Ovid: his Life and Work by Prof. R. Gentilcore

Statue of Ovid by Ettore Ferrari, 1887 in Constanta, (ancient Tomis) Romania

The Life of Publius Ovidius Naso Much of our information about Ovid’s life comes from Tristia 4.10 A poem he wrote after he had been exiled and his poems banned from public libraries Born in Sulmo (modern Sulmona) about 90 miles east and north of Rome in 43 B.C. Year after Julius Caesar’s assassination, year before Cicero’s execution Period of civil war in Italy, ended with Octavian’s victory at Actium in 31 B.C.

Bust of Cicero

Octavian and Agrippa after Actium

Life of Ovid cont’d Born into a wealthy family of equestrian rank Sons expected to follow a political career Ovid and his elder brother (one year older) educated first in Sulmo and then in Rome Schooling at that time emphasized study of rhetoric and public speaking, important for law and politics Ovid’s father had reservations about Ovid’s early interest in poetry “Often my father said, why try a useless task? Even Homer himself had no money to leave?” Tristia 4.10. 21-22.

Life of Ovid cont’d Brothers ran for office but older brother died when he was 20 Ovid gave up political career He began to read his poetry in public perhaps at 17 or 18 (26 or 25 B.C.)

Ovid and his Contemporaries Lucretius and Catullus had died around 55 B.C. Vergil (70-19 B.C.) had written the Eclogues and the Georgics and was working on the Aeneid Horace (65-8 B.C.) had published his Satires and Epodes and was at work on Odes Propertius (55 B.C. - A.D. 2?) and Tibullus (55? B.C. - 19B.C.) were writing love elegies

Augustus and Maecenas Augustus (Octavian) promoted the arts in an attempt to restore Rome after the devestation of the civil wars Maecenas was patron of Vergil and Horace Messalla was another important patron who supported poets financially

Ovid’s Amores

Ovid’s works: Amores First published work was the Amores (Loves) Short poems written in the first person in elegiac couplets Became his favorite meter which he used in all his poems except the Metamorphoses (which he wrote in dactylic hexameter as befits an epic) Meter was used for light subjects Written in the tradition of the love elegy, as written by Cornelius Gallus, Tibullus and Propertius Poet-lover cannot follow proper Roman career or write proper Roman poetry Ovid’s poems devoted to subject of poetry and love, but plays with readers, introduces comedy and satire into elegiac

Dido by Sacchi Andrea 1599-1661

The Heroides Collection of 15 verse epistles addressed by women to the men they love Almost all are characters from myth Each expresses feelings of a woman at a moment of crisis Ex. Penelope to Ulysses after waiting 20 years for his return, from Medea to Jason after he deserted her, Dido to Aeneas etc. Ovid not working in an established tradition He created a whole collection of elegiac letters on a single theme of a woman who had lost her man Wrote dramatic monologues to create characters and reveal their psychologies Lets the unheard voices of female victims of war, betrayal etc. speak, thereby re-interpreting myth

Title page of Ars amatoria, Frankfurt 1644

Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love) An unprecedented didactic poem on art of seduction Poem is in 3 books, finished in A.D. 2 Poet-lover teaches a course in love based on his own experiences and technical knowledge His “scholarly treatise” follows in the footsteps of Vergil’s Georgics and Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura Poem seems to have been planned in 2 books addressed to men 3 subjects 1. Best pick-up places in Rome 2. Hunting techniques 3. Art of keeping the girl once caught

Ars Amatoria cont’d Later Ovid decided to write a third book instructing women in the arts of love Most of it has to do with appearance and behavior Ovid sustains one narrative voice over entire poem In the Ars Ovid parodies love elegy and didactic poetry Also makes fun of political and moral climate of Augustan Rome and provides social commentary Ovid followed this with Remedia - a sort of advice column in which the professor advises lovers how to escape their predicaments

The Metamorphoses Illustrated These images are engravings by Johannes Baur from the 1703 edition of Ovid's Metamorphosis and are accompanied by the text translated into English verse by John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison, William Congreve and others from 1713.

Bernini (1622-1625) Apollo and Daphne

The Metamorphoses (Transformations) Ovid now turned to epic and wrote his great mythological poem, the Metamorphoses until 8 A.D. when he was banished Poem was published without final revisions but the 15 books are complete An answer to Vergil and to many earlier poets in diverse genres (from Homer to Callimachus) “an epic on an majestic scale that refuses to take epic seriously” (Sara Mack) 250 stories from Greek and Roman mythology within a vaguely chronological framework Many stories from myth that we are familiar with are from this poem

Peter Brueghel, "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" (1558).

Echo and Narcissus by Waterhouse, 1913

Titian (1490-1576) Venus and Adonis

Pygmalion and Galatea by Jean-Leon Gerome (1824-1904).

Gustave Moreau. (1826-1898). Orpheus. 1865

Metamorphoses: Style and Substance Ovid was a master storyteller, always varying his narrative and his subject Some myths told in a few lines, other several hundred with elaborate detail, psychological realism Others dealt with obscurely and allusively Some are comedies, others tragedies, many told by other narrators within the myth, stories within stories

Ovid’s Exile In A.D. 8 when copies of Metamorphoses circulating among his friends Ovid was banished from Rome by Augustus and his books removed from public libraries Place of exile was Tomis, on site of modern Constanza in Romania It was a barren, uncivilized place inhabited by a Thracian tribe In spite of many petitions from the poet and his many friends in Rome, Augustus never relented, nor did Tiberius who succeeded Aug. in A.D. 14 Ovid died in exile in late A.D. 17 or early 18 Why was Ovid exiled? Carmen et error?

Ovid’s works from exile Wrote 2 collections of poetry from exile; the Tristia (8 to about 12 A.D. and the Epistulae ex Ponto (12 or 13 to 16 A.D.) They consist of short poems in elegiac couplets like his first poems and also use a frist person narrator Language and themes of erotic elegies recast for themes of exile Many are poetic epistles written in despair Revives elegy’s ancient Greek association with death and lamentation

Ovid’s Fame “Here I am, bereft of country, home and you, everything gone that could be taken from me. My art is still my companion and my joy - over that Caesar could not get jurisdiction.” Tristia 3.7.45-8 Selections from his work even performed on stage during his lifetime Graffiti scrawled on walls in Pompeii quoting (or misquoting) his verses attest to the fact that people knew his work by heart in 1st century A.D. In addition to literature, Ovid’s work has inspired painters, sculptors and musicians over the centuries