Ovid In Late Antiquity

Introduction: a poet between two worlds -- Ovid recalled in the poetic correspondence of Ausonius and Paulinus of Nola -- Ovid and the transformation of the late Roman world of Rutilius Namatianus -- The poet and the Vandal prince: Ovidian rhetoric in Dracontius' Satisfactio -- The remedies of elegy in Ovid, Boethius and Maximianus -- The Ovidian heroine of Venantius Fortunatus, Appendix 1 -- Conclusion: Ovid's late antiquity

This book highlights Ovid's influence on important later Latin authors writing from the fourth to the sixth centuries in Europe and Africa.

The 2000th anniversary of Ovid's death was celebrated in 2017, and Ovid in Late Antiquity aims to mark the occasion. This book embodies a specific approach to Ovid's oeuvre, which is not analysed in and of itself, but rather in its role as a wellspring of inspiration to which later authors would return time and again. Covering the work of a number of authors, who found their way back to Ovid via different methodological pathways, the research distilled in this book is geared towards exploring the ways in which the authors of late antiquity interacted with the poet of the Metamorphoses and with his immense, multifaceted output. The choice of this approach arose out of an awareness that the presence and influence of Ovid in late antiquity constitute aspects of the Ovidian legacy that would benefit from more in-depth exploration. The essays in this collection are intended to help bridge this gap.

Publius Ovidius Naso; 20 March 43 BC - AD 17/18), known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of Virgil and Horace. He is best known for the Metamorphoses, 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"). His poetry was much imitated during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and greatly influenced Western art and literature. The Metamorphoses remains one of the most important sources of classical mythology. Ovid is traditionally ranked alongside Virgil and Horace, his older contemporaries, as one of the three canonic poets of Latin literature. He was the first major Roman poet to begin his career during the reign of Augustus, and the Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love elegists. He enjoyed enormous popularity, but, in one of the mysteries of literary history, he was sent by Augustus into exile in a remote province on the Black Sea, where he remained until his death. Ovid himself attributes his exile to carmen et error, "a poem and a mistake," but his discretion in discussing the causes has resulted in much speculation among scholars. Ovid's prolific poetry includes the Heroides, a collection of verse epistles written as though by mythological heroines to the lovers who abandoned them; the Fasti, an incomplete six-book exploration of Roman religion with a calendar structure; and the Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto, two collections of elegies in the form of complaining letters from his exile. His shorter works include the Remedia Amoris ("Cure for Love"), the curse-poem Ibis, and an advice poem on women's cosmetics. He wrote a lost tragedy, Medea, and mentions that some of his other works were adapted for staged performance.

The Love Books Ovid - The Love Books of Ovid is a collection of four works of Roman poet Ovids verses on love in English prose translation. Ovid, born in 43 B.C., a contemporary of Virgil and Horace, lived during the reign of Augustus and is perhaps best remembered today for his work on Roman mythology entitled The Metamorphoses. This volume collects the poets following works: The Loves, The Art of Love, Loves Cure, and The Art of Beauty. Ovid was an innovator in the writing of love poetry in that he changed the focus of the poem from the poet to love itself and examined the effect of love on people. These works were considered controversial in their time and many scholars believe that Ovids The Art of Love was the cause of his life-long banishment by Augustus to a remote province on the Black Sea. Considered to be a master of the elegy form of poetry, which are poems of lamentation and mourning, and the last of the Latin love elegists, Ovid is faithfully represented here in this English prose translation. Students of classical literature and fans of romantic poetry will both delight in this volume of works by a poetic master. This edition is follows the translation of J. Lewis May.

Publius Ovidius Naso but better known to us as simply Ovid was born on 20th March 43 BC in Sulmo (modern day Sulmona) in Italy. He was educated in rhetoric in Rome in preparation for the practice of Law. Accounts of his character say that he was emotional and not able to stay within the argumentative boundaries of rhetoric disclipine. After the early death of his brother, Ovid ceased his law studies and travelled to Athens, Asia Minor, and Sicily. He held a number of minor public posts but, around 29-25 BC began to pursue poetry, a decision that brought with it his father's disapproval. He married three times and divorced twice by the time he was thirty years old. He fathered a daughter, who eventually bore him grandchildren. His last wife was connected to the influential gens Fabia (an ancient Roman patrician family) and would help him during his later exile. The first decades of Ovid's literary career were mostly spent writing poetry with erotic themes. The chronology of these early works cannot, however, be relied upon. His earliest extant work is thought to be the 'Heroides', letters of mythological heroines to absent lovers, which is believed to have been published in 19 BC. The first five-book collection of the 'Amores', erotic poems addressed to a lover, Corinna, is believed to have been published in 16-15 BC. The surviving three book version appears to have been published c. 8-3 BC. Between these two editions of the 'Amores' his tragedy 'Medea', which was much admired in antiquity but is no longer extant, was performed. Ovid buoyed by his glowing reputation now increased the tempo of his writing. 'Medicamina Faciei', was followed by the 'Ars Amatoria, the Art of Love' and immediately followed by 'Remedia Amoris'. This body of elegiac, erotic poetry saw Ovid cited as the equal of the Roman elegists Gallus, Tibullus, and Propertius. By AD 8, he had completed his most ambitious work, the 'Metamorphoses', a 15-book hexameter epic poem. It catalogued Greek and Roman mythology, from the emergence of the universe to the apotheosis of Julius Caesar. Concurrent with this, he worked on the 'Fasti', planned as 12-books but only 6 volumes (January to June were completed) in elegiac couplets on the calendar of Roman festivals and astronomy were completed. The remaining six books were interrupted by Ovid's sentence to exile. In AD 8, Ovid was banished to Tomis, on the Black Sea, by the Emperor Augustus. This event shadowed his life and shaped his remaining poetic output. Ovid wrote that his exile was for carmen et error - "a poem and a mistake", claiming his crime was worse than murder, more harmful than poetry. Ovid was also a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love elegists. His poetry was much imitated during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and greatly influenced Western art and literature. The Metamorphoses remains one of the most important sources of classical mythology. In exile, Ovid wrote 'Tristia' and 'Epistulae ex Ponto', pointedly focused on his sadness and desolation. He was far from Rome and his beloved third wife. The five books of the elegiac Tristia, a series of poems expressing the poet's despair in exile and advocating his return to Rome, are dated to AD 9-12. 'The Ibis', an elegiac curse poem attacking an adversary at home is also dated to this period. 'The Epistulae ex Ponto', a series of letters to friends in Rome asking them to effect his return, are thought to be his last compositions. Ovid died at Tomis in AD 17 or 18. It is thought that the Fasti, which he spent time revising, were published posthumously.

The 2000th anniversary of Ovid?s death, in 2017-2018, led to an upsurge in conferences and publications dedicated to the author?s work and afterlife. One of these is the present volume, resulting from the conference 'Dopo Ovidio. Aspetti della ricezione ovidiana fra letteratura e iconografia', which was held on 7-8 May 2019 at the Department of Human Sciences (DSU) of the University of L?Aquila, and which looked at various aspects of Ovid?s fortune, from a diachronic and interdisciplinary perspective. The contributions cover a period of about fourteen centuries, from late antiquity until the end of the eighteenth century, and range from late Latin to medieval literature, from humanistic production to modern English and Italian literature, and from linguistics to the figurative arts. All these studies contribute to a collective appraisal of the multifarious impact of Ovid?s works, and especially of the 'Metamorphoses', the latter?s treatment of myth having been a starting point for integrations, developments, (re)interpretations and representations, in isolation or included in an iconographic program.