Ovid Amores 3.14 answers to questions
1. Lines 1-6. Summarise Ovid’s line of argument in these lines.
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Ovid does not mind that his girl is unfaithful to him, since she is beautiful, but he doesn’t want to know
about it. It is not his disapproval that orders her to be chaste, but it does ask that she try to hide the
truth. Any girl who can deny that she has been unfaithful is not unfaithful, and only her unfaithfulness
openly admitted makes her notorious. Has O given up asking his girl to be faithful?
2. Lines 7-16. What contrasts is Ovid making in these lines? You should refer to both the content and
the style of the Latin and support your answer with four examples from the Latin text.
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It is madness to confess in the light of day what lies concealed by night and to declare openly the
deeds that you do secretly.
A prostitute gets rid of the people by bolting the door first when she is going to make love to some
Roman nobody. Will you expose your own unfaithfulness to unfavourable gossip and make a full
disclosure of your own offence (legal vocab)? Disclosure, not the act itself, is what counts. The
prostitute prostitutes her body in secret, the girl prostitutes her unfaithfulness in public.
May your thoughts be better or at least copy the chaste girls and may you think that you are honest
even if you are not: pudicas, probam, fact/fiction
Do the things that you do, only deny that you have done them, and may you not be ashamed to speak
modest words to my face: facis, facito, fecisse. Do is a euphemism.
3. Lines 17-26. What tone do you think Ovid is using in these lines? You should refer to both the
content and the style of the Latin and support your answer with three examples from the Latin text.
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erotic,suggestive, focus on what goes on in bed; nequitiam, omnibus deliciis, no pudor; examples:
quote any of the lines. Report on lover for Augustan inquisition, but is it objective enough?
4. Lines 31-34. What signs has Ovid observed that indicate that his girl is unfaithful? Make four
points.
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messages are sent and received very often
the bed has been pressed hard before and rather intimately
her hair is more messy than it gets when she is asleep
her neck bears the mark of a bite
5. Translate lines 41-46.
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6. Lines 47-50. Show how Ovid uses these lines to conclude his poem.
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O uses the language of victory, vinci, vincere, palma (poem 2) and legal language, non feci, causa,
iudice; still tongue in cheek, O really knows what is going on.
7. ‘Ovid’s poetry was not intended to be taken seriously as his argument is continually undermined by
his sense of humour’. Is this comment true of this poem?
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erotic overtones; clever use of language; poor logic; exaggeration 37-8, 40, 41; whole premise, that
beauty and chastity cannot be found in the same girl, is rubbish; love is a game; 16 reversal of norm;
'parody' of Catullus/other love poetry; legal lang may be parody of Augustan legislation?