Amores (Ovid)

The Roman poet Ovid, born in the city.

Amores is Ovid's first completed book of poetry, written in elegiac couplets. It was first published in 16 BC in five books, but Ovid, by his own account, later edited it down into the three-book edition that survives today. The book follows the popular model of the erotic elegy, as made famous by figures such as Tibullus or Propertius, but is often subversive and humorous with these tropes, exaggerating common motifs and devices to the point of absurdity.

While several literary scholars have called the Amores a major contribution to Latin love elegy,[1][2] they are not generally considered among Ovid's finest works[3] and "are most often dealt with summarily in a prologue to a fuller discussion of one of the other works".[4]

  1. ^ Jestin, Charbra Adams; Katz, Phyllis B., eds. (2000). Ovid: Amores, Metamorphoses Selections, 2nd Edition: Amores, Metamorphoses : Selections. Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers. p. xix. ISBN 1610410424.
  2. ^ Inglehart, Jennifer; Radice, Katharine, eds. (2014). Ovid: Amores III, a Selection: 2, 4, 5, 14. A&C Black. p. 9. ISBN 978-1472502926.
  3. ^ Amores. Translated by Bishop, Tom. Taylor & Francis. 2003. p. xiii. ISBN 0415967414. Critics have repeatedly felt that the poems lack sincerity [...]
  4. ^ Boyd, Barbara Weiden (1997). Ovid's Literary Loves: Influence and Innovation in the Amores. University of Michigan Press. p. 4. ISBN 0472107593.