Banished Voices
Readings in Ovid's Exile Poetry

Examines the literary complexities of the melancholic poetry which Ovid wrote while in exile in Tomis.

Gareth D. Williams (Author)

9780521451369, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 20 October 1994

248 pages
22.3 x 14.3 x 1.8 cm, 0.415 kg

'Well-written, lucidly argued and scholarly book.' Scholia

This study examines the literary complexities of the poetry which Ovid wrote in Tomis, his place of exile on the coast of the Black Sea after he was banished from Rome by the emperor Augustus in AD 8 because of the alleged salaciousness of the Ars Amatoria and a mysterious misdemeanour which is nowhere explained. Exile transforms Ovid into a melancholic poet of despair who claims that his creative faculties are in terminal decline. But research has exposed the ironic disjunction between many of the poet's claims and the latent artistry which belies them. Through a series of close readings which offer an analytical contribution to the scholarly evaluation of the exile poetry, Dr Williams examines the nature and the extent of Ovidian irony in Tomis and demonstrates the complex literary designs which are consistently disguised under a veil of dissimulation.

Preface
Introduction
1. The 'unreality' of Ovid's exile poetry
2. Ovid's pose of poetic decline
3. Friendship and the theme of artistic motivation
4. Ovid's treatment of Augustus in Tristia 2
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index of modern authors
Index of passages cited
Index of words and themes.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]