loved it so so much, read this a while ago and was entertained the whole way through lol i still read parts of it every now and then because of how good it was. Contextually it is so so clever, the way he covertly criticises Augustus and the entire principate system and the moral reforms is just too good.

terrible translation - hovers at "overzealous" with occasional gems/horrors such as "skyey" and references to clearly anachronistic bras

I'd read portions of this in college, but never the entire collection. I highly recommend it. Most of the advice is witty and, truly, very similar to what appears in most women's magazines today.

ovid is primus inter pares among the classic poets

Ovid incorporates humor and sarcasm into a love poems that range from how to love someone to teaching readers how to cure their heartbreak.

If you're a fan of old literature I recommend this book. The title is semi misleading as I thought this would be more a book of eroticism, but it's more intimate musings. There's one poem that stands out to memory of a man lamenting the fact that he beat his lover. It was an odd tale, but it's interesting to get a glimpse of a complex emotional state from over a thousand years ago (not to sympathize with the abuser) and see how complex emotions have stayed relatively the same over the last couple thousand years.

I think I'm starting to develop a fancy for roman poets. Ovid had always caught my attention thanks to the metamorphosis (which I haven't read yet) so, when I got to see this whole phase of him I got surprised, and delighted. He pours out of his verses and it's almost as getting to listen him verse. About the edition: the introduction made by Mr. Green gives enough background so you can develop the whole persona Ovid was. One comment, though: I'm spaniard and somehow bought this edition attracted towards the edition and the poet, but the translation let me down completely. I'd recommend, if you're able, to read the poems in a romance language. That was my mistake which ended ruining the whole episthemology. I'd give 5 stars to a better translated edition.

A delightful collection of poems. The selection assembled in this little book is proportioned nicely so that a set of poems can, if the reader fancies, be perused at one sitting--not the whole book in its entire, but its natural divisions.

The style of writing itself is not difficult to read, as some poetry can be. But Ovid is a very deliberate writer, and he inserts references to mythology and politics, now remote in time, that can be foreign to the uninitiated, and thereby let the meaning Ovid's finer commentary escape. The translator's notes then are a needed aid for a feel of all the texture that Ovid has arranged in to his poetry.

The necessary consequence of the elaborate writing is a set of poems that are densely packed. If the reader does by chance move through Ovid in quick order, a rereading will almost certainly reveal as much as was encountered in their first traversal. Ovid does not restrict himself to communicating by the bare text alone, and, without a doubt, his use of pretext and context--as with the odd juxtaposition of some poems as well as the discrete affinity of others--projects meaning that otherwise aren't found within his metre.

The Erotic Poems are certainly involved in a discussion about love. But don't be fooled by appearances; Ovid is as much ridiculing the Roman style of love, sex, and romance, as he is celebrating it. There are definite undertones of a political nature in the poetry. Though whether it involves a general critique of Augustan Rome, or instead takes aim at the war-like virtues that were all the rage--this author cannot decide.

There also appears a recurring them of elegy, especially its place in the company of epic and tragedy. Whether Ovid thinks it deserves equal rank? Or rather should revel in its junior status?--this much cannot be answered here. Connected with Ovid's guilty pleasure for elegy is his self-absorption for his own worth, and the haughty awareness he possesses for his own standing as a poet and literati in Roman life. Whether he is simply championing himself? Reproving his critics? Or has a more subtle message to send? Again, my mind is not decided.

Let me say two more things. One quick about Ovid's style. And another about the translation.

Ovid's poetry exudes creativity. And he does a masterful job drawing his observations to the truly dramatic moments that punctuates the course of Love. His poems however do reveal a steady structure. Not only is his rhyme fixed to a set metre, but he frequently develops individual poems along the same arc. They often feature an elaborate introduction, which sets the problems and creates the mood. Then, as Love's chauffeur, he deigns to advise or opine on the subject. After which he descants for some length either by recollecting mythological characters from epic or tragedy or by sophisticated analogies to life and nature. Though always able, and incredibly beautiful in his writing, this same pattern of expansion is tiring; and Ovid would have done well to experiment with other devices more often.

As for the translation: the adherence to the verse itself is ignored and instead keeps the translation as literal, and colorful as possible. That leaves many wonderful moments. We have still magical combination of words such as "chuckling water-channels"; or attention to the focus of sentences "In bed as in war, old men are out of place./ A commander looks to his troops for gallant conduct,/ A mistress expects no less." But this is not accomplished everywhere. And one of my favorite lines, for example, has been remade. What the translator put down "none but you shall be sung/ In my verses, you and you only shall give my creative/ Impulse its shape and theme." Compare that with my formulation "And I shall always be your poet/ And you shall always be my theme."

Quite interesting reading for a book written around 16 AD. Reading it I come to understand how open minded were the people back then... Things for wich we fight now aren't some new discovery to which our evolution brought us... But things they saw as normal... Till the big all mighty filter came in to play and power : Christianity...

I LOVEEE!! it’s so fascinating how little mindsets on love have changed from the time this was written up until present day. this was so fun to read and it is BEAUTIFULLY written (even the annoying misogynistic parts

I don't think this book is erotic in the way we currently use the word "erotic." Rather, it is "erotic" in that it's contents pertain to Eros.

Still, an enjoyable look at courtship and seduction from 2000 years ago.

Not Ovid's best work, and not particularly erotic either. Ovid is most fun here when he inserts himself into the story, either whining about how he's too stung by Cupid to write a heroic epic, or reminding readers to credit him if they are successful in love. The subject matter is often too trivial, personal, or creepy to be as charming as n  Metamorphosesn: Ovid does a better job with this material when he's bringing the so-called "erotic" stuff into Metamorphoses's legends of heroes and gods.