Publius Ovidius Naso and His Metamorphoses: Critical Analysis

Ovid

Growing up

Ovid, full name Publius Ovidius Naso, was a poet born on March 20th in 43 BC; the year after the assassination of Julius Caesar. He was born in a small town called Sulmo, located East of Rome. He was born to a rather wealthy and established family and as a young man moved to Rome for his education which was standard at the time. Ovid lived during the Roman Empire which was a much larger and geographical world.

Education to career

Ovid was educated in Rome, where he studied rhetoric. This involved logic, oratory - which is public speaking and he also studied and had a great love for Greek literature and philosophy. This tells us that Ovid was literate, meaning that he wrote his Metamorphoses and that all his poems were written rather than coming from an oral tradition.

His education was meant to lead him to a career in Law and Roman government which he did a minor career for as an official in the Roman government however he did not like and abandoned it to become a poet, and this was something apparently his father disapproved off. He enjoyed great success as a poet, many of his verses were erotic - love poetry which as well, of course, the Metamorphoses and other prominent poetry on Roman religious festivals. Some of his most famous and scandalous poems beside his metamorphoses were ones where he celebrated his own erotic exploits and advised others on seduction.

What makes Ovid different from other poets

Ovid often differentiated himself from other authors such as Virgil, who was another pillar of Roman poetry and wrote the epic poem; the Aeneid, which celebrates the founding of Rome from the survivours of Troy. Virgil was setting out to be the epic poet of the roman empire however that was not Ovid’s interest as a poet. Virgil sets himself out in the Aeneid to be the poet of the Roman empire, a historical and political poet while Ovid was a poet of art beauty, love, pleasure and passion.

Events leading to Ovid’s death

Ovid came into conflict with the Roman empire during his career. In the year 8 CE, Augustus exiled Ovid for the rest of his life to the frontier city of Tomis. For the rest of his life, Ovid was banned from Rome, living to where he considered being a very horrible city on the frontier city of the Roman empire where most people didn’t even speak Latin and were also a very dangerous place because of the war of expansion. Ovid continued to write, he wrote of his sadness living on the frontiers but eventually died in the year 17 CE. He spent the last 9 years of his life living in Tomis.

The mystery is why was Ovid exiled, the exact reasons are unknown. Ovid wrote that it was due to “a poem and a mistake”, perhaps this could have been his earlier erotic poetry which was written some years before, maybe Augusts finally decided he didn’t like anymore and wanted to exile Ovid for that. Some thought it was involvement in personal indiscretion of someone close to Augustus, perhaps his niece or granddaughter. Some scholars theorized that it never happened given the sparse evidence we have, maybe Ovid didn’t really leave but he wrote and put on this persona of an exile as a literary experiment to sort of express what it was like not be in the centres of power. It will remain a great mystery and we will probably never know.

Ovid’s most popular works were:

Amores (the loves)

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Erotic poetry about his on and off relationship with his mistress ‘Corinna’, which may have not been a real person

Ars amatoria (the art of love)

Teaches the art of seduction and love to both men and women

Fasti (the festivals)

Series of unfinished poems on the months of the Roman calendar religious festivals, myths etc.

Ovid’s most famous work

His most famous work is the Metamorphoses. It is his most ambitious and prized work. It was the work Ovid believed would make him externally famous. Ovid was a solitary author who although wrote within a tradition and also wrote for his own glory and his own literary fame. The Metamorphous covers almost 250 different myths throughout its 15 books, it covers a whole bunch of different sources. The narrative of the poem covers all of history from creation to the present day of Rome, during Ovid’s time. Most of his sources are romanized version of Greek myths, so they are greek stories but transformed in varies way and details changed.

Style

In terms of style, the Metamorphous is filled with very diverse, and seemingly disconnected narratives - these stories have very little to do with each other. The genius of these stories is the way he links these stories, for example, shared geography, character, narrators, topic, image etc. So there are all these inventive ways Ovid uses to link these stories to build connections that we otherwise wouldn’t have noticed, he also uses the technique of embedded narratives where there are stories within stories and multiple shifting narrators in different perspectives. He is not only able to give us the story of the creation of the world to the present day but he is able to show us through all these different perspectives; all these different visions of the world.

Themes

There is an explicit theme of transformation which is what links all these stories together, as they all deal with some sort of transformation but there is also a theme of extreme passion; love, desire, hatred, lust, despair. All these emotions are expressed to the readers in their extreme state, the most violent forms and we see what that does to do human behaviour. There is also some political context and his attitude towards Augustus.

Purpose

Ovid’s purpose was to make his fame as a poet and fulfil his own poetic expression. Certainly, a large purpose was for entertainment and pleasure, the beauty of the stories and humour, tragedy and emotions. The stories are not meant to be taken literally, however, it does encourage the readers to think what it is like to be humans and the way humans experience passion, relationships with others and life in the world. The gods and divine figures in the Metamorphoses were really more like philosophical concepts which made it not a religious text as much as it is an artistic and philosophical text.

Bibliography

1. Ovid, Frazer, J & Goold, G n.d., Fasti, Loeb Classical Library, London.
2. Knox, P & McKeown, J n.d., The Oxford Anthology Of Roman Literature, Oxford University Press.
3. Ovid, P & Golding, A 2002, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Penguin Classics, London.
4. Kenney, J n.d., Ovid, viewed 25 October 2019, .
5. Poetry Foundation n.d., Ovid, viewed 25 October 2019, .
6. The Roman Empire n.d., Ovid, viewed 27 October 2019, .
7. Poets.org n.d., Ovid, viewed 27 October 2019, .