Ovid

Ovid was a poet during Rome's Golden Age. His given name is Publius Ovidius Naso and he was born on March 20, 43 BC. His father wanted him to persue a political carrer, but he was much too ambitious and talented for that. He was reading his poetry to audiences by the time he was twenty and by the age of thirty, he was Rome's most famous poet. He remained successful for two decades when his carrer abruply came to an end. Augustus exiled Ovid when he was fifty. The reason for the exile is unclear, but some have presumed that it had to do with a mistake Ovid made with regard to one of his poems. He was exiled to Tomis, which is in modern Costanza, in Romania. His remaining years were spent writing poetry about exile and he died an unhappy man of sixty. Ovid's works before his exile reflects his thoughts, theories, and beliefs about love. Ovid's writings step beyond and challenged in society what was considered moral during his time. Ovid's writings are passionate and full of creatativity. His writings now mark a mordern day world of literature and love.

Ovid life is defined in three sections by scholars. But it was the middle period that was most noticed because of the release of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Considered a masterpiece, Metamorphoses reveals Ovid’s intelligent and sense of humor into a series of tales from Greek mythology. He changes strategies throughout the epic, leaving the reader with a sense of unexpected twist and turns. He tells stories within stories and Ovid follows characters from one story line to another as well as the friend or relative of the character. But Ovid made sure to keep the consistency of the metamorphosis theme so the reader will understand the epic is not just random collection of stories. Ovid is also deliberate with the progression of time throughout the epic. His poem starts with the flood and continues until the day of Augustus on the throne. However chronology is less important in light of the Ovid’s bold writing style dealing with changes and lewdness of his own perceptions of Roman society which are also reflected in his other writings of this period. Ovid's works now remain renowed, they seem to have some sense of character of there own. Ovid died eight years after being exiled. His stories continue to reach those searching for passion to read about love.

File:Http://images.google.com/images?dq=tbn:tDJv0ErWfzMJ:www.ncf.ca/~ek867/intotrees ovid.jpg.jpg

Works Cited

"The Life and Work of Ovid". The Metamorphoses of Ovid eNotes. 17 April. 2005 <http://www.enotes.com/metamorphoses-ovid/