Ovid is by far the greatest Roman poet. Certainly, Vergil's work must not be overlooked, with his excellent style and powerful emotion (a favorite scene of mine is the death of Laocoon); however, Ovid surpasses Rome's poet laureate by leaps and bounds: Ovid's dactylic hexameter is ornate and precise, and his poetry contains a daring irreverence that outraged Augustus. Few authors have surpassed the power of Ovid's pen, and his _Metamorphoses_ is his best work.

Although I am not entirely impressed with pedestrian prose translations of poetry, the Lobe edition's side-by-side translation provides the reader an adequate aid to begin to grasp the poet's beauty.

(If one desires to read Ovid's _Metamorphoses_ in English, I highly recommend Rolfe Humprhies's excellent translation.)

The Metamorphoses, of course, is one of, if not the, classical world's greatest mythological treatises. The Loeb edition's convenient format of original Latin text opposite a clear, concise English translation is invaluable for anyone who has ever been interested in Latin, and a wonderful study guide for the Latin scholar. Highly recommended.

This is truly a fantastic book, and one which is a joy to read no matter what your level of proficiency with Latin is (though you should have the basics down first, i.e., first-year college Latin or the equivalent). Dr. Lafleur gives you the ultimate in easy-to-use formats: it has running vocabulary and notes on the opposite page from the Latin as well as underneathe it. It also has a Latin glossary in the back, thus making it very, very easy to use. The notes include great comments on grammar, sytlistic points, and rhetorical figures as well as on the sound of the Latin poetry itself (Dr. Lafleur really wants you to pay attention to the auricular beauty of the poetry). This is truly the way Latin texts ought to be taught to students. Too often teachers give students editions of Latin texts without any vocabulary and very little commentary and then wonder why kids lose interest and/or cannot get very far. A possible--and sad--outgrowth of this seems to be that some teachers include a lot of "Latin in translation" in their Latin classes, perhaps out of frustration with students not being able to read enough during the semester? Well, whatever the reason, that wouldn't be necessary if we had more editions like this one. Quite simply, rather than sitting there with grammar books and dictionaries and notes lieing on your desk trying to pick through a Latin text like a mathematical problem (the horror!), you can just lie back with this edition and enjoy Ovid in the original, leaving the translation to the vulgar!

Ovid may be the perfect poet for this type of treatment (a collection of selections from his works in English translation by [give or take a few] 75 translators ranging from Arthur Golding - who inspired Shakespeare - to Rolfe Humphries [the translator probably seen most frequently on the shelves of bookstores and used bookstores in recent decades, and who's work is highly regarded by the editors of this volume...) The ability to draw out separate stories (from the Metamorphoses) or speeches, etc. from his other works allowed the editors to present each translator in a more or less complete extract... (I was going to include selected lines from some of the translations I found charming, but they lose too much out of context...but if you're interested in lyric poetry - Elizabethan on up (though there are selections from before that) - it's a very enjoyable read...) Each of the translators has a little something written about him as-well-as having his work sort of rated in relation to all his peers over time... These intro's are as interesting to read as the selections themselves. This is a wonderful book if you have an interest in Ovid as well as a desire to read, say, Francis Beaumont's translation of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus from the Metamophoses or a Henry Fielding translation from the Art of Love... (There are 32 pages of selections from the hard-to-find Golding translation alone...)

The top writer in one of the most powerful empires the world has ever known was mysteriously banished from the capital city by the mighty emperor Augustus himself for scandalous reasons ordered to be kept secret by Augustus and still secret to this day. This wonderful book contains the voice of this great exiled poet as he laments and expresses his personal feelings on his fate, never revealing the "secret", but offering us tantalizing clues as if he longs for someone someday to discover the forbidden truth of the Emperor's wrath. These two works, "Tristia," and "Letters from the Black Sea," have been largely ignored through the ages, left standing in the shadows of the famous "Metamorphoses" and Ovid's love poems. For those who wish to read the personal poetry, the "diary," of an exiled poet, this book is an absolute treasure. After reading this book, the reader can not help but feel as if he or she has now come to know Ovid on a friendly, intimate level. This book is a must for the serious lover of great literature.

I have been taking an intensive second year latin course, and we have used quite a few book during the class. This is by far the best for enabling you to learn to read latin that hasn't been made up specifically for students.

Each page contains 4-8 lines of latin, which are numbered every 5 lines. This takes about a third of the page. The rest of each page is left for extensive notes on the latin. The notes include unusual vocabulary, historical notes, translation of unusual phrases, and explainations of constructs used. For example it points out instances of chiasmus, which are arrangments of words in an ABBA pattern. This kind of thing is very useful because it allows you to get used to the unusual but regular word ordering that is found in latin poetry. One other thing I especially liked about the notes is that they always gave a full dictionary entry when saying what a word means (so you can then determine by the morphology what role the word is playing).

The book also has several other sections. First is a question and answers section which is a good place to check when anything is confusing you. It will point show what selected words and clauses are doing in a sentance, what they're modifying, disambiguate cases, etc. There are sections on different uses and terms related to meter, as well as figures of speech common in poetry. The final feature is one of the most useful....a dictionary with every single word used throughout the book. It is much faster to look a word up here rather than in a complete dictionary, and it provides the meaning that is most likely to be used in the context of the poems.

Overall, this is a great book.

Ovid, maybe the greatest Roman poet of the Augustan period, was famous not only for his "Metamorphoses" but also his works on the art of love. It was these works which dragged him into scandal and censorship of his works. Yes, as long as there has been authority, authority has been afraid of rebels. For his scandalous works and perhaps for some political reasons Ovid was exiled to the ends of the empire, the equivalent of Siberia to the Romans. He would live out the rest of his days away from everything and everyone he had ever known. This work tries to chronicle his thoughts and actions in those last years in the village of Tomia on the Black Sea. Ovid only has the memories of his past to give him consolation in his loneliness. In particular, he has memories of encounters with a wild boy raised by wolves that he last saw as a young boy. During a hunt with the villagers he sees what he believes to be this very same wild boy. He convinces the village headman to capture the boy and Ovid sets about trying to civilize the Child into what he believes to be humanity. Ironically, it is Ovid who finds himself being educated. This is a short and beautiful book. Its transcendent message of casting off the past and finding your destiny is one very relevant to our age. We have lost touch with primal nature.

The title of this review is from Ovid's Metamorphoses. It has been quite some time since I read of Hercules, Pygmalion, Thisbe, and a host of others. I do not believe the original Ovid must be read to enjoy Mr. David Malouf's book, but it certainly add to the experience. The irony is Ovid's work is probably four or five times the length, and even a greater consumer of time. A general grasp of what he wrote will suffice. The book also can be read with no reference material, and perhaps that is as the Author intended, each reader will have to decide.

In his work, "An Imaginary Life", the Author takes you to an Ovid in exile. His Emperor has sent him away to a place he knows nothing of, amongst a people as different from he as perhaps can be imagined, and without the ability to communicate at all. Time facilitates the learning of language, and the differences that first are so extreme between Ovid and his fellow inhabitants moderate if they do not disappear.

The catalyst for much of the effort to learn is a "creature" that also is present among Ovid and his neighbors. This is what I believe to be the "shape transformde" in Mr. Malouf's tale. Many are changed when the story is complete, perhaps most importantly Ovid. Mr. Malouf makes many points about nature, the definition of what it is to be human, and human relations. However for me this was not the most fascinating event while reading.

The Author places Ovid in the midst of a situation where everything is unknown to him. Perhaps the most dramatic unknown is a young child that lives among the Deer that he is said to have grown up amongst. When Ovid becomes aware of the child, he desires to capture the boy. His experiences with his plan, his preconceptions, and the very different views of those he hunts the Child with, are fascinating, and wonderfully original. Some may argue that since this work flows as a result of the writings of one of History's great poets the work by definition cannot be unique, only derivative. And such a point is well taken.

But to label this work derivative is to do the Author an injustice. He has taken a man who has greatly influenced literature, and in a manner of speaking dropped Ovid into an environment where Ovid is no longer the creator, the narrator, he is the subject. He is the subject not only of his ideas, and preconceptions, he is subject to them as well. Mr. Malouf places Ovid in an environment and with players that contain what Ovid so often wrote of. In this book he being subjected to the experience, not creating it, and Mr. Malouf pays tribute to the man by the quality of what he has created.

Again the more of Ovid you bring with you, the deeper you will be able to involve yourself in the Author's purpose. I was forced to go back and refresh my memory, and because I did, I do not believe I experienced all the Author intended. If you read this after Ovid's own work, I believe the experience will be even better.

David Malouf, the talented Australian author of this novel, often writes of cultural conflict or misunderstanding, and he never fails to convey the tensions felt by his protagonists as they grapple with the demons they face. I probably should have had more faith when I began this novel, but the plot line is so bizarre that I couldn't imagine becoming involved with these characters. Exiled to a remote part of Asia Minor where he knows no one, does not understand the culture, and does not speak the language, the Roman poet Ovid, after failing to become an integral part of his new community, makes contact with a wild child who has been living with wolves, the only being more isolated than he. As the unlikely pair begins to communicate, the author's themes of identity, value, and truth take shape and lead to an inevitable conclusion. Ultimately, I did begin to identify with Ovid and to share the feelings of the wolf child, a tribute to the awesome ability of this author to create new worlds.

Jane Alison's novel, The Love Artist, takes a little that is known and a lot that is unknown concerning the writer Ovid and his banishment from ancient Rome and creates a beautifully written tale of love and transformations. The character of Xenia, a woman both from, but not of, the Black Sea area is the personality that the story revolves around. She is like Ovid's writing come to life and she inspires him to greater heights. The author makes this ancient world come alive and is successful in fashioning breathing personalities for both Ovid and Xenia. The story, though, at times feels like a novella and the fascinating character of Julia, the emperor's grand-daughter (who will share a fate with Ovid) sometimes seems lost behind the two major characters when she should have been given a little more space. That aside, this is a pleasant, sweetly-voiced novel about a man who will live forever.

This fascinating novel may seem at first to be a well-written romance or frothy bit of historical fiction. Alison's style from the outset is sensuously heavy, filled with lush impressions from an exotic area "on the farthest coast of the Black Sea, in the corner of the maps where sea monsters coiled...." The Roman poet Ovid is in self-exile here, having offended the moralistic Emperor Augustus with his erotic book, The Art of Love, and we come to empathize with him through his interior monologues. The dense imagery so familiar in Ovid's poetry shines here, not only in his description of Pontus, but also of the beguiling Xenia, a priestess and practitioner of magic, who, if she resembles the cover photo in any way, is a most bewitching creature of seemingly supernatural power. She is much like the mythical witch Medea, the area's most renowned character and "heroine" of Euripedes' terrifying tragedy of the same name.

When Xenia returns to Rome with Ovid, however, the exoticism and romanticism become less an end in themselves and more a part of the psychological atmosphere, and the author begins actively to solicit the reader's curiosity. Ovid, with Augustus's granddaughter Julia as his patroness and Xenia as his inspiration, begins work on his play Medea, from which only two lines have survived to the present day. Here the novel is less straightforward and less overtly romantic, acquiring a sense of great mystery, consistent with the mystery both of Ovid's tragic play and of the Medea legend itself.

Love, jealousy, revenge, rage, the fear of rejection, and the desire for immortality, so vividly exemplified in the tragedy of the legendary Medea, find their parallels in life here, as Xenia, Ovid, and Julia play out the triangle of misunderstandings which leads to the inevitable conclusion--Ovid's banishment. Omitting all the usual authorial signals that clue the reader about what s/he is supposed to think and feel, Alison reveals instead what Xenia, Ovid, and Julia, are thinking and feeling, leaving it up to the reader to figure out what has happened to these characters that makes them feel and act the way they do. The drama of this remarkable novel comes fully to life, and the reader begins to feel that s/he is participating in the inexorable falling action of a real, classical tragedy. This startlingly original and intense novel is a pleasure to read slowly--it ultimately enthralls because even its conclusion is elusive.

Note: Lovers of this novel may also be intrigued with David Malouf's equally unusual novel, An Imaginary Life, which begins where this novel ends, with Ovid's banishment.

How many of us remember our days at school -- high school or college -- having the classics rammed down our throats, when a gentler method might have instilled in more of us an appeciation and love for the masterful works of Greece and Rome in their heyday? Ovid, of course (at least when I was in school, lo these many years ago) was glossed over by my teachers -- his works were far too seeded in the 'forbidden' emotions of physical love for the school boards of the day.

Jane Alison's incredible novel THE LOVE-ARTIST brings Ovid, his contemporaries and their society vividly to life for the reader -- the story she tells is no cold biography, but a living, breathing imagined life. Her characters -- Ovid, and especially Xenia -- are enthralling, exotic, erotic and (most importantly) BELIEVABLE. Their thoughts and emotions and motives, as layed out for us in this enthralling tale, make for as compelling a read as I've come across in recent years.

The story begins with Ovid being exiled from Rome by the emperor Augustus -- he is being transported through the Roman night seated on a wagon, flanked by two soldiers saddled with the boring (to them) duty of ridding Augustus of one more irritation. As the great poet begins to recall the events that led to his societal downfall, the rest of the story is told in a lengthy flashback.

On holiday on the Black Sea, far from Rome, as his masterpiece THE METAMORPHOSES is about to be published, Ovid is seeking both relaxation from the tensions of life in Rome as well as inspiration. He knows that in order to regain favour in the eyes of the emperor, his next work must be not only astounding in its scope, but acceptable to the powers-that-be. Almost as soon as he sets foot on land after his long sea journey, he is astonished to see a beautiful, exotic, wild young woman shoot up out of the sea as if she had been launched by a catapult.

She is Xenia -- gatherer of herbs, caster of spells, exorcisor of demons, reader of dreams and futures among the people in the remote region where she lives. She captures Ovid's imagination -- and his heart -- almost immediately. He sees in her all of the wild creatures from his METAMORPHOSES brought to life in a human being -- and he sees in her a muse, his inspiration for his next work. He becomes obsessed with her -- he must have her, he must bring her back with him to Rome.

Xenia is fully aware of Ovid's work -- and she soon comes to realize that the lanky Roman who is watching her from his hidden (he thinks) spot in the woods is the great poet she has so long admired. She is not completely wild -- she can read Latin, and has devoured Ovid's books. She is equally obsessed with him -- she sees in him a great opportunity for immortality, to be famous. They set their sights on each other almost simultaneously -- and the machinations they first have in mind give way in both of them to love.

The tale that follows -- with Ovid returning to Rome with Xenia -- is part love story, part mystery, a small epic of betrayal and magic and political power. Alison's writing is achingly lyrical -- it is perfectly suited to her subject, matching her imaginings of Ovid's life with the mood left us from the genius of his own writings. The story is enthralling and hard to put down -- and one of the finest novels I've read in some time. The experience was so rich that I didn't want it to end -- even as it whirled to its inevitable conclusion (which, thankfully, Alison's talents imbued with not a few surprises).

This novel is a real treat.

The Amores, by Publius Ovidius Naso, will leave your loins on fire and your heart as cold as ice. Coming from a time of Roman warriors and Greek gods, Publius Ovidius Naso, better known as Ovid, set the world and its many women on fire. With his mentions of charm and perfect bodies, he captures his audiences' hormones, as well as their imaginations. In The Amores, Ovid expresses sexual reminiscences of a woman named Corrina who may just as well be fictional. He tells us of her beautiful long hair and the body she possesses that is nothing short of perfect. Ovid shares with us his analysis of love as well as life.

Review: Ovid's Amores
The three books of Ovid's Amores depict a mockery of the values held during the first century of the Christian era. Ovid attempts to show the world the lack of importance in the great virtues presented in many of the major epics of the time. Amores uses satire to describe the author's wooing of women to waging war. It suggests that Ovid's efforts to romance his lovers are much more essential to life than the battles that are taking place during the time period. In that, he proposes that one should live for the day. Duty and valor are all pointless in the end. These ideas were of course very unpopular with the emperor Augustus. After the writing of one of his works the emperor banished Ovid from Rome.
Ovid was a Roman elegist who expressed a carpe diem attitude during a time where duty and honor were more valuable than life itself. He was born Publius Ovidus Naso in the town of Sulmo (now called Sulmona), near Rome in the year 43 BC. He was a highly educated man, originally skilled in the art of law. However, his passion was for literature and he spent a great deal of his time writing his own works rather than studying the past. His poetry of love probably stems from his own relationships, for by the age of 30 he had married three times and was divorced twice, with rumors of affairs. He lived an extravagant life and was well-it respected by the people of Rome. This high profile Roman life lasted until approached the age of 50 when he was banished from Rome by Augustus. The reasons behind the banishment are unclear. Some say it is a result of a disapproval by Augustus of Ovid's work while others say that Ovid knew too much of a scandal that involved the emperor's daughter Julia. He was exiled to Tomi, in the Roman province of Dacia, and although he never lost his citizenship, he never returned to Rome and died in Tomi in the 17 AD.
Ovid's works can be categorized into three periods: his early works, his middle works, and the works written after his exile from Rome. His works, in contrast to popular works of the time such as Vergil's Aenied, are sharp in contrast. Although his ideas ran contrary to the beliefs of the time, Ovid was extremely popular in Rome. Amores was written in his early period, when the focus of his writings was on love. His middle works concentrate more on mythology and creationism, while his latter works, those written after his exile, have a depressing and bitter tone. He is said to have influence many English writers, including William Shakespeare and John Milton, and was one of the Roman poets with a tremendous impact on the writers of both the Middle Age and Renaissance periods.
During this time period in Rome the emperor Augustus favored and promoted the ideas of honor and duty. Those loyal to Rome were expected to embrace these values without question. Because of this writers such as Vergil gained much approval with the emperor. Their writings embraced these ideas and even portrayed them as being greater than love. Ovid's style and theme in Amores as with most of his writings favors a less dutiful attitude toward life.
Ovid's Amores also known as The Erotic Poems describes the poet's love affair with a woman named Corinna. In a series of three books Ovid depicts the phases of his relationship. He starts buy telling us how he came to write about love, and his encounter with cupid. (...)Corinna becomes the target of Ovid's love. During an afternoon he tells us of a rendezvous experienced with his new found love and spares little detail. As Ovid goes through his tale of love with Corinna he describes many experiences with her that begin to change from beginning to end. Ovid begins comparing his love affair and love in general to the efforts of war. (...) Here we see his analogy of war with love. When Carinna locks Ovid out during the writing of an epic he explains the unimportance of his work. (...)Ovid explains how his words are more effective then the strongest weapons. Poetry can open the doors of any young girl. Ovid's message is clear throughout Amores. Things such as duty and honor should not be worried about. One must live for the moment.

(...)

Ovid, the young dandy none of the most beautiful women of Rome could resist, in the Amores describes his crazy love to the etera Corinna. There is one obstacle to this love. Ovid, as a young artist, lacks money and she is encharged by a rich man for long. The young and charming Ovid, though, meets her secretly. From poem to poem, the Relationship develops. Very funny scenes are to be found, when the young lovers try to avoid the control of Corinna's sponsor, e.g. as the three of them are invited at the same party, or when Ovid discovers that Corinnas erotic skills have increased and learned things that Ovid for his part has not told her. You simply enjoy the light an witty style of the poems. As to the Art of Love, Ovid uses the genre of Didactic Poetry to write a brilliant parody of Love's euphory and melancholy. The "master of love" as he calls himself, particularly teaches us not to take love that seriously- an occasion to flirting is everywhere, and "at first you shall be convinced that every woman can be conquered." The third book is written for women- I cannot say if the advises given are good- but a girl-friend of mine confesses to hate Ovid because he has discovered so many strategies which should not be made public. Also the Art is worth reading as marvellous literature anyway- one of the most funny books about love! The shorter Cures of Love and Facial Treatment for Ladies are only short Appendices, but also nice to read. With all these works Ovid proves to be a master of the art of love as well as of poetry.

This is a really excellent book! I love it for the first reading, and I love it more at the second! Everyone who wants to think about the mankind, the history, the politics or the arts must read it.

The borders of the past and the present do not count any more. Fiction and reality take place in same time. To read this poetic and beautiful but dark lines, to imagine how Ovids exile at the Black Sea passed by, to get to know the old and strange stories of roman and greek mythologie, ... It is not at all amazing that Ransmayr got the highest european literature price for the Last World in 1992. How actual his story is shows the example of Romania of 1989 where the publication of the Last World was forbidden.

This novel has a very Eastern European flavor, with attitudes about power and empire that recall another Austrian, Robert Musil. Ransmayr's writing is beautiful and he has an excellent voice. I found it to be difficult, but very rewarding in the end.

A collection of stories that we grew up hearing, but with all new skin. These re-tellings give new blood to Ovid and infuse his timeless book with modern spirit. Give: Apollo and Daphne packs a punch with its Elivs-like god and neo-feminist victim. A bevy of talented writers prove that familiar plots do not have to retain their old luster but can be polished anew. After Ovid is a wonderful way to loose yourself in imagination as you see the familiar become at once perverse and natal and finally familiar again.