Character Catalog

Ovid's first collection of elegiac poems, celebrating his fictional passion for a certain Corinna. These poems, often ironic and lighthearted, earned him immediate fame in Roman circles.

A satirical and poetic manual of seduction in three books, aimed first at men and then at Roman women. This provocative work was officially invoked by Augustus to justify Ovid's exile a decade later.

A collection of fictional poetic letters written by mythological heroines (Penelope, Dido, Medea...) to their absent lovers. A work of remarkable psychological modernity, it gives voice for the first time to the women of mythology.

Ovid's masterpiece in 15 books and 12,000 verses, recounting the history of the world from Creation to Julius Caesar through 250 tales of transformation. A foundational work of Western culture, it inspired Dante, Shakespeare, Botticelli, and generations of artists.

A Roman poetic calendar in 6 books (only the first 6 months have survived), explaining Roman religious festivals and rites. A precious work for understanding Roman religion and customs.

Five books of elegiac poems composed in exile at Tomis, blending laments about his condition, descriptions of barbarian life, and supplications to Augustus. A unique document on the psychology of a poet broken by political power.

Four books of poetic letters sent from Tomis to Roman friends and loved ones, in the hope of having them intercede on his behalf. Ovid describes with precision the peoples, climate, and geography of the shores of the Pontus Euxinus.

In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas / corpora. Di, coeptis (nam vos mutastis et illas) / adspirate meis... — 'My mind leads me to speak of forms changed into new bodies. O gods, inspire my undertaking, for it is you who have brought about these transformations...'

Ille ego qui fuerim, tenerorum lusor amorum, / quem legis, ut noris, accipe posteritas. — 'I who was the poet of tender loves, learn who I am, O posterity who reads me.' Ovid retraces his own life in this poetic autobiography.

Da mihi Maecenatem... — Ovid implores the protection of the imperial circle from his exile in Tomis, describing the harshness of the barbarian climate and his longing for Rome.

Si quis in hoc artem populo non novit amandi, / hoc legat et lecto carmine doctus amet. — 'If anyone among this people does not know the art of love, let him read these verses and, taught by this poem, let him love.'

Ovid's birthplace, nestled in the Abruzzo region 140 km from Rome. Ovid evokes it with nostalgia in his works: 'Sulmo mihi patria est' (Sulmona is my homeland), a fertile town crossed by cold springs.

Ovid lived and thrived in Rome, moving in literary circles around Messala Corvinus, a rival of Maecenas's circle. He describes the baths, porticoes, and spectacles of the Campus Martius as places of seduction in the Ars Amatoria.

A barbarian town on the Black Sea coast where Augustus exiled Ovid in 8 AD. Ovid suffered from the cold, the isolation, and the foreign culture, which he describes with despair in the Tristia and the Epistulae ex Ponto.

Ovid stayed in Athens in his youth to complete his rhetorical and philosophical education, following the custom of cultivated young Romans. It was there that he deepened his knowledge of Greek mythology, the raw material of his Metamorphoses.

A common writing instrument in Rome, consisting of a wooden frame coated with wax on which texts were inscribed with a stylus. Ovid composed his early verses on such tablets, later dictating them to his scribes to be copied cleanly onto papyrus.

The format of the ancient book, made of glued papyrus sheets rolled around a rod. Ovid's Metamorphoses circulated in this form across several scrolls among educated Roman readers.

A fine-pointed metal or bone tool used for writing on wax tablets and for erasing by turning the stylus to its flat end. It was with this tool that Ovid, from childhood, practiced poetic composition despite his father's opposition.

The distinctive garment of the Roman equestrian class to which Ovid's family belonged, bordered with purple. Ovid wore it during his brief career in public office in Rome before devoting himself entirely to poetry.

Wine was the central drink at Roman banquets (convivia) where Ovid recited his poems before an aristocratic audience. The Ars Amatoria describes these feasts at length as places of romantic encounter.

In exile at Tomis, a cold and inhospitable land, Ovid had to adopt the thick garments of the local Getae population. In the Tristia he mentions the cultural shock of having to wear these rough clothes, so unlike the refined Roman toga.