- This article or section should include material from Tristia
- For other uses, see Ovid (disambiguation)
 Portrait of the poet Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso, (March 20, 43 BC – AD 17) Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women, and mythological transformations.
Ovid wrote in elegiac couplets, with the exception of his great Metamorphoses, which he wrote in dactylic hexameter in imitation of Vergil's Aeneid and Homer's epics. Ovid does not offer an epic narrative like his predecessors but promises a chronological account of the cosmos from creation to his own day, incorporating many myths and legends from the Greek and Roman traditions.
Augustus banished Ovid in AD 8 to Tomis on the Black Sea for reasons that remain mysterious (Ovid himself wrote that it was because of an 'error' and a 'carmen' – a mistake and a poem). He may have had an affair with a female relative of Augustus, and the 'carmen' mentioned by Ovid may be his supposedly immoral Ars Amatoria, which had been available for some time.
Works
Existing and generally considered authentic
- (10BC) Amores ('The Loves'), 5 books, about "Corinna", anti-marriage (revised into 3 books c. 1AD)
- (5BC) Heroides ('The Heroines') or Epistulae Heroidum ('Letters of Heroines'), 21 letters (letters 16–21 were composed around 4AD-8AD)
- (5BC) Remedium Amoris ('The Cure for Love'), 1 book
- (5BC) Medicamina Faciei Femineae ('Women's Facial Cosmetics' or 'The Art of Beauty'), 100 lines surviving
- (2BC) Ars Amatoria ('The Art of Love'), 3 books (the third written somewhat later)
- (8AD) Metamorphoses ('Transformations'), 15 books
- (9AD) Ibis, a single poem
- (10AD) Tristia ('Sorrows'), 1 book
- (10AD) Epistulae ex Ponto ('Letters from the Black Sea'), 4 books
- (12AD) Fasti ('Festivals'), 6 books surviving which cover the first 6 months of the year and provide unique information on the Roman calendar
(Dates are approximate)
Lost or generally considered spurious
- Medea, a lost tragedy about Medea
- a poem in Getic, the language of Dacia where Ovid was exiled, not extant (and possible fictional)
- Nux ('The Walnut Tree') - generally considered spurious
- Consolatio ad Liviam ('Consolation to Livia') - generally considered spurious
- Haleutica ('On Fishing') - generally considered spurious, a poem that some have identified with the otherwise lost poem of the same name written by Ovid.
Works inspired by Ovid
- (1994): edited by Michael Hofmann and James Lasdun is an anthology of contemporary poetry reenvisioning Ovid's Metamorphoses
- (1997): Tales from Ovid by Ted Hughes is a modern poetic translation of twenty four passages from Metamorphoses
- (2002) An adaptation of Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman appeared on Broadway's Circle on the Square Theater, which featured an onstage pool [1] (http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/Metamorphoses.html)
See also
External links
- Latin and English translation
- Perseus/Tufts: P. Ovidius Naso (http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/perscoll?.submit=Change&collection=Perseus%3Acollection%3AGreco-Roman&type=text&lang=Any&lookup=Ovidius) Amores, Ars Amatoria, Heroides (on this site called Epistulae), Metamorphoses, Remedia Amoris. Enhanced brower. Not downloadable.
- Sacred Texts Archive: Ovid (http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/ovid) Amores, Ars Amatoria, Medicamina Faciei Femineae, Metamorphoses, Remedia Amoris.
- The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidius Naso (http://fax.libs.uga.edu/PA6519xM3xB8/); elucidated by an analysis and explanation of the fables, together with English notes, historical, mythological and critical, and illustrated by pictorial embellishments: with a dictionary, giving the meaning of all the words with critical exactness. By Nathan Covington Brooks. Publisher: New York, A. S. Barnes & co.; Cincinnati, H. W. Derby & co., 1857
- Original Latin only
- Latin Library: Ovid (http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/ovid.html) Amores, Ars Amatoria, Epistulae ex Ponto, Fasti, Heroides, Ibis, Metamorphoses, Remedia Amoris, Tristia.
- Gutenberg Project: Fasti (http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/8738) With introduction and extensive notes in English by Thomas Keightley. Plain text version.
- English translation only
- New translations by A. S. Kline (http://www.tonykline.co.uk) Amores, Ars Amatoria, Epistulae ex Ponto, Fasti, Heroides, Ibis, Medicamina Faciei Femineae, Metamorphoses, Remedia Amoris, Tristia with enhanced browsing facility, downloadable in HTML, PDF, or MS Word DOC formats.
- Commentary
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