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Publius Ovidius Naso, (March 20, 43 BCE – 17 CE) Roman poet known
to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on
topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations.
Ovid wrote in elegiac couplets, with the exception of his great
Metamorphoses, which he wrote in dactylic hexameter in
imitation of Vergil's Aeneid and
Homer's epics. Ovid does not offer an epic narrative like his predecessors but promises a
chronological account of the cosmos from creation to his own day, incorporating many myths and legends from the Greek and Roman
traditions.
Augustus banished Ovid in 8 CE to
Tomis on the Black Sea for reasons that
remain mysterious (Ovid himself wrote that it was because of an 'error' and a 'carmen' – a mistake and a poem). He may have
had an affair with a female relative of Augustus, and the 'carmen' mentioned by Ovid may be his supposedly immoral Ars
Amatoria, which had been available for some time.
- Amores ('The Loves'), 5 books, written after 20 BCE (revised into 3 books c.
1 CE)
- Heroides ('The Heroines') or Epistulae Heroidum ('Letters of Heroines'), 21 letters of which the first
group (letters 1–15) were written around 15 BCE, letters 16–21 around
4–8 CE.
- Ars Amatoria ('The Art of Love'), 3 books, the first two written about 1 BCE to
1 CE and the third somewhat later.
- Remedium Amoris ('The Cure for Love'), 1 book
- Medicamina Faciei Femineae ('Women's Facial Cosmetics'), 100 lines surviving.
- Medea, a lost tragedy about Medea.
- Metamorphoses ('Transformations'), 15 books
- Fasti ('Festivals'), 6 books surviving which cover the first 6 months of the year and provide unique information on
the Roman calendar.
- Tristia ('Sorrows'), 1 book, after 8 CE
- Epistulae ex Ponto ('Letters from the Black Sea'), 4 books, after 8 CE
- Ibis, a single poem, after 8 CE
- Haleutica ('On Fishing'), which has probably not survived (see below).
- a poem in Getic, the language of Dacia
where Ovid was exiled, not extant (and probably fictional).
Poems sometimes attributed to Ovid but generally considered spurious:
- Nux ('The Walnut Tree')
- Consolatio ad Liviam ('Consolation to Livia')
- Haleutica ('On Fishing'), a poem that some have identifed with the otherwise lost poem of the same name written by
Ovid.
See Metamorphoses for external links specific to that work.
See Latin literature
External links
- Latin and English translation
- Original Latin only
- Latin
Library: Ovid Amores, Ars
Amatoria, Epistulae ex Ponto, Fasti, Heroides, Ibis, Metamorphoses, Remedia
Amoris, Tristia.
- Gutenberg Project:
Fasti With introduction and extensive notes in
English by Thomas Keightley. Plain text version.
- English translation only
- New translations by A. S. Kline
Amores, 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.
- Commentary
- Perseus/Tufts: Commentary on
the Heroides of Ovid
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