Ovid in Love: Ovid's Amores

by Ovid, Guy Lee (Translator), John Ward (Illustrator)

The timeless verse of the great Roman poet Ovid revels in universal themes of sensuality, desire, joy, passion, and love, in this translation of the ancient Latin works.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Fiction, Romance

127 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

Publius Ovidius Naso (20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horatius, with whom he is often ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love elegists. Although Ovid enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime, the emperor Augustus exiled him to Tomis, the capital of the newly-organised province of Moesia, on the Black Sea, where he remained for the last nine or ten years of his life. Ovid himself attributed his banishment to a "poem and a mistake", but his reluctance to disclose specifics has resulted in much speculation among scholars.
Ovid is most famous for the Metamorphoses, a continuous mythological narrative in fifteen books written in dactylic hexameters. He is also known for works in elegiac couplets such as Ars Amatoria ("The Art of Love") and Fasti. His poetry was much imitated during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and greatly influenced Western art and literature. The Metamorphoses remains one of the most important sources of classical mythology today.

Reviews

[Praj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ovid is in love!! The touch of her pale gleaming skin, the slight tickle from the sway of her long lustrous hair that bounces on those wonderful voluptuous arches and the slender torso giving way to a pair of youthful thighs worthy of praise; Ovid is downright horny for Corinna nurturing a burning desire to explore her warm velvety trail.



Hardly a poetry enthusiast with my last poetic comprehension being Keats’Ode On A Grecian Urn And Other Poems , selecting Amores was purely for the melancholic erotica. It got me thinking, if anyone of us(emphasizing on “me”) has ever send an erotic SMS , a note or emails to the one (or many) we romantically love or lust, then maybe we all in a way are nascent poets rendering testaments of our restive hormones. I always wondered as to why the word ‘dirty’ is associated with sex. Sexual crimes are dirty, but not sex. It is messy, sweaty, pleasurable, adventurous and much better than Tylenol for a soundless sleep. And then there is the worldly question of ‘illicit love’. Is it ethical? Do the unthinkable become acceptable when the word “love” camouflages forbidden lust? Can you deceive the already deceived? Amores battles out the stranded notions of shameless acquisition of love and dissolution of its illusory facets once the reality sets in.

Coming back to my first sentence; Ovid is in love with Corinna (at least that is what he believes). Corinna, an upper-class married woman has no intentions on divorcing her affluent husband (divorce it is said was a legal procedure in ancient Rome) celebrated her sexual vanities with numerous young men, Ovid being the pivotal sexual relationship. Loyalty was never a criterion in this web of corrupt lovers with Ovid philandering with Corinna’s maid and several hourly whores equalizing Corinna’s sexual trysts. Dismissing this sexual façade in an imprudent way, labeling Corinna as a distressed housewife looking for young penises to fill up her concave yen and Ovid being a horny motherfucker who pleasure fucking and playing sexual games in the name of love would do an injustice to this brilliant piece of literature. Although, I would categorically put my money on this inference.

Written during his youthful years (presumably 19yrs as it was Ovid’s earliest works), Ovid’s poems are a candid testament of raging testosterones that create havoc muddling sanity with uncompromising urges. The sexual explorations, misinterpretations of lust, reckless antics in the heat of covetousness and a stubbornness of achieving the impossible essays the intricacies of a quixotic sexual dilemma. Corinna’s display of puritan societal lady, her clandestine abortion whilst showing no signs of waning adultery highlights hypocrisy we see or tend to bring with a holier-than –thou panache. Ovid becomes a metaphor to several sexual ventures carried in the most secretive manner where silence is gold and unsighted forays are cherished like strawberries in champagne. Amores spells out every emotion out of a torrid adulterous affair that wrecks ethical foundations of love clarifying that sexual acts does not establish love except physical gratification. The only thought that lingered much after the book ended – Did Ovid ever masturbated? And if he did indeed, how would he write about it?

[Anika · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolute horny drama queen. Very funny. But very toxic and honestly needs to learn when to keep It in his pants. Still the writing is 👌👌

[Deborah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meet Ovid, he:
Physically assaults his lovers
Mocks married women who won't sleep with him
Mocks women who do sleep with him
Then coerces them into silence
Used a lot of “if you only loved me” logic
Gaslights his lovers and the reader
Thinks he's the greatest love poet to ever live

This is by far the worst poetry I've ever read. I finished it like watching a train wreck; I just couldn't look away. While there is some historical value and there are some good standalone poems, they are ruined for me when viewed from the perspective of the rest of his ramblings.

Here's a lovely sample: He adamantly denies sleeping with his wife's slave, then in the next poem admits it, rains fire on the slave woman, and blackmails her into continuing to have sex with him.

Book II Elegy VII: Her Jealousy
So I’m always to be accused of some new crime?
Even if I win I hate fighting my case so often.
If I glance up at the heights of the marbled theatre,
you pick someone out, so you can choose to be pained:
If some lovely girl looks at my expressionless face,
secret messages are deduced from its lack of expression.
If I praise someone, you try to tear my hair out:
if I damn her, you think I’m covering up a crime.
If my colour’s good, I’m also cold towards you,
if pale, pronounced to be dying for another.
And I wish I had some guilty secret!
Those who merit punishment take it calmly:
but you accuse me rashly and, groundlessly believe it all,
you stop your own anger carrying weight.
Look, pity the long-eared ass’s fate,
continually beaten to tame him, he goes slow!
Behold a new crime! With that clever dresser Cypassis,
I’m reproached for defiling the bed of our mistress.
Think better of me than that, if I wronged you in passion,
than to joy in a common girl with a contemptible fate!
What free man would want to take up with a slave,
and embrace the scars on her whipped back?
Added to which she takes pains to dress your hair,
and a well-taught servant is dear to you –
Of course, I’d beg it of a maid so faithful to you!
What! So she could tell you she’d spurned my offer?
I swear by Venus, and the bow of her winged boy,
I won’t allow myself to be accused of crime!


Book II Elegy VIII: Cypassis!
Cypassis , expert at setting hair in a thousand styles,
worthy to adorn none but the goddesses,
and in no way naive as I know from our stolen meetings
suited to your mistress, but more suited to me –
who was it informed on our entwined bodies?
How did Corinna know about our union?
I didn’t blush? Surely no loose word at all
gave away knowledge of our secret coupling?
Why did I say anyone would be lacking in wits
if he could commit the offence with a maidservant?
Achilles burnt for the beauty of Briseis his slave,
Agamemnon made love to captive Cassandra.
I’m no greater than Achilles or Atrides:
Why should I think what suited those heroes a crime?
Anyway, when she fixed angry eyes on you,
I saw you blush all over your cheeks:
if by chance you recall, it was my great presence of mind,
to swear faithfulness by the vast power of Venus!
You, goddess, prescribe that the perjury of my chaste spirit
be blown out to sea on a warm southerly from the Aegean.
For my service to you repay me, with a sweet reward,
and sleep with me today, dark Cypassis!
Why, ungrateful girl do you refuse, and find new fears?
Only one of us is satisfied with your service.
If you say no, foolish girl, I’ll say what we’ve done before,
and become the betrayer of my own crime,
and the place where we were, and how often, Cypassis:
I’ll tell your mistress how many times, and in what ways!

[Amabel Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautifully written, don’t get me wrong. Ovid is one of the greatest poets to come from the Roman world and I can appreciate how intricate and magnificent his work is, from mythical references to profound confessions of love, this guy has done it all. HOWEVER, his work is riddled with aggression, misogyny and narcissism that even in the late Republic would not have been the norm. #justiceforcynthia. Ovid they could never make me like you x

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

This translation is not for Latin purists but is for Ovid enthusiasts. guy captures Ovid’s intentions and moods perfectly and the charcoal drawings are a perfect accompaniment. This will show you why Latin poetry and the master Ovid in particular have survived 2000 years

[Ajam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious

[Gabriella Gallagher · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's time to cancel Ovid. Again.

[Caroline Redick]

Hot

[Peet Denny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I would have been better at Latin at school if I’d have known about Ovid. Horny, petulant and sulking. Just like I was at 15.

[Isabella Hyam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ovid is down bad crying at the gym

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful and passionate. Kudos to the translator, I don't know how many liberties he took, but I like the result.

I loved the varied points of view. Sure Ovid writes about love, but so much is fueled by jealousy.

[Philsy Denofrio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ovid's finds a lover, who commits adultery with him, then cheats on him with another lover, and Ovid goes insane. Beautiful love polygon.

[Matthew Dambro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this in conjunction with Ars Amatoria. The poetry is breathtaking. My translator was Rolfe Humphries.

[Killthehumans Savetheforest · Rating 3 out of 5]

what a ridiculous person.

[RK Byers · Rating 5 out of 5]

this guy's AWESOME. I think he's finally made me, after all this time, a real poetry fan.