OTP: Lesson - Biography: Publius Ovidius Naso

Biography: Publius Ovidius Naso

Born 90 miles east of Rome in 43 BCE, Publius Ovidius Naso (note: this means nose), commonly called Ovid, spent his youth in Rome under the tutelage of two of the best rhetorical teachers of the time. Ovid, however, was bored by the study of law and oratory and after the death of his father devoted his life to writing poetry. By the age of thirty he had been married and divorced twice. He pursued a pleasure seeking life in Rome, attaching himself to his patron Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus and his associates including Julia, the granddaughter of Augustus. It was during this time that he wrote his three most famous works: Amores, Ars Armatoria and Metamorphoses.

In 8 CE Augustus banished Ovid to Tomis on the Black Sea. Ovid explained the reason for his exile to "duo crimina - carmen et error. It is assumed that "carmen" (a poem) refers to his Ars Armatoria. The "error" is not certain. Some believe that he had knowledge of a plot on Augustus' life; others believe that he was intimately involved with Augustus's granddaughter Julia who was banished in the same year. Ovid continued his writing while in exile, at the same time working feverishly to have his sentence reversed. He hated life in Tomis, far from the lively society of Rome. He died in Tomis in 18 CE following ten years in miserable exile.

Ovid's Early Works

Ovid's first book of poetry, Amores (Lovers), written in elegiac couplets (pairs of lines, the first being written with six feet and the second with five), is sometimes considered a mock epic. It begins with the same word as Vergil's Aeneid - Arma (weapons - Vergil's epic begins: I sing of arms and a man). Ovid says that his topic is to be war and will be written in dactylic hexameter, the meter of epics. Cupid, however, steals one metrical foot and the meter thus becomes elegiac, the meter of love poetry. Ovid showed no interest or support for the social, moral, and religious reforms of Augustus. This book of poetry deals extensively with adultery, which Augustus had banned in his marriage reforms of 18 BCE.

Ovid's next book of poetry was Ars Armatoria (The Art of Wooing), the book that in part was the cause of his exile. It is a parody of didactic poetry and focuses on the art of seduction and intrigue. This poem, like Amores, is written in elegiac couplets.

Ovid's Metamorphoses

Today, Ovid is most well-known for his Metamorphoses, a collection of 250 mythological stories with the common theme of transformation. They begin with the creation of the world and continue into Ovid's own time with the deification of Julius Caesar, who changes into a star. To have read Metamorphoses is to have covered the full range of Greek and Roman mythology. Metamorphoses, written in dactylic hexameter, takes on the form of an epic with its invocation of the muse and use of epithets. It lacks, however, a continuous story line like the Iliad or the Aeneid. Instead, the stories seem to be at times randomly arranged. The poem is somewhat irreverent in that it is the humans, not the gods, who seem to be more rational when it comes to love. Apollo, for example, falls irrationally in love with Daphne when he is struck by Cupid's arrow.

Ovid's Exile and Lasting Impact

While in exile Ovid wrote Tristia (The Sadness), a poem reflecting his sense of desolation caused by the exile. He also wrote Fasti (A Festival Calendar), a poem on the Roman calendar with one book dedicated to each month. This book, however, covers only January through June. It is not known if the rest was lost or was left incomplete by Ovid. It is important for its portrayal of the social and private lives of the Romans in the early days of the Roman Empire.

Ovid was extremely popular in ancient Rome, and his poetry was often used as texts in schools. He greatly influenced later writers including Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dante and Milton as well as numerous painters and musicians. Modern critics often complain that Ovid's poetry is not up to the quality of poets like Vergil, but even so, he is recognized for his elegance and effective use of rhetorical techniques. He shares with us his lively imagination, his psychological insights into the Roman society of his day, and his vivid descriptions.