Ovid
43BC - 17AD
Publius Ovidius Naso (born 20 March 43 BC, Sulmo, Roman Empire (now Sulmona, Italy)—died AD 17, Tomis, Moesia (now Constanța, Romania) was a Roman poet renowned for his Ars amatoria and Metamorphoses.
His verse wielded immense influence through its imaginative interpretations of Classical myth and as an exemplar of supreme technical accomplishment. Ovid is recognised as one of the world's greatest poets, an immortal whose works have inspired a vast array of Western culture, from Chaucer to Shakespeare.
Early Life and Education
Ovid came from a family was ancient and respectable, with sufficient means to ensure his and his elder brother's education in Rome. There, he undertook the study of rhetoric under the most esteemed teachers of the era. Despite being considered a promising orator and his father's admonitions, Ovid neglected these studies for verse writing, which came to him naturally.
As a member of the Roman knightly class, whose rank positioned him between the commons and the Senate, Ovid was destined by his father for an official career. Before embarking on this, he spent time in Athens, a favoured finishing school for upper-class young men, and travelled in Asia Minor and Sicily.
Upon his return, he dutifully held minor judicial posts, initial steps on the official ladder, but soon found public life uncongenial. Subsequently, he abandoned his official career to pursue poetry and immerse himself in the society of poets.
Love Poetry and Public Scrutiny
Ovid's inaugural work, the Amores (The Loves), achieved immediate acclaim. This was swiftly followed by the Epistolae Heroidum, or Heroides (Epistles of the Heroines), the Medicamina faciei (Cosmetics, or The Art of Beauty), the Ars amatoria (The Art of Love), and the Remedia amoris (Remedies for Love).
These works mirrored the brilliant, sophisticated, and pleasure-seeking society in which he moved. The predominant theme across these early poems was love and amorous intrigue. Of his three marriages, the first two were brief; however, his third wife, whom he spoke of with respect and affection, remained loyal to him until his death.
In Rome, Ovid enjoyed the patronage of Marcus Valerius Messalla, a supporter of a literary circle that included the poet Albius Tibullus, whom Ovid knew briefly. Other notable friends included Horace, Sextus Propertius, and the grammarian Hyginus.
The Amores, published from approximately 20 BC, comprise a series of short poems detailing a love affair with a literary construct named Corinna, emphasising the witty and rhetorical aspects of erotic commonplace rather than genuine passion. In the Heroides, Ovid innovated a new literary genre through 15 letters purportedly from legendary women such as Penelope, Dido, and Ariadne to absent lovers.
These dramatic monologues skillfully applied rhetorical techniques of character drawing. Six later epistles, forming three pairs of correspondence between lovers, further showcased his ingenious adaptation of literary sources, with the exchange between Paris and Helen standing as a minor masterpiece of antiquity.
The Medicamina faciei, a witty exercise, is largely lost, with only 100 lines extant. This innocuous poem was succeeded in 1 BC by the infamous Ars amatoria, a manual of seduction and intrigue. Although Ovid disclaimed teaching adultery, its lessons could be applied to married women, representing a challenge to Augustus's moral reforms. The work included tactless and provocative references to imperial symbols. Initially two books for men, a third was added for women by popular demand. For many, Ars amatoria is Ovid's masterpiece, blending social satire, Roman life vignettes, and mythological digressions. The Remedia amoris, a burlesque mock recantation, followed, doing little to atone for its predecessor.
Epic Poetry and Imperial Disfavour
Having secured his position among contemporary poets, Ovid embarked on more ambitious endeavours: the Metamorphoses and the Fasti (Calendar).
The Metamorphoses was nearing completion, and the Fasti was half-finished, when his life was abruptly disrupted. In AD 8, Emperor Augustus banished him to Tomis (modern Constanța, Romania) on the Black Sea.
The precise reasons for Ovid's exile remain largely unknown. Ovid attributed it to his Ars amatoria and an unspecified indiscretion (error), not a crime (scelus), though he later stated his lips were sealed forever on the matter. The most probable explanation for the indiscretion is his involuntary involvement in the adultery of Augustus's granddaughter, the younger Julia, who was also exiled concurrently. This occurred a few years after Julia the Elder's banishment for immorality in 2 BC, a scandal still fresh in the public consciousness when Ars amatoria was published.
These coincidences, along with Ovid's cryptic references, suggest his actions were damaging to Augustus's moral reform agenda and the imperial family's honour. His punishment, a milder form of banishment known as relegation, did not involve confiscation of property or loss of citizenship, allowing his well-connected wife to remain in Rome to protect his interests and intercede on his behalf.
The Fasti is an account of the Roman year and its religious festivals, originally planned for 12 books, one for each month, of which the first six survive. It details festivals and their legendary origins, serving as a national poem aimed at aligning with the Augustan literary programme and potentially rehabilitating Ovid in imperial eyes. It features significant flattery of the imperial family and patriotism, though its narrative brilliance is undeniable.
The Metamorphoses, a long poem in 15 books of hexameter verse, totalling nearly 12,000 lines, must be understood within the context of Virgil's Aeneid. Ovid ingeniously crafted his own unique epic, a collection of mythological and legendary stories wherein metamorphosis plays a role. The narrative unfolds chronologically, from the creation of the universe (the transformation of chaos into order) to the deification of Julius Caesar (the culminating metamorphosis of civil war into Augustan peace). Many stories depict mythical characters illustrating obedience or disobedience to the gods, resulting in transformations into animal, vegetable, or astronomical forms. While metamorphosis is central, the poem's essential theme is pathos (passion), providing unity through an exploration of human emotions. Ovid's full powers—his wit, rhetorical brilliance, mythological learning, and fertile imagination—are unleashed in this work. His genius for narrative and vivid description rendered numerous Greek legends, some previously obscure, in their definitive forms for posterity, making it a pivotal work in transmitting Greek imagination. The Metamorphoses was complete, though not formally published, by AD 8.
Exile in Tomis
Ovid arrived in Tomis, a semi-Hellenised port on the fringes of the Roman Empire, in the spring of AD 9. This isolated location was subject to periodic barbarian attacks and lacked books, high society, and Latin speakers; the climate was also severe. For a man of Ovid's temperament, exile was a cruel punishment. In his solitude and depression, he turned to poetry, adopting a more personal and introspective style. The Tristia (Sorrows) and Epistulae ex Ponto (Letters from the Black Sea) were written and dispatched to Rome at a rate of approximately one book per year from AD 9 onwards. These collections consist of letters addressed to the emperor, his wife, and friends, detailing his miseries and appealing for clemency. Despite his depression and self-pity, Ovid consistently upheld his identity as a poet, notably in his ironical defence of the Ars amatoria in Tristia Book II.
His poetical prowess remained largely undiminished, evidenced by Ibis, a long and intricate curse poem directed at an anonymous enemy, composed shortly after his arrival in Tomis. This work is a tour de force of recondite mythological learning, created largely without the aid of books. However, without encouragement from home, Ovid lacked the heart to continue writing the celebratory poetry that had brought him fame, and his later Epistulae ex Ponto convey a sense of melancholy. During this period, he learned the local Greek creole, even composing an epic poem in it for the local populace. Life in Tomis was basic and harsh, especially in winter when the Danube and Black Sea froze over. Ovid was compelled to join the local militia due to constant raids by barbarian tribes. He depicted Tomis as the "last Outback" and the "shakiest Bastion of Law and Order," revising myths to reflect his own exiled state, such as that of Medea and the origin of Tomis's name.
His wife and friends continued to seek a reprieve, but neither Augustus nor his successor Tiberius relented. Hints in his later poems suggest a reluctant reconciliation with his fate before his death in AD 17. The loss of his tragedy Medea, written in Rome, is particularly regrettable, as it received praise from Quintilian and Tacitus and likely influenced Seneca's play on the same theme.
Literary Style
Ovid's extant poems, with the exception of the Metamorphoses, are all composed in elegiac couplets. His technical facility was unrivalled; he masterfully adapted the Latin language to dactylic Greek metres, perfecting both the elegiac couplet and the hexameter into versatile instruments of fluent communication.
His verse is notable for its smoothness, fluidity, and balance. The elegance of his poetry often disguises its extreme artificiality and subtle linguistic innovations, particularly in vocabulary. The hexameters of the Metamorphoses serve as a superb vehicle for rapid narrative and description.
Beyond technical skill, Ovid possessed an unparalleled power of invention, enabling him to thoroughly exploit ideas and situations through vivid and striking details. His rhetorical gifts led some to label him insincere or heartless, and he appeared to lack profound emotion or religious conviction.
However, his gift for fantasy solidifies his place as one of the great poets of all time. In the Metamorphoses, he crafted a caricature of the real world, a stage for a cosmic comedy of manners where the universe's ceaseless flux and reflux are mirrored in the often paradoxical and arbitrary destinies of human and divine characters. Pathos, humour, beauty, and cruelty converge in his unique vision. While not possessing the highest order of talent to penetrate superficial appearances for deeper realities, Ovid excelled in what he did.
Legacy and Influence
Ovid's immense popularity during his lifetime persisted after his death, largely unaffected by Augustus's banishment of his works from public libraries.
From approximately AD 1100, Ovid's fame, which had been somewhat overshadowed during late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, began to rival and occasionally surpass that of Virgil. The 12th and 13th centuries are aptly termed "the age of Ovid."
During this period, he was esteemed as both entertaining and instructive, with his works studied in schools. His poetry is replete with epigrammatic maxims and sententious pronouncements that, when extracted, lent respectability to the excerpts through which medieval readers often encountered classical texts.
Ovid's prominence further escalated during The Renaissance, especially among Humanists striving to revive ancient thought and feeling. Printed editions of his works appeared in an incessant stream from AD 1471 onwards. A familiarity with his verse became a hallmark of an educated man, and from the 15th to the 17th centuries, few notable poets or painters remained untouched by his influence.
The Metamorphoses, in particular, offered one of the most accessible and captivating routes to the riches of Greek mythology. However, Ovid's primary appeal lies in the humanity of his writing: its gaiety, sympathy, exuberance, and its pictorial and sensuous qualities.
Ovid's inventive genius led him to create new genres repeatedly, notably the poetry of exile, which resonates deeply with contemporary experiences of displacement, loss of history, identity, and self.
His themes of identity, the body, the dynamics between female and male elements, the transformation of nature, entropy, violence, and the caprices of the gods remain profoundly relevant in the modern era.
His works are considered living texts that continue to unfold their meaning in the present world, affirming the significance of the artist, the transcendent value of the written word, and the enduring power of love. His books endure as a monumental testament to his genius.