AN
INTRODUCTION
TO
Ovid
January 14 through February 27, 2008
Vita
43BC
c.29BC
Born March 20, in Sulmo
Studies law at Rome with rhetoricians
Arellius Fuscus and Porcius Latro.
Frequents poetry recitals by Vergil,
Horace, Tibullus, Propertius
On track for a career in the Senate
(tresviri monetales/capitales, decemuiri stlitibus iudicandis)
Participates in literary circle of Messalla
(Propertius)
22-21BC Publishes Amores
15BC
Publishes Heroides
12-7BC
Publishes Amores 2nd edition
2BC-AD2 Publishes Ars Amatoria, Remedia Amoris
AD2
Fasti, Metamorphoses in progress
AD8
Relegated to Tomis (carmen et error)
AD9-12
Ibis, Tristia
AD13
Epistulae ex Ponto
AD17/18 Dies in exile
25BC
carmen et error
Though two crimes, a song and mistake, have destroyed me,
on the cause of the one deed I have to remain silent
for I am not worthy of reopening your wounds, Caesar,
It is more than enough that you have been pained once.
The other charge remains: I am accused of becoming
by a shameful song a teacher of obscene adultery.
Tristia 2.207
•
Was the carmen his Ars Amatoria ?
"Why did I see anything? Why did I make my eyes guilty?
Why did I recklessly learn of a sin?"
Tristia 2.103-104
Ovid: nachleben
= Negative comments in 1st c. writers
Seneca the Elder (licentiam carminum)
Aemilius Scaurus (Ovidius nescit quod bene cessit relinquere)
Quintillian lascivia
= Influenced Neronian authors
Seneca the Younger, Lucan
sententiae
analysis of psychological dilemmas
fearsome allegorical figures,
eye for the grotesque
thematic emphasis on reversed values
= Graffiti in Pompeii and Herculaneum attest to his
popularity
= Popularity continues throughout antiquity.
Ovid: nachleben
= Medieval rediscovery of poetry
12th c. described as aetas Ovidiana
numbers of Ovid mss rival the Bible; (400 before the time printing began)
poets in Italy, Spain & France lived and breathed Ovid
= In England Chaucer, Milton, Shakespeare (to name but a few)
knew and used Ovid’s Metamorphoses
= Painter’s Bible from 15th century on
Titian, Rape of Europa
1559-62
Gardner Museum
Boston, MA, US
Ovid : nachleben
= 19th c. Romanticism did not value the wit and playfulness of Ovid
= 20th c. academic tastes formed by 19th c.
= Resurgence of interest in Ovid at the end of the 20thc
L.P. Wilkinson, Ovid Recalled (1955)
= Number of scholarly works has increased dramatically in the last
two decades
= Ovid the subject of several works of fiction.
Ransmayr,The Last World (1990)
Malouf, An Imaginary Life (1996)
After Ovid , collection of poetic renditions of Ovid (1996)
Tales from Ovid , Ted Hughes, England’s late Poet Laureate (1999)
Ovid Metamorphosed, collection of fiction with Ovid as the starting points (2001)
Alison, The Love Artist (2002)
Ars Amatoria
• mock didactic
parody (ars grammatica)
elegiac couplet
exempla
similes
• praeceptor amoris
middle aged
sympathetic
but amused & detached observer of love
affecting to be singed but never on fire
advice given from maturity of experience
no sentiment- love is an elaborate game
• books I-II for men
• book III for women later edition
• not a pornographic work
TRANSLATING Ars Amatoria
Siquis in hoc artem populo non novit amandi
hoc legat et lecto carmine doctus amet!

FIND THE MAIN VERB
TRANSLATING Ars Amatoria
Siquis in hoc artem populo non novit amandi
hoc legat et lecto carmine doctus amet!
He, she, it knows / does know

PICK UP THE ADVERB …
TRANSLATING Ars Amatoria
Siquis in hoc artem populo non novit amandi
hoc legat et lecto carmine doctus amet!
not
He, she, it knows
/ does
does not
knowknow

FIND THE SUBJECT
TRANSLATING Ars Amatoria
Siquis in hoc artem populo non novit amandi
hoc legat et lecto carmine doctus amet!
quis = aliquis (after si, nisi, num or ne)
If anyone
He, she, it does not know
If anyone does not know

FIND THE DIRECT OBJECT
TRANSLATING Ars Amatoria
Siquis in hoc artem populo non novit amandi
hoc legat et lecto carmine doctus amet!
If anyone does not know the art

WHAT’S LEFT?
TRANSLATING Ars Amatoria
Siquis in hoc artem populo non novit amandi
hoc legat et lecto carmine doctus amet!
to/ for; by/ with/ from people

IS THERE AN ADJECTIVE TO HELP DETERMINE CASE ?
TRANSLATING Ars Amatoria
Siquis in hoc artem populo non novit amandi
hoc legat et lecto carmine doctus amet!
by/ with/ from this people

WHY IS THIS ABLATIVE?
TRANSLATING Ars Amatoria
Siquis in hoc artem populo non novit amandi
hoc legat et lecto carmine doctus amet!
in
If anyone does not know
artfrom
in this
by/ the
with/
thispeople
people
If anyone in this people does not know the art

WHAT’S LEFT?
TRANSLATING Ars Amatoria
Siquis in hoc artem populo non novit amandi
hoc legat et lecto carmine doctus amet!
If anyone in this people does not know the art of loving

NEXT LINE, FIND THE VERBS
TRANSLATING Ars Amatoria
If anyone in this people does not know the art of loving
hoc legat et lecto carmine doctus amet!
let him read and

let him love
ANYTHING IN THE NOMINATIVE?
TRANSLATING Ars Amatoria
If anyone in this people does not know the art of loving
hoc legat et lecto carmine doctus amet!
let him read and

having been taught let him love
DIRECT OBJECT?
TRANSLATING Ars Amatoria
If anyone in this people does not know the art of loving
hoc legat et lecto carmine doctus amet!
this
let him
let read
him this
readand
and

having
havingbeen
beentaught
taught letlethim
himlove
love
WHAT’S LEFT?
TRANSLATING Ars Amatoria
If anyone in this people does not know the art of loving
hoc legat et lecto carmine doctus amet!
let him read this and
having been taught let him love
To/for;
by/with/
by/with/
from having
from having
been read
been read
by/with/from the poem

WHY IS THIS ABLATIVE?
TRANSLATING Ars Amatoria
If anyone in this people does not know the art of loving
hoc legat et lecto carmine doctus amet!
let him read this and
having been taught let him love
ABLATIVE
with the poem
ABSOLUTE
having been read
by/ with/ from having been read by/with/from the poem

ERGO…
TRANSLATING Ars Amatoria
Siquis in hoc artem populo non novit amandi
hoc legat et lecto carmine doctus amet!
If anyone in this people does not know the art of loving
let him read this and with the poem having been read having been taught
let him love!
If anyone in this population does not know the art of love
let him read this and once the poem is read let him love as an expert!