Roman poet,
whose narrative skill and unmatched linguistic and metrical virtuosity have
made him the most popular of the Roman poets. Ovid's frivolous and often
licentious verse ran counter to the program of social and moral renewal
promoted by Emperor Augustus in the wake of Rome's disastrous civil wars
(49-31 BC). Life
Ovid was born Publius Ovidius Naso into a family of the equestrian, or middle, class in Sulmo (now Sulmona), near Rome. Educated to practice law, he became highly proficient in the art of rhetoric, but his genius was essentially poetical, and he devoted most of his time and energy to writing verse. After inheriting his father's property, Ovid went to Athens to complete his education. He later traveled in Asia and Sicily with his friend Aemilius Macer, a Roman poet. By the age of 30, Ovid had been married three times and divorced twice, and he may have carried on an intimate relationship with the woman whom he celebrated in his poetry as Corinna. His private life was that of an exuberant, wealthy, and somewhat licentious man of letters. At Rome, where he lived until he was 50 years of age, he was often courted by the distinguished, and fashionable society of the city, including Emperor Augustus. In AD 8, Ovid was banished to Tomi, in the Roman province of Dacia (now Constanta, Romania). According to Ovid, one reason for his banishment was the publication of Ars Amatoria, a poem on the art of love. More probably the poem, which had been in circulation for almost ten years, served merely as an excuse to expel him. A second reason, alluded to but never disclosed by Ovid, may have been his knowledge of a scandal involving the emperor's daughter, Julia. Ovid did not lose his citizenship and never gave up hope of returning to Rome, as revealed in the many poems written to his friends during his exile at Tomi, but his requests and those of his friends were unsuccessful. Ovid died at Tomi, an honored citizen of the town.
Early Works
The poetry of Ovid falls into three divisions: the works of his youth, of his middle age, and of his years in exile at Tomi. In the first period, Ovid continued the elegiac tradition of Roman poets Sextus Propertius and Albius Tibullus, both of whom he knew and admired. Ovid's Amores are erotic poems centered on Corinna, but they display little real feeling and are characterized by artificiality and cleverness. Other works of his are didactic poems, including Medicamina Faciei Femineae, a fragment of writing on cosmetics; and Remedia Amoris., a kind of recantation of the Ars Amatoria,. Ovid's Medea, a tragedy highly praised by ancient critics, has not been preserved. His interest in mythology is reflected in his Heroides, or Epistulae Heroidum, 21 fictional love letters, mostly from mythological heroines to their lovers.
Middle Period Works
In his middle period Ovid wrote the Metamorphoses, in 15 books. The work takes as its unifying theme the transformations recorded in mythology and legend from the creation of the world to the time of Roman emperor Julius Caesar, whose change into a celestial star marks the last of the series. Deservedly famous as a handbook of Greek mythology, it is composed in a witty and, at times, almost burlesque, or exaggerated spirit. The other work of the middle period is the Fasti, a poetic calendar describing the various Roman festivals and the legends connected with each. Of the projected 12 books, 1 for each month of the year, only the first 6 are extant.
Works in Exile
The works composed during the period of Ovid's exile are pervaded by melancholy and despair. They include the Tristia, five books of elegies that describe his unhappy existence at Tomi and appeal to the mercy of Augustus; the Epistulae ex Ponto, poetic letters similar in theme to the Tristia; the Ibis, a short invective invoking destruction on a personal enemy; and the Halieutica, a poem extant only in fragments, about the local fish. The Nux and the Consolatio ad Liviam are usually considered wrongly attributed to Ovid. A poem written in Getic, the native language of Dacia, has not survived. With the exception of the Metamorphoses and the fragmentary Halieutica, both of which are in the dactylic hexameter meter, all the poetry of Ovid is composed in the elegiac couplet, a meter that he brought to its highest degree of perfection.
Criticism
Ovid was one of the most influential of Roman poets during the Middle Ages (5th century to 15th century) and the Renaissance (14th century to 17th century). Italian poets Ludovico Ariosto and Giovanni Boccaccio and English poets Geoffrey Chaucer and John Gower found in his mythological narratives a rich source of romantic tales. English poets Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, John Milton, and many others were also influenced by him.