Essay Preview: Ovid
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Publius Ovidius Naso, also known as Ovid was a wealthy Italian equestrian born in eastern Rome around 43 B.C.E. Ovid was born into a family that had a background in law that Ovid respected, but strayed from for he had a love for poetry. Ovid preferred to deal with history or imaginary circumstances in regards to Literature. His speeches seemed as if they were poems without meter. Ovid lived in Italy for approximately a year where his father tried to persuade him to return to Rome to take part in legal positions of lesser importance, but Ovid was not fond of the work and was not strong in politics. Born after the death of Julius Caesar, Ovid was too young to experience the hardships of the civil war. Ovid wrote of love and romance, how to seduce a woman, the qualities of sex without the recollection and value of commitment. He also wrote of the unpredictable nature of things and the erratic manner of the forms of nature. Unlike Virgil and Horace, famous poets among Ovids time, who wrote of patriotic faith and morality, Ovid wrote of sex, love, lust, and the twisted ways of life.
Remedia Amoris
is an 814-line poem. It means “Loves Remedy, or The Cure for Love”. This poem was almost like a handbook. It included advice and ways to avoid being hurt by love or feelings. These tactics included how to leave a partner by being as busy as one can, having many affairs, having sexual relations in an unpleasant manner, and avoiding places where couples would be. He also included what to do after one was parted from their partner. Among these strategies were avoiding drinking alcohol if possible, ignoring jealousy, clearing the mind of the concept of enemies or rivals, and getting rid of anything that would remind one of their ex partner.
Ibis was a single remaining poem that was far from anything romantic or pleasant. In this poem, an anonymous person is being cursed with punishments and is threatened thou rout the poem. The word Ibis was referred to something tainted. The Romans referred to it as an “unclean bird”, hence the title of the work.
In 8 C.E. Ovid was banished by the Emperor Augustus under perplexing conditions. There are speculations that the supposed criticisms in the Metamorphoses were what caused Ovid to be banished. It was believed that his Ars Amatoria could have also been a contribution to the reason for his exile, Intended for men and women, it included ways of winning a womans heart, keeping a significant other, and giving women advice on how to attract a man. Ovids commemoration of extramarital relations seemed to taint the encouragement of values