Who is Ovid?

14^th July 2009, Tuesday

Due to curiosity, I did some research on the internet during the holidays to find out the background of Ovid.

Ovid’s actual name was Publius Ovidius Naso. He was a Roman poet and was born into an equestrian family in Sulmo (now Sulmona), near Rome in 2oth March 43 B.C. and died on 17 A.D. He was Educated for the bar and became highly proficient in the art of rhetoric. However, he was skillful in the area of 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. 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.

Some of the famous writers were influenced by Ovid: Dante Alighieri, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Milton and William Shakespeare.

(Text adapted from Encyclopedia article)

A picture of Ovid.

Ovid’s extant authentic works

• Amores ("The Loves"), five books, published in 16 BC, and revised to three books ca. AD 1.
• Heroides ("The Heroines"), also known as Epistulae Heroidum ("Letters of Heroines"), 21 letters. Letters 1–5 published 5 BC; letters 16–21 were composed ca. AD 4–8.
• Medicamina Faciei Femineae ("Women's Facial Cosmetics"), The Art of Beauty, 100 lines survive; 5 BC.
• Ars Amatoria ("The Art of Love"), three books; first two books published 1 BC, the third book was published later.
• Remedia Amoris ("The Cure for Love"), 1 book, published AD 1.
• Fasti ("The Festivals"), 6 books extant, about the first semester of the year, about the Roman calendar. Finished by AD 8, possibly published posthumously.
• Metamorphoses, ("Transformations"), 15 books published ca. AD 8.
• Ibis a poem written ca. AD 9.
• Tristia ("Sorrows"), five books published AD 10.
• Epistulae ex Ponto ("Letters from the Black Sea"), four books published AD 10.