Ovid is a gem of an erotic master and this is an excellent translation by Peter Green.

There is some lovely stuff in here, though mostly it boils down to 1) Ovid's 101 ways to cheat on a girl without getting caught, and 2) Turns out being cheated on really sucks, a weepy poem by Ovid.

Enjoyed Ovid so much I took up Classical Studies as a minor halfway through my Economics degree (as someone who didn't study classics at A-level/in my first year at uni) and did my dissertation on him :)

I didn’t exactly finish this entire book; I finished what was required for my classics tutorial. I enjoyed it more than expected, as my first reading of ancient Roman poetry. The constant allusions that I then had to refer to the index to were at first burdensome but I actually started to enjoy that aspect - similar to The Waste Land in the aspect that these allusions create much more depth and understanding, and the reader becomes much more attached to the work itself as they are tied in by the amount of time and flipping pages they put into it. Ovid is blatantly misogynistic, but I have to take into account it was written in the 1st century AD. Interesting to read in its historical and cultural context, and quite funny at times. Refreshing (and a bit scary sometimes) when you realize human thought really hasn’t changed much in the last thousand years - why I love Classical studies so much!

These are really quite lovely and bawdy and earthy.

Rereading this was me playing “let’s pretend I don’t have a gazillion books on my tbr”, just cos I wanted to see if this was as funny and wonderful as I remembered and… it was better! Not only was this witty and subtly satirical, but it also had some of the best descriptions of myths *anywhere* (which I’d somehow completely forgotten about)

As I read the adventures of Ovid's rakish hero (who may or may not be the author himself) I keep giggling, because I see aspects of him in many of my friends...

Ive got a soft spot for Roman love poetry and Ovid hit the spot. Why the Metamorphoses is more popular is beyond me. His Amores are far better. My only gripe was with the first 2 books of The Art of Love for the great crime of being ever so slightly less playful and witty than the rest.

I need to talk about Peter Greens translation and notes. They are unbelievably good. They took in depth foot notes to a whole other level. Extremely detailed but full of gusto. None of that drab vapid style you see in today's classics academics. He's the type of scholar I strive to imitate.

Or more rightly, erotic-comedy. Ovid does not seem particularly interested in poeticising the sexual act, or – very frequently – getting under the collar of his sweaty reader. He instead (as ever) much prefers to trade in ironies; to play himself the seductive grandmaster, and mock so many conventions of Roman extramarital behaviour. Most of the poetry included in this publication is instructive and didactic: I sense Ovid is distributing legitimate advice (in a kind of proto-PUA manual), but cannot help but make a complete mockery of such prescriptive approaches to Cupid’s game. Most amusing for me was the poem lamenting a dysfunctional erection; followed by exhortations to avoid large words when courting the womenfolk; and then the handy trick of making note of your partner’s worst features directly post-coitus, to ease your leaving them. Ovid can shift delicately between his obvious skylarking, and a more avidly romantic turn of phrase (Offered a place in the sky between Castor and Pollux, I’d still say | No. What’s heaven minus you?); and seemingly without contradiction. Indeed, even when his advice seems to directly contradict itself, his rationale always seems of even-bent. Regardless of specific instruction, the tone of Ovid’s eroticism (if we can call it that) is of persistent character. That of a jester, wise to the world.

On the facial treatment of ladies is the best title

I loved this book. I laughed until I cried. I even tried to entertain my roommates by reading the tastiest bits out loud while watching Felicity. They were not happy with me and somehow did not understand why I loved this book so much. Here is an example, "I can't stand a women who puts out because she has to, / Who lies there dry as a bone/With her mind on knitting." As you should know, Ovid was born in 43 BC.... And how we see that not much has changed in the male mind.

I started reading this collection a long, long time ago back in the days of college, but other things came up and since I wasn’t assigned to read the whole thing for college, I didn’t end up finishing it. Finally, it came up on my reading list, so finally, I got around to reading the whole thing.

A few things struck me while reading this. I admit, I was biased to look for it, because the whole point as to why excerpts from it were assigned in college is that a lot of what Ovid talks about is still so relevant to today’s world. Even while the same laws aren’t in place, similar concepts remain constant. For example, a lot of his writing tries to assure the reader that he is not giving them advice for committing adultery or having a liaison with a highborn woman — while we are a bit more free with our views, or are at least jaded enough to accept that adultery happens, if someone were to publish a book with advice for how to successfully commit adultery, they would be heavily criticized in our society (especially America). So, while we don’t really have laws against it here, it’s still taboo, which is an interesting thing to talk about.

Another thing I loved about this particular version is the translation. Green is a hero. He is so good at translating not only just the words but the flavor of them in English that we can understand. Pop culture phrasing and literary devices are used with skill what he feels is Ovid’s attitude, which I found to be wonderful. This version is one of the most readable translations I’ve read of this particular collection because of that, and I immensely appreciated it.

I understand that some might find this collection a tough read, with the formal language and numerous mythological allusions, but even with my rudimentary understanding of mythology, I was able to grasp the basic allusions and still enjoy his language and storytelling. If you’re into classics, for sure read this one. It’s an interesting look at Roman culture during Ovid’s time, and Green does a fantastic job in giving an easily readable translation and enough background history for the reader to understand the context in which it was written. I admit that it won’t be for everyone, but I enjoyed it.

Also posted on Purple People Readers.