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Sex Education: Ovidian Erotodidactic in the Classroom

Ralph Hexter

in The Art of Love: Bimillennial Essays on Ovid's Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris

This chapter charts the curious history of Ovid's erotodidactic works as school texts over the past thousand years, in which the poems became popular for either their (innocent) Latinity or their ... More

This chapter charts the curious history of Ovid's erotodidactic works as school texts over the past thousand years, in which the poems became popular for either their (innocent) Latinity or their raunchy messages.Less

Ars Amatoria Romana: Ovid on Love as a Cultural Construct

Volk Katharina

in The Art of Love: Bimillennial Essays on Ovid's Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris

This chapter, concentrating on the rhetoric of the praeceptor, argues that love-making is presented in Ars specifically as a cultural construct, in that the poem's instructions are consciously ... More

This chapter, concentrating on the rhetoric of the praeceptor, argues that love-making is presented in Ars specifically as a cultural construct, in that the poem's instructions are consciously directed towards a specific audience, namely certain sectors of Roman society, at a (broadly) specific time, namely contemporary Augustan Rome.Less

Ovid’s Evolution

Molly Myerowitz Levine

in The Art of Love: Bimillennial Essays on Ovid's Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris

This chapter argues that Ovid shows an awareness of not only the culturally specific aspects of love-making, but also those aspects that are universal and paralleled in the natural world. It is ... More

This chapter argues that Ovid shows an awareness of not only the culturally specific aspects of love-making, but also those aspects that are universal and paralleled in the natural world. It is suggested, therefore, that the overall tenor of the Ars is one closer to the tenets of modern evolutionary science than to cultural specificity.Less

Ovid in Defeat? On the reception of Ovid’s Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris

Genevieve Liveley

in The Art of Love: Bimillennial Essays on Ovid's Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris

This chapter focuses on a single poem from twentieth century poet Robert Graves to explore Graves' close critical engagement with Ovid's Ars and Remedia – an engagement that, on a more general level, ... More

This chapter focuses on a single poem from twentieth century poet Robert Graves to explore Graves' close critical engagement with Ovid's Ars and Remedia – an engagement that, on a more general level, comments on the challenges of reading (and misreading) Ovid's poetry over the past millennium.Less

Lessons in Love: Fifty Years of Scholarship on the Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris

Steven J. Green

in The Art of Love: Bimillennial Essays on Ovid's Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris

This chapter explores the critical scholarship on Ovid's Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoria over the past fifty years, and situates the present contributions into that scholarship.

Ariadne and Ovid

REBECCA ARMSTRONG

in Cretan Women: Pasiphae, Ariadne, and Phaedra in Latin Poetry

This chapter focuses on the depiction of Ariadne by Ovid. Ovid gives extended attention to the story of Ariadne in three of his works, following later events along the narrative line in later poems, ... More

This chapter focuses on the depiction of Ariadne by Ovid. Ovid gives extended attention to the story of Ariadne in three of his works, following later events along the narrative line in later poems, moving from Ariadne freshly deserted in Heroides 10, to the approach of Bacchus in Ars Amatoria 1, to a later moment when she finds herself deserted once more, this time by her divine husband, in Fasti 3.2 Although the same, or similar, elements naturally recur in all three episodes, there is a palpable sense of difference and of development which can be perceived in Ariadne's movement from a well-known mythical figure speaking for herself, through an incarnation as didactic exemplum, and into the realization of a future life which, it turns out, cannot escape from its troubled past even whilst theoretical happiness and immortality beckon.Less

Ovid, Augustus, and the Politics of Moderation in Ars Amatoria 3

Roy K. Gibson

in The Art of Love: Bimillennial Essays on Ovid's Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris

This chapter focuses on Ars 3, assessing the political implications of the praeceptor's advice of moderation in several aspects of women's lives. Instead of observing the traditional stereotypes that ... More

This chapter focuses on Ars 3, assessing the political implications of the praeceptor's advice of moderation in several aspects of women's lives. Instead of observing the traditional stereotypes that linked hairstyle, clothing, and use of cosmetics to either sexual purity or sexual promiscuity, Ovid advocates a principle of individual decorum; this Ovidian strategy can be felt to clash with Augustus's Leges Iuliae, which had reinforced the polar stereotypes for meretrix and matrona by requiring women to dress according to their sexual status.Less

Erotic Aetiology: Romulus, Augustus, and the Rape of the Sabine Women

Mario Labate

in The Art of Love: Bimillennial Essays on Ovid's Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris

This chapter argues that the first digression of the poem involving Romulus and the Sabine women, which draws attention to the absence of ars in the process of selecting a mate, acts as an effective ... More

This chapter argues that the first digression of the poem involving Romulus and the Sabine women, which draws attention to the absence of ars in the process of selecting a mate, acts as an effective anti-exemplum to make more prominent the positive teaching of the Ars as a whole.Less

Women on Top: Livia and Andromache

Alessandro Barchiesi

in The Art of Love: Bimillennial Essays on Ovid's Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris

This chapter sees both the Leges Iuliae and the Ars Amatoria as creative attempts to redraw the boundaries for different groups of women. Focussing on two named individuals – the historical ‘first ... More

This chapter sees both the Leges Iuliae and the Ars Amatoria as creative attempts to redraw the boundaries for different groups of women. Focussing on two named individuals – the historical ‘first lady’ Livia and the mythological Andromache – it demonstrates the ways in which these two women at one time represent polar opposites (the ideal wife and the concubine respectively), and at another appear to occupy a ‘middle ground’ between the two poles. The instability of female categorisation in the Ars is, in turn, a (playful) commentary on the negotiation of gender roles in the Augustan age.Less

Paelignus, puto, dixerat poeta (Mart. 2. 41. 2): Martial’s Intertextual Dialogue with Ovid’s Erotodidactic Poems

Markus Janka

in The Art of Love: Bimillennial Essays on Ovid's Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris

This chapter argues for creative intertextual dialogue between Martial and Ovid's erotodidactic poems, whereby Martial can be seen to test the strengths and weaknesses of Ovid's advice when the ... More

This chapter argues for creative intertextual dialogue between Martial and Ovid's erotodidactic poems, whereby Martial can be seen to test the strengths and weaknesses of Ovid's advice when the latter is applied to the more ‘extreme’ amatory environment of epigram.Less

Structuring Instruction: Didactic Poetry and Didactic Prose *

G. O. Hutchinson

in Talking Books: Readings in Hellenistic and Roman Books of Poetry

Latin didactic poems commonly have several books, unlike Hellenistic didactic poems. The details of beginning and ending show a significant relation with the books of Hellenistic and Republican prose ... More

Latin didactic poems commonly have several books, unlike Hellenistic didactic poems. The details of beginning and ending show a significant relation with the books of Hellenistic and Republican prose treatises: Latin didactic does not simply transmute prose but evokes its intellectual structuring and division. Lucretius, Virgil's Georgics, Ovid's Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris, and Manilius are looked at in turn; there are implications for Ovid's design. The final myth of Georgics 4 is related to Cicero, De Re Publica; antithetical poetic books are related to antithetical books of Latin prose. Clarity and brevity are goals in Lucretius and in prose. Didactic prose as well as poetry is seen to have stylistic range and structural enterprise: dialogue in Varro illustrates.Less

Ars Venandi: The Art of Hunting in Grattius’ and Ovid’s

Christina Tsaknaki

in Grattius: Hunting an Augustan Poet

This chapter explores thematic affinities between Grattius and Ovid’s Ars Amatoria, focusing on the connection between lover and hunter, the importance of mental skill as a complement to pure ... More

This chapter explores thematic affinities between Grattius and Ovid’s Ars Amatoria, focusing on the connection between lover and hunter, the importance of mental skill as a complement to pure physical exertion, and the art of hunting as a civilizing force. It is argued, moreover, that the interplay between brawn and brains, articulated in Grattius as a contrast between arma and ars, allows him to engage with the ‘Callimachean’ aesthetic literary debate as played out in Augustan poetry and in Ovid in particular: Grattius’ opening sections on thinly wrought nets and deceptive snares can be seen to offer significant potential for metapoetic readings.Less

The Art of Remedia Amoris: Unlearning to Love?

Gianpiero Rosati

in The Art of Love: Bimillennial Essays on Ovid's Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris

This chapter detects in the intertextual resonances of the Remedia a reaffirmation of the overriding power of love.

Vixisset Phyllis, si me foret usa magistro Erotodidaxis and Intertextuality

Duncan F. Kennedy

in The Art of Love: Bimillennial Essays on Ovid's Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris

This chapter takes up the invitation offered by the praeceptor in Ars 3 to (re-)read the Heroides as part of an implicit love-lesson: by ‘re-enacting’ scenarios in the letters with a certain level of ... More

This chapter takes up the invitation offered by the praeceptor in Ars 3 to (re-)read the Heroides as part of an implicit love-lesson: by ‘re-enacting’ scenarios in the letters with a certain level of detachment, Ovid suggests that the pupil may be able both to empathise with the heroine's words and to assess their erotodidactic significance. Focussing on two of the letters – those of Ariadne and Phyllis – the chapter demonstrates how the Heroides can be used by the female reader both to reinforce the praeceptor's advice and to offer additional, ‘extra-curricular’ instruction.Less

In Ovid With Bed (Ars 2 and 3)

John Henderson

in The Art of Love: Bimillennial Essays on Ovid's Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris

This chapter argues that the apparent ‘surprise’ of a third book to the Ars – addressed to women – has, in fact, been subtly telegraphed by Ovid's assertions in Ars 1-2 of the need for parity between ... More

This chapter argues that the apparent ‘surprise’ of a third book to the Ars – addressed to women – has, in fact, been subtly telegraphed by Ovid's assertions in Ars 1-2 of the need for parity between the sexes and for the male to be vanquished.Less

The Art of Making Oneself Hated: Rethinking (Anti-)Augustanism in Ovid’s Ars Amatoria

Sergio Casali

in The Art of Love: Bimillennial Essays on Ovid's Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris

This chapter focuses on the most overtly ‘Augustan’ part of the Ars – the Parthian expedition of Gaius Caesar (1.171-228) – and invites us to read the event as an episode that exposes tensions in the ... More

This chapter focuses on the most overtly ‘Augustan’ part of the Ars – the Parthian expedition of Gaius Caesar (1.171-228) – and invites us to read the event as an episode that exposes tensions in the dynastic family, and draws attention to the spectacle and theatricality of the Emperor's Parthian campaign.Less

Staging the Reader Response: Ovid and His‘Contemporary Audience’ in Ars and Remedia

Niklas Holzberg

in The Art of Love: Bimillennial Essays on Ovid's Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris

This chapter argues that the last couplet of Ars 2, which expresses the intention to compose a further book of instruction (this time for women), comes as a surprise, but one in keeping with Ovid's ... More

This chapter argues that the last couplet of Ars 2, which expresses the intention to compose a further book of instruction (this time for women), comes as a surprise, but one in keeping with Ovid's didactic strategies and the staging of reader response found elsewhere in Ovid and other poets.Less

Pasiphae in the Eclogues and Ars Amatoria

REBECCA ARMSTRONG

in Cretan Women: Pasiphae, Ariadne, and Phaedra in Latin Poetry

This chapter focuses on depictions of Pasiphae in the Eclogues and Ars Amatoria. In much Latin poetry, Pasiphae tends to be given a brief, frowning reference, a figure who represents in short-hand ... More

This chapter focuses on depictions of Pasiphae in the Eclogues and Ars Amatoria. In much Latin poetry, Pasiphae tends to be given a brief, frowning reference, a figure who represents in short-hand the worst excesses of female passion and deceitfulness. Yet despite the inclination to stereotype when Pasiphae makes a cameo appearance, the only two substantial treatments of her story in Augustan poetry present the reader with quite different, and challenging, views of the myth. Vergil offers an unusually subtle, sympathetic account of the queen's love; Ovid takes a more traditional tack, mixing disapproval with ridicule, but by mediating his version through Eclogue 6 and other poetic influences, he still creates a figure far more complex than the cliché she is supposed to represent.Less

Love in Parentheses: Digression and Narrative Hierarchy in Ovid’s Erotodidactic Poems

Alison Sharrock

in The Art of Love: Bimillennial Essays on Ovid's Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris

This chapter rethinks the relationship between ‘digression’ and ‘main text’ in didactic poetry. By looking at both the narrative ‘digressions’ and the ‘action’ of central characters implicit in the ... More

This chapter rethinks the relationship between ‘digression’ and ‘main text’ in didactic poetry. By looking at both the narrative ‘digressions’ and the ‘action’ of central characters implicit in the instructional parts of the text, it is argued that both parts can be seen to work together, rather than in opposition, in the creation of an ‘implied narrative’. It might even be argued that it is the instructional parts which are obstructive, in that they slow down the instructional momentum of the ‘digressional’ stories.Less