1. Publius Ovidius Naso

2. Early Life Born on March 20, 43 BCE in Sulmo (modern day Sulmona)
Equestrian family
Educated in rhetoric in Rome with his brother
Father wanted him to be a lawyer
Ovid actually wrote about himself! Tristitia 4.10
Also, Seneca and Quintilian

3. Early Life His brother died at 20 years old
Ovid left law and began to travel and write poetry
First recitation c. 25 BCE, 18 years old
Had seen Vergil recite
Well-acquainted with Horace
Close friends with Propertius and Tibullus
Vergil was 27 years older than him

4. Personal Life Married 3 times before he was 30
Divorced the first, the second one died
One daughter, eventually grandchildren

5. Poetry
Successful poetic career writing elegiac poetry with erotic themes
Exiled to Tomis in 8 CE by Augustus
For “carmen et error”
Carmen is probably the Ars Amatoria

6. Poetry Amores 3 books of love poetry in elegiac couplets
Written to a lover, Corinna
Modeled after the poetry of Catullus (Lesbia), Propertius (Cynthia), and Tibullus (Delia)
Heroides
21 poems in elegiac couplets
Letters from mythological figures to their lovers
Penelope, Dido, Medea, also Paris and Helen
Admired for psychological insight
Corinna was probably not a real person, just Ovid putting on a character

7. Poetry Ars Amatoria Remedia Amoris 3 book didactic elegiac poem
Teaches the art of seduction and love
First two books to men, third book to women
Remedia Amoris
Elegiac poem proposing a cure to love
Addressed to men

8. Poetry Metamorphoses Fasti Ovid’s most ambitious and famous work
15 books written in dactylic hexameter
About transformations in mythology
Close to 250 myths
Fasti
Elegiacs about the holidays and festivals in the different months of the year
Only six books survive
Started before exile, finished during

9. Poetry Ibis Tristia Epistulae ex Ponto 644 elegiac lines
Uses mythological stories to curse an enemy harming him in exile
Tristia
Five books of elegiac couplets
About the sadness of life in exile
Epistulae ex Ponto
Four books of poems addressed to friends
Trying to get recalled from exile
Written in exile

10. Metamophoses Beautiful, visual descriptions
Insight into human psychology
Clever links between stories
Imbedded narratives
Fun sound play

11. Legacy Metamorphoses is one of the most popular Latin works
Influenced such people as:
Geoffrey Chaucer
Mozart
William Shakespeare
Bob Dylan
Since the Middle Ages