Ovid

I

Introduction

Ovid (43 bc-c. ad 17), Roman poet, whose narrative gifts, ingenuity, cleverness, and gaiety have ensured his popularity with generations of readers from his own day to modern times.

II

Life

He was born Publius Ovidius Naso into an equestrian family in Sulmo (now Sulmona), near Rome. Educated for the bar, he became highly proficient in the art of rhetoric, but his genius was essentially poetical, and he devoted most of his time and energy to writing verse. After inheriting his father's property, Ovid went to Athens to complete his education. He later travelled in Asia and Sicily with his friend the poet Aemilus Macer. By the age of 30, Ovid had been married three times and divorced twice. He probably also had a number of mistresses. The details of his affairs are recounted in the Amores, a series of poems telling of the stages of an affair with a woman named Corinna (probably a synthesis of various people rather than one woman). His private life was that of a care-free, well-to-do, and somewhat licentious man of letters. At Rome, where he resided until his 50th year, he was assiduously courted by the distinguished and fashionable society of the city, including Emperor Augustus. In ad 8, however, Ovid was banished to Tomis (now Constanţa, Romania). According to Ovid, one reason for his banishment was the publication of Ars amatoria, a poem on the art of making love which would have flown in the face of Augustus's attempted moral reforms. Since the poem had been in circulation for almost ten years it is probable that this was merely a pretext. A second reason, never disclosed by Ovid, may have been his knowledge of a scandal involving the emperor's daughter Julia. Ovid did not lose his citizenship and never gave up hope of repatriation, as revealed in the many poems written to his friends during his exile at Tomis, but his entreaties and those of his friends were futile. He died at Tomis, an honoured citizen of the town.

III

Early Works

The poetry of Ovid can be divided into the works of his youth, of his middle age, and of his years in exile at Tomis. In the first period, Ovid continued the elegiac tradition of the poets Sextus Propertius and Albius Tibullus, both of whom he knew and admired. The Amores are erotic poems centred on a love affair with a woman called Corinna, which display little real feeling and are characterized by a deliberate artificiality and wit. Other works are didactic poems. Among them are Medicamina faciei, Femineae, a fragment on cosmetics; and a mock recantation of the Ars amatoria, the Remedia amoris. Medea, a tragedy highly praised by ancient critics, has been lost but for a few lines. Ovid's interest in mythology is reflected in his Heroides, or Epistulae Heroidum, 21 fictional love letters, mostly from mythological heroines to their lovers.

IV

Middle Period Works

In his middle period Ovid wrote the Metamorphoses, a long poem in 15 books which is a collection of mythological stories and legends about metamorphosis or transformation. The poem begins with the very first metamorphosis, the creation of the universe, and ends with the death and deification of Julius Caesar. Many of the stories show the relationship between mortals and the Gods, the consequences of obedience or disobedience as people are either punished or rewarded by a final transformation. It is in this work that the themes of Ovid's early poetry, love and eroticism, are deepened into an exploration of a variety of human emotions and that Ovid's skill for narration and vivid description is brought most to the fore. The work has become famous as a handbook of Greek mythology. The other work of the middle period is the Fasti, a poetic calendar describing the various Roman festivals and the legends connected with each. Of the projected 12 books, 1 for each month of the year, only the first 6 are extant.