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Ovid: A Prominent Poet Then and Now
Emma DenBesten
University High School
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Emma DenBesten
Bergen/Downer
English 10-04/Latin II-02
10 November 2011
Ovid: A Prominent Poet Then and Now
“There is...none who...has as many claims upon our interest as Publius Ovidius Naso”
(Smith 307). Publius Ovidius Naso, or Ovid, as we know him today, is so interesting to
contemporary people because he has benefitted and impacted societies of today. Historians
better comprehend Ancient Roman history due to Ovid. Ovid also helps our generation to
understand the role of the arts in the Augustan era. Ovid’s poetry affected the development of
modern day artistic ideas. Ovid gave historians a better understanding of Ancient Roman life,
demonstrated how art was essential to Augustan society, and wrote visionary poems that have
inspired elements of modern culture, aiding and affecting the 21st century.
Students of history appreciate Ovid’s work because it helps them understand the lives of
Ancient Roman civilians. Because Ovid’s works were so focused on love, historians gleaned
much of their understanding on the private lives of Roman citizens from him. Ovid’s Ars
Amortia is all about “the art of love.” When reading his poetry, it is impossible not to get a sense
of how romance was regarded in Roman society. When Ovid wrote erotic poetry, he was never
reserved or unable to describe events as some other poets claimed to be either out of caution or
for politeness in moments of passion. Therefore, Ovid’s writing provides a primary source for
information about personal Roman culture that researchers cannot get from other writers of the
Augustan era. Without Ovid’s poetry, we would not be able to comprehend how much Roman
people have in common with people of today. By learning about Ovid’s works, historians can
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understand the carnality of the citizens of Ancient Rome, which exists in all humans today.
Ovid contributed a more accurate picture of Roman personal life than other poets could.
Ovid wrote about typical things that would happen in Roman life with great detail, whereas
most other poets would not go in depth about such trivial things. In his poems, Ovid vividly
described, “the incidents which inspired each emotional outburst…the poet now sketches…and
adds his explanatory comment” (Frankel 56). Not only did Ovid state what caused his emotions,
but he explained the process of it. In doing so, he became a more informative source for
historical researchers because he painted a clear picture of the experience of falling in love in
Ancient Rome. These sources help investigators of history to understand Roman people and
their motivations for their actions. From Ovid’s text, people on average have gained a deeper
understanding of the past. This deeper analysis of Ancient Roman people has allowed modern
day people to see similarities between themselves and historical figures. Ovid made history
more interesting for contemporary students by writing about intriguing societal customs that
modern day people find relatable.
Ovid illustrates that art was a main focus of Ancient Roman society. Ovid’s success in
Ancient Rome demonstrates that Ancient Roman’s opinions were not completely influenced by
their emperor’s. Consequently, we know that the arts must have been more important to Roman
society than the policies of Augustus. Augustus was trying to implement old Roman morals,
such as marriage and family, into society (Mack 36). Also around that time, Ovid was making a
name for himself through poetry. Ovid’s poetry however, encouraged the essence of what
Augustus was trying to eliminate. Regardless of the emperor’s opinion, Ovid was still a
successful writer and is described as “the poet of fashionable society” (Steele 89). Ovid’s
promotion of the arts is evidence that people in ancient Rome believed their individual
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entertainment to be more essential than a submissive relationship with their emperor. Roman
values of arts and culture have influenced the modern world. The National Public Radio of the
21st century, which constantly informs listeners about different kinds of culture and art,
demonstrates how Roman customs have affected today’s society. Other examples would be
museums and high schools geared towards students who appreciate the arts such as, University
High School and Roosevelt’s School of the Arts. Places such as these illustrate the importance
of the arts in contemporary life as a result of the Roman respect for culture that Ovid
demonstrates.
Ovid angered Augustus as a result of their divergent beliefs. Ovid mocked Augustus’s
attempts to reform the character of Rome, “Ovid manages to get some dangerous things said.
Advising lovers to avoid harsh words, he asserts that quarreling is for those who are legally
married...thumbing his nose at Augustus’s moral legislation” (Mack 92). This quote illustrates
how Ovid discouraged marriage and went against Augustus’s plans for improving the scruples of
Romans. Researchers believe that comments similar to the previous are what earned Ovid his
banishment in AD 8. In exile, pleading for forgiveness, Ovid states, “my poems don’t corrupt,
aren’t wicked/ and I’m even less corrupting or wicked than any of them” (37). However, despite
being so harshly condemned and permanently banished from Rome, Ovid, through his poetry
still played an important role in Roman society. Ovid’s poetry was popular even though it had
been reprimanded by the emperor. Poetry and art were valued in Ancient Rome regardless of
what the emperor favored. Ancient Romans chose that free artistic expression was more
important to them than adhering to the accepted standards of society.
Art was the top priority of Ancient Roman people. Ovid’s popularity demonstrates how
essential it was to ancient society. Augustus banished Ovid because he felt disrespected by him
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and threatened by Ovid’s strong influence: “all in all, Augustus must have been tired of those
who seemed to mock his attempt to improve Roman morals -his family by its behavior, Ovid by
his poetry” (Mack 39). Understandably, Augustus was angry with the fact that Roman people
were more concerned with amusement than the betterment of themselves. Augustus had Ovid’s
works taken out of public libraries because he blamed Ovid for influencing his daughter and
granddaughter to engage in affairs which were completely scandalous to Augustus.
Nevertheless, Ovid’s works were still widely popular. Therefore, Romans were not respectful
of their emperor’s wishes. This gives us insight into the subtleties of history, assisting us in our
understanding of the arts in ancient times. The conflict between Ovid and Augustus forced the
Roman people to choose a side, and the majority chose Ovid. Present day civilians also would
choose art over taking orders. Revolutionary times for art, when people put their artistic vision
before the judgments they receive from society, prove that many of our societies values are
derived from Ancient Rome, as shown by Ovid’s prosperity.
The poetic visionary, Ovid, had many modern ideas and views, such as love being an
emotion that all people are subject to. Frankel, in analyzing Ovid’s poetry, states that, “he
[Ovid] was trying to picture not one person’s emotions but any true lover’s love” (11). Ovid
included all people’s perspectives in his writing. He even wrote as a woman. One of his books,
The Heroids, was a collection of letters addressed by women to the men they love. Since Ovid
considered different points of view when he wrote his poetry, it was attractive to a wider
audience. This kind of writing also emphasized the equality of all people and empathy for all
sides of a story. The idea of love being universal to rich and poor, men and women, was not a
typical belief in the ancient world. However, it is how we understand emotion to be today.
America has always gone to the aid of other countries; this empathy towards other people
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characterizes our nation. It was Ovid that strongly advocated this idea of emotion being felt by
all. Consequently, Ovid has strongly affected our world today by introducing ideas about love
which are the foundation of modern society.
Another of Ovid’s visionary ideas was that he thought all things and people were more
interesting than the heroes of epic poems or the victorious in battle. Ovid wrote about personal
interactions and emotion as experienced by all people. Generally, Augustan poets simply
described events in elegant language, but Ovid portrayed these events from a more honest, or
intimate, standpoint which engaged readers in a way that was never previously encountered.
Poets such as Walt Whitman did the same, simply on a newer level more appropriate to their era.
Ovid thought differently from other poets during the Augustan age, “he was convinced that the
emotional experiences of people of feeling…deserved to be represented in poetry just as well as
fables of myth, the figments of legend, or the exploits of the great” (Frankel 32). Ovid knew that
there was beauty in the thoughts of the common man. His poetry started to move away from
chronicling deeds and myths, towards the personal reflection and exploration of emotion that is
often seen in poetry today. However uncommon this belief was in ancient times, this style is
now typical in art. We see evidence of contemporary people’s interest in emotion on television
shows such as Modern Family, a show about the common lives of average people and in music
such as “All You Need Is Love” released by The Beatles July 7, 1967, a song about love
sustaining people through hard times. Ovid began a new form of literature that is the backbone
of the arts in today’s culture.
Ovid comprehended love as we do in the 21st century even though his views conflicted with
societal boundaries. People in ancient Rome regarded romance very differently from people in
our time, “love poems as a genre were at the bottom of the poetic heap…and love itself was one
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of those things which one was expected to outgrow as one matured” (Mack 65). Love was seen
as fickle, but Ovid knew this emotion was important to society. So, despite its initial
unpopularity, Ovid still wrote love poetry. Ovid did not see love as a weakness, but as a goal to
work towards. Dating shows and dating websites exemplify how our society’s expectation of a
person is for them to fall in love with someone else. This idea is definitely easier to affiliate with
the morals of our society than that of Ancient Rome. Ovid was ahead of his time and stimulated
the emotional understanding of a typical human being.
Ovid led the way for poets to truly express feeling through informal, direct language. He
was one of the first to lose all the artifice and write his poetry as his own personal thoughts. He
made the same kind of artistic leaps as poets like the Bronte Sisters or E.E. Cummings. Mack
observes that, “Ovid’s art survives. His words live on in his poems, his visions permeate our
literature, our painting, our sculpture, and our music” (52). Ovid was the catalyst that started
poetry describing realistic situations that could be related to, rather than just glorifying Rome’s
history. With his futuristic ideas, Ovid innovated poetry and began implementing ideas that are a
basis of our contemporary culture.
In conclusion, Ovid helped historians understand what intimate life was like in ancient
Rome, he illustrated the value of culture in the beginning of the Roman Empire, and he inspired
poets to write about their feelings in a direct way. Ovid gave historians a clear perspective on
romance in ancient Rome, Ovid shows us that art was an integral part of ancient Roman society,
and he began a new kind of poetry, that is much more similar to modern poetry than anything
written by other poets at that time.
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Works Cited
Frankel, Herman. Ovid A Poet Between Two Worlds. California: University of California Press,
1945. Print.
Mack, Sara. Ovid: A Poet Between Two Worlds. New York: Yale University, 1988. Print.
Ovid. Ovid’s Poetry of Exile. Trans. David R. Slavitt. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1990. Print.
Smith, Kirby Flower. “The Poet Ovid.” Studies in Philology. 15.4 (Oct., 1918): 307-332. Print.
Steele R. B. “Ovid” The Sewanee Review. 14.2 (Apr., 1906), pp. 184-195. Print.