P. Ovidius Naso a.k.a. Ovid 43 BCE – 17 CE

Life and Works Ovid lived under the Augustan regime, surviving Octavian Augustus by only a few years (Augustus died in 14). This puts him in the category of Augustan poetry or the ‘Golden Age’ of Latin poetry with other familiar figures like Vergil and Horace. Ovid was the last of the Augustan poets.

Life and Works He was born and raised in Italy where he had the bulk of his career, but was banished in 8 CE for reasons unknown to modern historians.

Life and Works Most of Ovid’s poems were written in elegiac couplets. This poetic meter reflect what kind of poems he wrote. Elegiacs before and since Ovid have been a mainstay of love poems, as were many of Ovid’s works. Some of the theories for why he was exiled include scandalous poems. Another major theory is that he was having an affair with Octavian’s daughter who was exiled about the same time.

Life and Works Ars Amatoria – The Art of Love Amores – The Loves Remedia Amoris – The Remedy for Love Medicamina Faciei Femineae – Women’s Facial Cosmetics Heroides – The Heroines Tristia – The Sorrows Fasti – The Festivals Epistulae ex Ponto – Letters from Pontus Metamorphoses – The Metamorphoses

METAMORPHOSES Ovid is a great source for many of the myths that have survived to today through the Metamorphoses. As the title suggests, all the stories in this work have to do with characters who change into a new form. In total there are 250 individual stories written into 15 books.

METAMORPHOSES The first few episodes are about big changes at the beginning of the world, followed by the creation of man and the ages of man represented by different metals. This is very similar to an episode from Hesiod. Toward the end of the ages of man, Ovid describes a Roman version of the great flood story.

METAMORPHOSES Another early story told is that of Daphne and Apollo.

METAMORPHOSES One can also read about the metamorphosis of Io.

METAMORPHOSES Ovid also contributes to the beginning of the Theban Cycle. The picture you see here is of the scene in which he describes Jupiter and Europa. Which, of course, he follows up with the story of Cadmus and the founding of Thebes.

METAMORPHOSES Ovid gets in on the end of the cycle even. He tells the story of Cadmus’ daughter Ino and her husband Athamas. He says that it was after their hard fates that Cadmus and Harmonia became serpents.

METAMORPHOSES Ovid also writes on the Theban Cycle. He describes the interaction between Diana and Acteon, the death of Semele and the birth of Dionysus, and the dismemberment of Pentheus. Among these stories Ovid describes how Tiresias became a blind prophet. His first prediction is about Narcissus.

METAMORPHOSES Narcissus is possibly the only Greco-Roman myth in which self-knowledge is a bad thing. After a troubling experience with Echo (who has her own transformation) he falls in love with himself.

METAMORPHOSES Ovid goes on to describe the death of Pentheus, but only after describing Acoetus’ journey and the crew of his ship (as another prophecy of Tiresias).

METAMORPHOSES Ovid goes on to describe the worship of Dionysus and others who refuse them, the daughters of Minyas. Instead of worshipping him they tell other stories. One tells of Pyramus and Thisbe. Another tells of Mars and Venus (and the Sun). Another tells of Hermaphroditus.

Then Dionysus changed the daughters of Minyas into bats. METAMORPHOSES Then Dionysus changed the daughters of Minyas into bats.

METAMORPHOSES Ovid goes on to tell the story of Perseus and Andromeda and Perseus and Medusa.

METAMORPHOSES