Among Ovid’s love poems, there is one that stands out among the rest due to the stark reality of the subject. I believe it must have arisen from Ovid’s own love life. It is a personal, passionate and powerful poem against domestic violence. Excerpts: Put my hands in manacles (they are deserving of chains), if any friend of mine is present, until all my frenzy has departed. For frenzy has […]
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“The Art of Love” by Ovid
Twelve love tips from Roman gods and heroes 1. First and foremost, be confident that all women may be won. As the numberless ants come and go in lengthened train, when they are carrying their wonted food in the mouth that bears the grains; so rush the best-dressed women to the thronged spectacles. They come to see, and be seen. Romulus and his men swept the Sabine damsels off their […]
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Metamorphoses: II. Narcissus and Echo
I find the myth of Narcissus fascinating, and Dali’s interpretation, more than any other artist’s, seems to have captured its meaning, from the philosophical and psychological perspective. Plato writes that, if there is no substance and permanence, if everything is constantly in flux and changing, knowledge and love would be impossible, not only because there would be nothing there to be known and loved, but also because it’s impossible to […]
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Aristotle writes in his treatise On the Soul that the cause of movement is desire–not will, not reason, but desire, and that desire and movement (after the object of desire) are the characteristics of animate life. In other words, the one thing that differentiates animate from inanimate beings is the presence of desire. Ovid’s Metamorphoses is a beautifully written poem with one unifying theme: desire, articulated and immortalized. It’s a […]
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