Offense of Love: Ars Amatoria, Remedia Amoris, and Tristia 2

by Ovid, Julia D. Hejduk (Translation)

Ovid's Art of Love ( Ars Amatoria ) and its sequel Remedies for Love ( Remedia Amoris ) are among the most notorious poems of the ancient world. In AD 8, the emperor Augustus exiled Ovid to the shores of the Black Sea for "a poem and a mistake." Whatever the mistake may have been, the poem was certainly the Ars Amatoria , which the emperor found a bit too immoral.
            In exile, Ovid composed Sad Things ( Tristia ), which included a defense of his life and work as brilliant and cheeky as his controversial love manuals. In a poem addressed to Augustus ( Tristia 2), he argues, "Since all of life and literature is one long, steamy sex story, why single poor Ovid out?" While seemingly groveling at the emperor's feet, he creates an image of Augustus as capricious tyrant and himself as suffering artist that wins over every reader (except the one to whom it was addressed).
            Bringing together translations of the Ars Amatoria , Remedia Amoris , and Tristia 2, Julia Dyson Hejduk's The Offense of Love is the first book to include both the offense and the defense of Ovid's amatory work in a single volume. Hejduk's elegant and accurate translations, helpful notes, and comprehensive introduction will guide readers through Ovid's wickedly witty poetic tour of the literature, mythology, topography, religion, politics, and (of course) sexuality of ancient Rome.

Finalist, National Translation Award, American Literary Translators Association 

A Choice Outstanding Academic Book

Genres: Poetry, Classics

268 pages, Paperback

First published December 22, 2014

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

[Riley · Rating 2 out of 5]

the translation is good so two starts but sh*t me im tired

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been meaning to read Ovid for quite some time—since discovering Megan Kearney's online comic Beauty and the Beast, actually, which makes mention of him just often enough to prove enticing—but I had no idea he would be so much fun!

Granted, much of the credit for my enjoyment of the works included in this book is due to Julia Dyson Hejduk, whose translation, introduction, and notes strive to capture and convey the full extent of Ovid's wit, absurdity, and learnéd roguishness. I'm torn now between searching out further Ovid...and waiting until Hejduk publishes another translation so I can properly savor him.

[James Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ovid is rude, salacious, funny, erudite and worth reading repeatedly. Hejduk's translation and notes does justice to this and brings out the verbal games Ovid plays either in the translation or through the footnotes. The book was recommended to me by Professor Ingleheart at Durham as the notes are excellent for unpicking the mythological references and intertexts with other authors and as such it will be invaluable for the A-Level set text Ars III.

[Bailey Broniewicz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This translation feels slightly misplaced at times and seems to misplace Ovid within the context set up by the translators notions of "everything being a joke" especially with the last remarks. Overall a challenge I would do again.

[Lexi Dudney · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to read this for my humanities class and it was so difficult to understand

[Kit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contains a great analysis of the works and their explores the vehicles through which Ovid puts forth his poems: War, Hunting, Racing...