Ovid (43 BC – AD 17)(Ancient Literature)

 Ovid

(43 BC – AD 17)

 He wrote witty and sophisticated love poems.

 His full name was Publius Ovidius Naso known as Ovid in English speaking world.

 He was a Roman Poet who lived during the reign of Augustus.

 He was a contemporary of Virgil and Horace.

 He is best known for Metamorphoses (AD 8), a 15 book continuous Mythological narrative written in the meter of Epic and for collections of love poetry in Elegiac Couplets, especially the Amores (Love Affairs)and Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love).

 The Metamorphoses remains one of the most important sources of classical mythology.

 He was the first major Roman poet to begin his career during the reign of Augustus.

 The Fasti (Books of Days) is a six book Latin poem remained incomplete with Calendar structure.

“Tristia” and “Epistulae Ci Ponto” are two collection of elegies in the form of complaining letters from his exile.

 His shorter works include Remedia Amoris (Cure for Love), the Curse poem Ibis and an advice poem On Women’s Cosmetics.

 He wrote a lost tragedy Medea.

 The Heroides (Heroine) or Epistulae Heroidum is a collection of 21 poems in elegiac couplets.

 Tristia (Sorrow) consists of five books written during Ovid’s exile in Tomis.

 Epistulae ex Ponto (Letters from the Black Sea) is a collection of four books.

 Augustus Caesar banished Ovid to an isolated island and he died in exile.

Metamorphoses

 It is a narrative poem beginning with the creation of the world and ends in Ovid’s time.

 It consists of adventures of love affairs of deities and heroes.

 More than 200 tales are taken from Greek and Roman Mythology, and these were the greatest source of Mythology for Renaissance writers.