Transcript Publius Ovidius Naso - Colonisation and Migration

PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO
PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO
Contents:
 Life
 Work
 Exile
 Quotations
PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

Life
The Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso, shortened to Ovid, was
born in Sulmo, near Rome on March 20, 43 BC. He stemmed
from rural Italian nobility and grew up in wealthy
circumstances, being taught rhetoric by the most respected
teachers. Following his father's wishes, Ovid initially entered a
career in public service, which he interrupted to turn to poetry.
At that time he was unable to earn a living from poetry and
found a benefactor in his patron Messalla Corvinus. In poetry
circles Ovid met Sextu Propertius, they became friends and he
published his first poems. In the foreground of his work was the
topic of love and he wrote numerous pieces including
"Amores", "Ars amatoria" and "Remedia amoris'.
PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO
Ovid furthermore became famous for his stories of
metamorphoses in the mythological world ("Metamorphoses")
and fictitious letters of mythological heroines ("Heroides").
In 8 AD Ovid was banned to Tomis, today's Constanta on the
Black Sea by an imperial edict without any court process. There
are still only speculations regarding the reasons behind the
ban.
In his seclusion he produced dirges, poetry of yearning for
Rome. Ovid sang about the northern winter and the charm of
the Barbarians. His song of praise about Augustus and Tiberius
was not rewarded with the desired pardon.
Ovid is thought to have died in or after 17 AD in exile in Tomis.
PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

Work
The poems of Ovid fall into three groups—erotic poems,
mythological poems, and poems of exile.
His verse, with the exception of the Metamorphoses and a
fragment (Halieutica), is in elegiacs, which are of unmatched
perfection. The love poems include Amores [loves], 49 short
poems, many of which extol the charms of the poet's mistress
Corinna, probably a synthesis of several women; Epistulae
heroidum [letters from heroines], an imaginary series written
by ancient heroines to their absent lovers; Ars amatoria [art of
love], didactic, in three books, with complete instructions on
how to acquire and keep a lover.
PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO
In the mythological category is the Metamorphoses, a
masterpiece and perhaps Ovid's greatest work.
Written in hexameters, it is a collection of myths concerned
with miraculous transformations linked together with such
consummate skill that the whole is artistically harmonious.
The Fasti, also a mythological poem, contains six books on the
days of the year from January to June, giving the myths, legends,
and notable events called to mind on each day. As a source for
religious antiquities, it is especially valuable.
PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO
The poems of exile include Tristia [sorrows], five books of short
poems, conveying the poet's despair in his first five years of
exile and his supplications for mercy, and the Epistulae ex Ponto
[letters from the Black Sea], in four books, addressed to friends
in Rome, showing somewhat abated poetic power.
Ovid wrote poetry to give pleasure; no other Latin poet wrote
so naturally in verse or with such sustained wit.
Unsurpassed as a storyteller, he also related the complexities of
romantic involvements with verve and deft characterization. A
major influence in European literature, Ovid was also a primary
source of inspiration for the artists of the Renaissance and the
baroque. The Metamorphoses was translated during this period
by A. Golding (1567), George Sandys (1632), and John Dryden.
PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

Exile
Tomis is known as the exile place of the Latin poet Publius
Ovidius Naso, exiled from the Roman court by Octavian
Augustus emperor. (between 9 - 17 AC) The city has kept a nice
memory of this poet, highly adulated in Rome some time ago.
The reasons behind Ovid's exile have been the subject of much
speculation. He himself tells us that the reason was "a poem
and a mistake." The poem was clearly his Art of Love. With this
work, its companion piece, The Remedies for Love, on how to
get over an unsuccessful love affair, and its predecessor, On
Cosmetics, Ovid had invented a new kind of poetry, didactic
and amatory. The Art of Love consists of three books which
parody conventional love poetry and didactic verse while
offering vivid portrayals of contemporary Roman society.
PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO
The witty sophistication of this work made it an immediate and
overwhelming success in fashionable society and infuriated the
emperor Augustus, who was attempting to force a moral
reformation on this same society. To the Emperor, this work
must have seemed, in the strictest sense, subversive, and he
excluded it, along with Ovid's other works, from the public
libraries of Rome.
What the "mistake" may have been, we do not know. It was,
Ovid says, the result of his having eyes, and the most widely
accepted suggestion is that he had somehow become aware of
the licentious behavior of the Emperor's daughter Julia (who
was banished in the same year as he) without his informing
Augustus about her.
PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO
Ovid's exile was not so unbearable as his letters
indicate. He learned the native languages, and his
unconquerable geniality and amiability made him a
beloved and revered figure to the local citizens, who
exempted him from taxes and treated him as well, he
said, as he could have expected even in his native
Sulmo. He wrote a panegyric to Augustus in the Getic
language, the loss of which is a source of regret for
philologists; a bitter attack on an unnamed and perhaps
imaginary enemy, the Ibis; and a work on the fish of the
Black Sea, the Halieutica; he resumed work on the Fasti
before his death, which is given by St. Jerome as
occurring in A.D. 17, but probably occurred early in the
next year.
PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO


Quotations
“Three times the Danube’s frozen with the cold, three
times the Black Sea’s waves have hardened, since I’ve
been in Pontus. Yet I seem to have been absent from my
country already for as long as the ten years Troy knew the
Greek host. You’d think time stood still, it moves so slowly,
and with lagging steps the year completes its course. For
me the summer solstice hardly lessens the nights, and
winter can’t make the days any shorter.”
Tristia Book TV.X:1-53 Harsh Exile In Tomis
PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

“I, who, though admittedly deserving of a heavier
punishment, can scarcely experience a heavier one. I
live among enemies, surrounded with dangers, as if
peace was taken from me with my native land: they
double the chance of death from a cruel wound, by
smearing every arrow-head with viper’s gall.”
Ex Ponto, Book EI.II:1-52 To Paullus Fabius
Maximus: His Life In Exile
PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

“As the island of Delos was dear to Latona, offering her
the only place of safety in her wanderings, so Tomis is
dear to me, and remains true and hospitable to one who’s
exiled from his native land. If only the gods had made it so
it might know hope of sweet peace, and was further from
the frozen pole.”
Ex Ponto, Book EIV.XIV:1-62 To Tuticanus: Being Nice
To Tomis
PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

Now the decline of life is on me, whitening my hair,
now the wrinkles of age are furrowing my face:
Now strength and vigour ebb in my weakened body, the
games of youth that pleased, no longer delight.
If you suddenly saw me, you wouldn’t know me, such is the
ruin that’s been made of my life. I admit the years have
done it, but there’s another cause, my anguish of spirit and
my continual suffering.
Ex Ponto, Book EI.IV:1-58 To His Wife: Time Passing
PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO
“ Like fragile ice anger passes away in time.”
“ Bear patiently with a rival.”
“ Nothing is swifter than our years.”
“ This also -- that I live, I consider a gift of God.”
PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO
“ The time will come when it will disgust you to look in the mirror.”
“ Luck affects everything. Let your hook always be cast; in the
stream where you least expect it there will be a fish.”
“ What is without periods of rest will not endure.”
“ I attempt an arduous task; but there is no worth in that which is
not a difficult achievement.”
PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovid

http://www.worldofquotes.com/author/Ovid+%28Publius
+Ovidius+Naso%29/1/index.html

http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/OvidTris
tiaBkOne.htm

http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/OvidExP
ontoBkOne.htm
PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO