Ovid

Who was Ovid?

Publius Ovidius Naso, known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet best known for the Metamorphoses, a 15-book continuous mythological narrative written in the meter of epic, and for collections of love poetry in elegiac couplets, especially the Amores and Ars Amatoria. 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.

Ovid is traditionally ranked alongside Virgil and Horace, his older contemporaries, as one of the three canonic poets of Latin literature. He was the first major Roman poet to begin his career during the reign of Augustus, and the Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love elegists. He enjoyed enormous popularity, but in one of the mysteries of literary history he was sent by Augustus into exile in a remote province on the Black Sea, where he remained until his death. Ovid himself attributes his exile to carmen et error, "a poem and a mistake", but his discretion in discussing the causes has resulted in much speculation among scholars.

Famous Quotes:

• The spirited horse, which will try to win the race of its own accord, will run even faster if encouraged.
• There is no such thing as pure pleasure; some anxiety always goes with it.
• A short absence is the safest.
• Love is full of anxious fears.
• It is annoying to be honest to no purpose.
• Minds that are ill at ease are agitated by both hope and fear.
• Let love give way to business; give attention to business and you will be safe.
• As the yellow gold is tried in fire, so the faith of friendship must be seen in adversity.
• Happy is the man who has broken the chains which hurt the mind, and has given up worrying once and for all.
• The time will come when it will disgust you to look in the mirror.