Publius Ovidius Naso

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Publius Ovidius Naso
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Publius Ovidius Naso

• Contents
• Life
• Work
• Exile
• Quotations

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Publius Ovidius Naso

• Life
• The Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso, shortened
  to Ovid, was born in Sulmo, near Rome on March
  20, 43 BC. He stemmed from rural Italian nobility
  and grew up in wealthy circumstances, being
  taught rhetoric by the most respected teachers.
  Following his father's wishes, Ovid initially
  entered a career in public service, which he
  interrupted to turn to poetry.At that time he
  was unable to earn a living from poetry and found
  a benefactor in his patron Messalla Corvinus. In
  poetry circles Ovid met Sextu Propertius, they
  became friends and he published his first poems.
  In the foreground of his work was the topic of
  love and he wrote numerous pieces including
  "Amores", "Ars amatoria" and "Remedia amoris'.

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Publius Ovidius Naso

• Ovid furthermore became famous for his stories
  of metamorphoses in the mythological world
  ("Metamorphoses") and fictitious letters of
  mythological heroines ("Heroides").
• In 8 AD Ovid was banned to Tomis, today's
  Constanta on the Black Sea by an imperial edict
  without any court process. There are still only
  speculations regarding the reasons behind the
  ban.In his seclusion he produced dirges, poetry
  of yearning for Rome. Ovid sang about the
  northern winter and the charm of the Barbarians.
  His song of praise about Augustus and Tiberius
  was not rewarded with the desired pardon. Ovid
  is thought to have died in or after 17 AD in
  exile in Tomis.

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• Work
• The poems of Ovid fall into three groupserotic
  poems, mythological poems, and poems of exile.
• His verse, with the exception of the
  Metamorphoses and a fragment (Halieutica), is in
  elegiacs, which are of unmatched perfection. The
  love poems include Amores loves, 49 short
  poems, many of which extol the charms of the
  poet's mistress Corinna, probably a synthesis of
  several women Epistulae heroidum letters from
  heroines, an imaginary series written by ancient
  heroines to their absent lovers Ars amatoria
  art of love, didactic, in three books, with
  complete instructions on how to acquire and keep
  a lover.

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• In the mythological category is the
  Metamorphoses, a masterpiece and perhaps Ovid's
  greatest work.
• Written in hexameters, it is a collection of
  myths concerned with miraculous transformations
  linked together with such consummate skill that
  the whole is artistically harmonious.
• The Fasti, also a mythological poem, contains
  six books on the days of the year from January to
  June, giving the myths, legends, and notable
  events called to mind on each day. As a source
  for religious antiquities, it is especially
  valuable.

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• The poems of exile include Tristia sorrows,
  five books of short poems, conveying the poet's
  despair in his first five years of exile and his
  supplications for mercy, and the Epistulae ex
  Ponto letters from the Black Sea, in four
  books, addressed to friends in Rome, showing
  somewhat abated poetic power.
• Ovid wrote poetry to give pleasure no other
  Latin poet wrote so naturally in verse or with
  such sustained wit.
• Unsurpassed as a storyteller, he also related
  the complexities of romantic involvements with
  verve and deft characterization. A major
  influence in European literature, Ovid was also a
  primary source of inspiration for the artists of
  the Renaissance and the baroque. The
  Metamorphoses was translated during this period
  by A. Golding (1567), George Sandys (1632), and
  John Dryden.

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• Exile
•  Tomis is known as the exile place of the Latin
  poet Publius Ovidius Naso, exiled from the Roman
  court by Octavian Augustus emperor. (between 9 -
  17 AC) The city has kept a nice memory of this
  poet, highly adulated in Rome some time ago.
• The reasons behind Ovid's exile have been the
  subject of much speculation. He himself tells us
  that the reason was "a poem and a mistake." The
  poem was clearly his Art of Love. With this work,
  its companion piece, The Remedies for Love, on
  how to get over an unsuccessful love affair, and
  its predecessor, On Cosmetics, Ovid had invented
  a new kind of poetry, didactic and amatory. The
  Art of Love consists of three books which parody
  conventional love poetry and didactic verse while
  offering vivid portrayals of contemporary Roman
  society.

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• The witty sophistication of this work made it an
  immediate and overwhelming success in fashionable
  society and infuriated the emperor Augustus, who
  was attempting to force a moral reformation on
  this same society. To the Emperor, this work must
  have seemed, in the strictest sense, subversive,
  and he excluded it, along with Ovid's other
  works, from the public libraries of Rome.
• What the "mistake" may have been, we do not
  know. It was, Ovid says, the result of his having
  eyes, and the most widely accepted suggestion is
  that he had somehow become aware of the
  licentious behavior of the Emperor's daughter
  Julia (who was banished in the same year as he)
  without his informing Augustus about her.

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• Ovid's exile was not so unbearable as his
  letters indicate. He learned the native
  languages, and his unconquerable geniality and
  amiability made him a beloved and revered figure
  to the local citizens, who exempted him from
  taxes and treated him as well, he said, as he
  could have expected even in his native Sulmo. He
  wrote a panegyric to Augustus in the Getic
  language, the loss of which is a source of regret
  for philologists a bitter attack on an unnamed
  and perhaps imaginary enemy, the Ibis and a work
  on the fish of the Black Sea, the Halieutica he
  resumed work on the Fasti before his death, which
  is given by St. Jerome as occurring in A.D. 17,
  but probably occurred early in the next year.

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• Quotations
• Three times the Danubes frozen with the cold,
  three times the Black Seas waves have hardened,
  since Ive been in Pontus. Yet I seem to have
  been absent from my country already for as long
  as the ten years Troy knew the Greek host. Youd
  think time stood still, it moves so slowly,
• and with lagging steps the year completes its
  course. For me the summer solstice hardly lessens
  the nights, and winter cant make the days any
  shorter.
• Tristia Book TV.X1-53 Harsh Exile In Tomis

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• I, who, though admittedly deserving of a heavier
  punishment, can scarcely experience a heavier
  one. I live among enemies, surrounded with
  dangers, as if peace was taken from me with my
  native land they double the chance of death from
  a cruel wound, by smearing every arrow-head with
  vipers gall.
• Ex Ponto, Book EI.II1-52 To Paullus Fabius
  Maximus His Life In Exile

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• As the island of Delos was dear to Latona,
  offering her the only place of safety in her
  wanderings, so Tomis is dear to me, and remains
  true and hospitable to one whos exiled from his
  native land. If only the gods had made it so it
  might know hope of sweet peace, and was further
  from the frozen pole.
• Ex Ponto, Book EIV.XIV1-62 To Tuticanus Being
  Nice To Tomis

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• Now the decline of life is on me, whitening my
  hair,
• now the wrinkles of age are furrowing my face
• Now strength and vigour ebb in my weakened body,
  the games of youth that pleased, no longer
  delight.
• If you suddenly saw me, you wouldnt know me,
  such is the ruin thats been made of my life. I
  admit the years have done it, but theres another
  cause, my anguish of spirit and my continual
  suffering.
• Ex Ponto, Book EI.IV1-58 To His Wife Time
  Passing

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•  Like fragile ice anger passes away in time.
•  Bear patiently with a rival.
•  Nothing is swifter than our years.
•  This also -- that I live, I consider a gift of
  God.

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•  The time will come when it will disgust you to
  look in the mirror.
•  Luck affects everything. Let your hook always
  be cast in the stream where you least expect it
  there will be a fish.
•  What is without periods of rest will not
  endure.
•  I attempt an arduous task but there is no
  worth in that which is not a difficult
  achievement.

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• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovid
• http//www.worldofquotes.com/author/Ovid28Publiu
  sOvidiusNaso29/1/index.html
• http//www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Ovi
  dTristiaBkOne.htm
• http//www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/Ovi
  dExPontoBkOne.htm

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