Two passages from the end of Ovid's Metamorphoses feature in the Imperial Image prescribed literary sources: The deification of Julius Caesar and Ovid's "Celebration" of Augustus. I am of the view that these two passages as well as the nine lines that follow them (and, very possibly, the preceding account of Aesculapius being brought to Rome).
Let us start with some facts in outline. Ovid was born in 43 BC, the year that saw both Hirtius and Pansa die at Mutina leaving Octavian on his own (Tristia IV 10 5-6: for Ovid as an 'Irish Twin', see lines 9-10). Ovid was sentenced by Augustus to relegatio (exile, but without loss of property) in the autumn of AD 8. He had to leave Rome by December of that year and so was forced to sail at the least favourable time weatherwise. He was relegated to Tomis on the Black Sea, at the mouth of the River Danube. There he died in AD 17 or AD 18 (just a few years after Augustus himself).
Ovid is thought to have 'published' the Metamorphoses before his relegatio in AD 8 and to have started (or even to have finished) his Fasti, an explanation of Roman festivals day-by-day and month-by-month (we have only Books 1-6, which end in June and so before the months re-named after Julyius Caesar and Augustus himself).
Ovid refers to the cause(s) of his relegatio as carmen et error 'a poem and a mistake'. What was the poem? What was the mistake? It is often thought that Ovid's multiple books of erotic poetry and his three books of Affairs (Amores: more closely, Loves or Cupids) and his three-book Art of Seduction (Ars Amatoria: more closely, The Lover's Skillzs) put him on the wrong side of Augustan moralism. For example, recommending the monuments in memory of Marcellus (RIP 23 BC), among others, as locations for 'hook ups' might seem insensitive and tasteless. The mistake is often thought to have involved the notorious Julia (II)...
It has long been recognised that there was a problematic gap between the publication of the Art of Seduction (AD 2, give or take) and Ovid's relegatio (AD 8). The Amores had been published even earlier -- as early as 16 BC in one form. Why the delay until AD 8 and the publication of the Metamorphoses? Was the Metamorphoses the reason for the relegatio? Was it the 'poem' (carmen) and related to the 'mistake' (error)?
Now, we come to the Metamorphoses. In 15 books, Ovid recounts history from the creation of the world to his own time through a succession of stories involving changes (of form, hence Meta-morph-oses). Tales of men becoming gods fit that theme as well as a weaver-woman becoming a spider (Arachne), Niobe becoming a cliff-face, and so on.
First note that the "celebration" of Augustus is not the climax of the poem. Ovid puts himself and his own immortalisation in his poetry (a kind of metamorphosis) at the very end of his 15 books. That is quite some slight on the ruler of the known world and his memory! Horace (Odes 3.30) had celebrated his memoralisation in his poetry, a poem which Ovid explicitly reworks in a piece of one-up-poetship.
Ovid was never central to the Augustan regime. That is, he was edgy. He was not part of the praise of the regime that we see, or think we see, in Propertius (50/45-15 BC), Virgil (15.10.70–21.9.19 BC), and Horace (8.12.65–27.11.8 BC). Their patron was Maecenas himself, Ovid's was Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus and, later, Cotta Maximus. Ovid knew the poets of Maecenas' circle (Tristia 4.10.41–54). Ovid was active later than them all. He saw Virgil, but only just (Tristia 4.10.51: Vergilium vidi tantum).
Let us start with some facts in outline. Ovid was born in 43 BC, the year that saw both Hirtius and Pansa die at Mutina leaving Octavian on his own (Tristia IV 10 5-6: for Ovid as an 'Irish Twin', see lines 9-10). Ovid was sentenced by Augustus to relegatio (exile, but without loss of property) in the autumn of AD 8. He had to leave Rome by December of that year and so was forced to sail at the least favourable time weatherwise. He was relegated to Tomis on the Black Sea, at the mouth of the River Danube. There he died in AD 17 or AD 18 (just a few years after Augustus himself).
Ovid is thought to have 'published' the Metamorphoses before his relegatio in AD 8 and to have started (or even to have finished) his Fasti, an explanation of Roman festivals day-by-day and month-by-month (we have only Books 1-6, which end in June and so before the months re-named after Jul
Ovid refers to the cause(s) of his relegatio as carmen et error 'a poem and a mistake'. What was the poem? What was the mistake? It is often thought that Ovid's multiple books of erotic poetry and his three books of Affairs (Amores: more closely, Loves or Cupids) and his three-book Art of Seduction (Ars Amatoria: more closely, The Lover's Skill
It has long been recognised that there was a problematic gap between the publication of the Art of Seduction (AD 2, give or take) and Ovid's relegatio (AD 8). The Amores had been published even earlier -- as early as 16 BC in one form. Why the delay until AD 8 and the publication of the Metamorphoses? Was the Metamorphoses the reason for the relegatio? Was it the 'poem' (carmen) and related to the 'mistake' (error)?
Now, we come to the Metamorphoses. In 15 books, Ovid recounts history from the creation of the world to his own time through a succession of stories involving changes (of form, hence Meta-morph-oses). Tales of men becoming gods fit that theme as well as a weaver-woman becoming a spider (Arachne), Niobe becoming a cliff-face, and so on.
First note that the "celebration" of Augustus is not the climax of the poem. Ovid puts himself and his own immortalisation in his poetry (a kind of metamorphosis) at the very end of his 15 books. That is quite some slight on the ruler of the known world and his memory! Horace (Odes 3.30) had celebrated his memoralisation in his poetry, a poem which Ovid explicitly reworks in a piece of one-up-poetship.
Ovid was never central to the Augustan regime. That is, he was edgy. He was not part of the praise of the regime that we see, or think we see, in Propertius (50/45-15 BC), Virgil (15.10.70–21.9.19 BC), and Horace (8.12.65–27.11.8 BC). Their patron was Maecenas himself, Ovid's was Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus and, later, Cotta Maximus. Ovid knew the poets of Maecenas' circle (Tristia 4.10.41–54). Ovid was active later than them all. He saw Virgil, but only just (Tristia 4.10.51: Vergilium vidi tantum).
PJ
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