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21st out of 43 books
—
4 voters
The Poems of Exile: Tristia and the Black Sea Letters
by
Ovid,
Peter Green
In the year A.D. 8, Emperor Augustus sentenced the elegant, brilliant, and sophisticated Roman poet Ovid to exile—permanently, as it turned out—at Tomis, modern Constantza, on the Romanian coast of the Black Sea. The real reason for the emperor's action has never come to light, and all of Ovid's subsequent efforts to secure either a reprieve or, at the very least, a transf...more
Paperback, 535 pages
Published
January 18th 2005
by University of California Press
(first published January 1st 1924)
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Ovid was the bad boy of Augustus' Rome. He lacked Virgil's patriotic mythmaking or Horace's skeptical breadth, but his Latin is said to be more fluid than that of either of them. Ovid's youthful books are about love, common enough among Roman poets, but with a callowness beyond youth; one of them instructs women on applying make-up. After a middle age trying his hand at retelling myths, including the "Metamporphoses", August exiled Ovid from Rome for reasons that have not come down to posterity...more
It's true that these poems are repetitive, locked in a theme of "get me out of here." At the same time, they capture the obsessive nature of exile, how it blinds one to present surroundings and makes vivid a nostalgia for a different time and a different place. Ovid writes of Rome and mentions Tomis only in passing, exaggerating its faults. Everything here is repellent, all would be well if I could only return.
It is amazing that a poet writing 2000 years ago can so clearly capture these feeling...more
It is amazing that a poet writing 2000 years ago can so clearly capture these feeling...more
“Writing a poem you can read to no one is like dancing in the dark.” EP IV.2 33-4.
In 8 AD, Augustus sentenced the poet Ovid to exile. The cause was twofold. First, because Ovid’s earlier love poetry, particularly the Art of Love with its anything-goes approach to sex, conflicted with Augustus’ conservative social reforms. Second, a mysterious mistake or indiscretion, possibly political in nature, apparently rubbed the princeps the wrong way. It marked the end of a literary era. The last 50 years...more
In 8 AD, Augustus sentenced the poet Ovid to exile. The cause was twofold. First, because Ovid’s earlier love poetry, particularly the Art of Love with its anything-goes approach to sex, conflicted with Augustus’ conservative social reforms. Second, a mysterious mistake or indiscretion, possibly political in nature, apparently rubbed the princeps the wrong way. It marked the end of a literary era. The last 50 years...more
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Why was Ovid banished to Tomis? Many theories are out there, but no one knows for sure. Augustus’ daughter Julia was banished at about this same time for her over-the-top promiscuous lifestyle, and we know that Ovid’s writings definitely promoted that sort of thing. Of course, she took it to the extreme. He was even asked by the emperor to “clean it up.” Of course, he refused. So did Augustus blame him for his daughter’s behavior? Was he directly involved as one of her paramours? Who knows.
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Feb 27, 2013
Liam Guilar
added it
It's a shock reading these after the Metamorphosis and the Erotic poems.
whatever value they have in Latin, In English I think Ovid was right:
Now I'm out of words, I've asked the same thing so often
now I feel shame for my endless, hopeless prayers.
You must all be bored stiff by these monotonous poems.
whatever value they have in Latin, In English I think Ovid was right:
Now I'm out of words, I've asked the same thing so often
now I feel shame for my endless, hopeless prayers.
You must all be bored stiff by these monotonous poems.
After reading "The art of love," reading the poems of exile is a gloomy prospect. The easy wit and sparkle that seems to shine so comfortably is almost entirely missing, but Ovid's brilliance is still very much in place. As long as you get past all the flattery of patrons and the emperor's family, many of the poems are quite good, and have at their core a sadness and longing to regain a sense of place in the world. Ovid is still a strong poet, and this translation does a good job of proving this...more
NB: I prefer David Slavitt's translation: Ovid's Poetry of Exile (The Johns Hopkins UP).
The fall from the grace can be sometimes very painful and trigger the most interesting writings and poetry. Ovid was exiled to the small and compared to Rome, barbarian town called Tomis, modern Constantza, on the Romanian coast of the Black Sea. Lot of pain, lot of pleading all in vain. The poetry is like screams for something that never came. I like Ovid but his late poetry is not what floats my boat.
No matter whether Ovid was actually exiled or not (there is some controversy on the matter), the emotion that speaks from these poems can be recognised and felt by anyone.
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Publius Ovidius Naso (March 20, 43 BC – 17 AD) was a Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, who wrote on many topics, including love, abandoned women and mythological transformations. Ranked alongside Virgil and Horace as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature, Ovid is generally considered a great master of the elegiac couplet. His poetry, much imitated during Late A...more
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“Give me the waters of Lethe that numb the heart, if they exist, I will still not have the power to forget you.”
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