.[Preface] P. Ovidius Naso A.D. XII Kalend. April [21 March] Sulmone in Pelignis natus est, quo anno ... P. Hirtius et C. Pansa Coss. [43 BC]
^Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World s.v. Ovid
^The most recent chart that describes the dating of Ovid's works is in Knox. P. "A Poet's Life" inA Companion to Ovid ed. Peter Knox (Oxford, 2009) pp. xvii–xviii
^Norwood, Frances, "The Riddle of Ovid's Relegatio",Classical Philology (1963) p. 158
^José González Vázquez (trans.), Ov.Tristes e Pónticas (Editorial Gredos, Madrid, 1992), p. 10 and Rafael Herrera Montero (trans.), Ov.Tristes; Cartas del Ponto (Alianza Editorial, Madrid, 2002). The scholars also add that it was no more indecent than many publications byPropertius,Tibullus andHorace that circulated freely in that time.
^The first two lines of theTristia communicate his misery:Parve – nec invideo – sine me, liber, ibis in urbem; ei mihi, quod domino non licet ire tuo!: "Little book – for I don't begrudge it – go on to the city without me; Alas for me, because your master is not allowed to go with you!"
^J. C. Thibault,The Mystery of Ovid's Exile (Berkeley-L. A. 1964), pp. 20–32.
^About 33 mentions, according to Thibault (Mystery, pp. 27–31).
^A. W. J. Holleman, "Ovid's exile",Liverpool Classical Monthly 10.3 (1985), p. 48. H. Hofmann, "The unreality of Ovid's Tomitan exile once again",Liverpool Classical Monthly 12.2 (1987), p. 23.
^A. D. F. Brown, "The unreality of Ovid's Tomitan exile",Liverpool Classical Monthly 10.2 (1985), pp. 18–22.
^Cf. the summary provided by A. Alvar Ezquerra,Exilio y elegía latina entre la Antigüedad y el Renacimiento (Huelva, 1997), pp. 23–24
^Naturalis Historia, 32.152: "His adiciemus ab Ovidio posita animalia, quae apud neminem alium reperiuntur, sed fortassis in Ponto nascentia, ubi id volumen supremis suis temporibus inchoavit".
^Silvae, 1.2, 254–55: "nec tristis in ipsis Naso Tomis".
^Short references in Jerome (Chronicon, 2033, an. Tiberii 4, an. Dom. 17: "Ovidius poeta in exilio diem obiit et iuxta oppidum Tomos sepelitur") and inEpitome de Caesaribus (I, 24: "Nam [Augustus] poetam Ovidium, qui et Naso, pro eo, quod tres libellos amatoriae artis conscripsit, exilio damnavit").
^A. D. F. Brown, "The unreality of Ovid's Tomitan exile",Liverpool Classical Monthly 10.2 (1985), pp. 20–21.
^J. M. Claassen, "Error and the imperial household: an angry god and the exiled Ovid's fate",Acta classica: proceedings of the Classical Association of South Africa 30 (1987), pp. 31–47.
^Although some authors such as Martin (P. M. Martin, "À propos de l'exil d'Ovide... et de la succession d'Auguste",Latomus 45 (1986), pp. 609–11.) and Porte (D. Porte, "Un épisode satirique desFastes et l'exil d'Ovide",Latomus 43 (1984), pp. 284–306.) detected in a passage of theFasti (2.371–80) an Ovidian attitude contrary to the wishes ofAugustus to his succession, most researchers agree that this work is the clearest testimony of support of Augustan ideals by Ovid (E. Fantham,Ovid: Fasti. Book IV (Cambridge 1998), p. 42.)
^Lindheim, Sara H. (2003).Mail and Female: Epistolary Narrative and Desire in Ovid's Heroides. The University of Wisconsin Press.
^Athanassaki, Lucia (1992). "The Triumph of Love in Ovid's Amores 1, 2".Materiali e Discussioni per l'Analisi dei Testi Classici.28 (28):125–41.doi:10.2307/40236002.JSTOR40236002.
^Ettore Bignone,Historia de la literatura latina (Buenos Aires: Losada, 1952), p. 309.
^A. Guillemin, "L'élement humain dans l'élégie latine". In:Revue des études Latines (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1940), p. 288.
^In fact, it is generally accepted in most modern classical scholarship on elegy that the poems have little connection to autobiography or external reality. See Wycke, M. "Written Women:Propertius' Scripta Puella" inJRS 1987 and Davis, J.Fictus Adulter: Poet as Auctor in the Amores (Amsterdam, 1989) and Booth, J. "TheAmores: Ovid Making Love" inA Companion to Ovid (Oxford, 2009) pp. 70ff.
^Booth, J. pp. 66–68. She explains: "The text of the Amores hints at the narrator's lack of interest in depicting unique and personal emotion." p. 67
^ApuleiusApology 10 provides the real names for every elegist's mistress except Ovid's.
^Frederick A. De Armas,Ovid in the Age of Cervantes (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010), pp. 11–12.
^Agostinho de Jesus Domingues,Os Clássicos Latinos nas Antologias Escolares dos Jesuítas nos Primeiros Ciclos de Estudos Pré-Elementares No Século XVI em Portugal (Faculdade de Letras daUniversidade do Porto, 2002),Porto, pp. 16–17.
^Serafim da Silva Leite,História da Companhia de Jesus no Brasil.Rio de Janeiro, Instituto Nacional do Livro, 1949, pp. 151–52 – Tomo VII.
^Ovid'sMetamorphoses, Alan H. F. Griffin,Greece & Rome, Second Series, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Apr. 1977), pp. 57–70. Cambridge University Press.
^Peter Green (trad.),The poems of exile: Tristia and the Black Sea letters (University of California Press, 2005), p. xiv.ISBN0520242602,978-0520242609
^Timothy Bell Raser,The simplest of signs: Victor Hugo and the language of images in France, 1850–1950 (University of Delaware Press, 2004), p. 127.ISBN0874138671,978-0874138672
^Matt Cartmill,A View to a Death in the Morning: Hunting and Nature Through History, Harvard University Press, 1996, pp. 118–19.ISBN0674937368
^Roberts, Chloe Garcia."Wake, Siren".Harvard Review. Retrieved1 February 2025.
^Peron, Goulven. L'influence des Metamorphoses d'Ovide sur la visite de Perceval au chateau du Roi Pecheur, Journal of the International Arthurian Society, Vol. 4, Issue 1, 2016, pp. 113–34.
^Tavard, George H. Juana Ines de la Cruz and the Theology of Beauty: The First Mexican theology, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, IN, 1991, pp. 104–05
McKeown, J. (ed),Ovid: Amores. Text, Prolegomena and Commentary in four volumes, Vol. I–III (Liverpool, 1987–1998) (ARCA, 20, 22, 36).
Ryan, M. B.; Perkins, C. A. (ed.),Ovid's Amores, Book One: A Commentary (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2011) (Oklahoma Series in Classical Culture, 41).
Tarrant, R. J. (ed.),P. Ovidi Nasonis Metamorphoses (Oxford: OUP, 2004) (Oxford Classical Texts).
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Anderson, W. S.,Ovid's Metamorphoses, Books 6–10 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972).
Kenney, E. J. (ed.),P. Ovidi Nasonis Amores, Medicamina Faciei Femineae, Ars Amatoria, Remedia Amoris (Oxford: OUP, 19942) (Oxford Classical Texts).
Myers, K. SaraOvid Metamorphoses 14. Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics. (Cambridge University Press, 2009).
Ramírez de Verger, A. (ed.),Ovidius, Carmina Amatoria. Amores. Medicamina faciei femineae. Ars amatoria. Remedia amoris. (München & Leipzig: Saur, 20062) (Bibliotheca Teubneriana).
Dörrie, H. (ed.),Epistulae Heroidum / P. Ovidius Naso (Berlin & New York: de Gruyter, 1971) (Texte und Kommentare; Bd. 6).
Fornaro, P. (ed.),Publio Ovidio Nasone, Heroides (Alessandria: Edizioni del'Orso, 1999)
Alton, E.H.; Wormell, D.E.W.; Courtney, E. (eds.),P. Ovidi Nasonis Fastorum libri sex (Stuttgart & Leipzig: Teubner, 19974) (Bibliotheca Teubneriana).
Fantham, Elaine.Fasti. Book IV. Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics. (Cambridge University Press, 1998).
Wiseman, Anne and Peter WisemanOvid: Fasti. (Oxford University Press, 2013).
Goold, G.P.,et alii (eds.),Ovid, Heroides, Amores; Art of Love, Cosmetics, Remedies for Love, Ibis, Walnut-tree, Sea Fishing, Consolation; Metamorphoses; Fasti; Tristia, Ex Ponto, Vol. I-VI, (Cambridge, Massachusetts/London: HUP, 1977–1989, revised ed.) (Loeb Classical Library)
Federica Bessone. P. Ovidii Nasonis Heroidum Epistula XII: Medea Iasoni. Florence: Felice Le Monnier, 1997. pp. 324.
Theodor Heinze. P. Ovidius Naso. Der XII. Heroidenbrief: Medea an Jason. Mit einer Beilage: Die Fragmente der Tragödie Medea. Einleitung, Text & Kommentar. Mnemosyne Supplement 170 Leiden:Brill Publishers, 1997. pp. xi, 288.
R. A. Smith.Poetic Allusion and Poetic Embrace in Ovid and Virgil. Ann Arbor; TheUniversity of Michigan Press, 1997. pp. ix, 226.
Philip Hardie (ed.),The Cambridge Companion to Ovid. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 2002. pp. xvi, 408.
Ovid's Fasti: Historical Readings at its Bimillennium. Edited by Geraldine Herbert-Brown. Oxford, OUP, 2002, 327 pp.
Susanne Gippert, Joseph Addison'sOvid: An Adaptation of the Metamorphoses in the Augustan Age of English Literature. Die Antike und ihr Weiterleben, Band 5. Remscheid: Gardez! Verlag, 2003. pp. 304.
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Desmond, Marilynn,Ovid's Art and the Wife of Bath: The Ethics of Erotic Violence. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2006. pp. 232.
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Perseus Digital Library:P. Ovidius NasoAmores,Ars Amatoria,Heroides (on this site calledEpistulae),Metamorphoses,Remedia Amoris. Enhanced brower. Not downloadable.
Translations byA. S. KlineAmores,Ars Amatoria,Epistulae ex Ponto,Fasti,Heroides,Ibis,Medicamina Faciei Femineae,Metamorphoses,Remedia Amoris,Tristia with enhanced browsing facility, downloadable in HTML, PDF, or MS Word DOC formats. Site also includes wide selection of works by other authors.
University of Georgia Libraries - a searchableDjVu facsimile:The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidius Naso elucidated by an analysis and explanation of the fables, together with English notes, historical, mythological and critical, and illustrated by pictorial embellishments: with a dictionary, giving the meaning of all the words with critical exactness. ByNathan Covington Brooks. Publisher: New York,A. S. Barnes & co.; Cincinnati, H. W. Derby & co., 1857
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