Tag: Ars Amatoria
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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book II Part I: His Task
Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD Sing out the Paean: sing out the Paean twice! The prize I searched for falls into my net. Delighted lovers grant my songs the palm, I’m preferred to Hesiod and old Homer. So Paris the stranger sailed, from hostile Amyclae’s shore, under white sheets, with his…
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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book I Part XIX: Be Flexible
Ilustration by Frederico Righi Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD I’ve done, but there’s diversity in women’s hearts: a thousand minds require a thousand methods. One soil doesn’t bear all crops: vines here are good, olives there: this teems with healthy wheat. There are as many manners of heart as kinds of…
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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book I Part XVIII: Be Pale: Be Wary of Your Friends
Ilustration by Frederico Righi Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD A pale colour would shame a sailor on the ocean wave, who’s blackened by the rays of the sun: and shame the farmer who turns the soil with curved plough and heavy harrow, underneath the heavens. And you who seek the athlete’s…
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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book I Part XVII: Tears, Kisses, and Take the Lead
lustration by Frederico Righi Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD And tears help: tears will move a stone: let her see your damp cheeks if you can. If tears (they don’t always come at the right time) fail you, touch your eyes with a wet hand. What wise man doesn’t mingle tears…
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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book I Part XV: At Dinner Be Bold
llustration by Frederico Righi Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD Ah, Bacchus calls to his poet: he helps lovers too, and supports the fire with which he is inflamed. The frantic Cretan girl wandered the unknown sands, that the waters of tiny sea-borne Dia showed. Just as she was, from sleep, veiled…
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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book I Part XIV: Look Presentable
llustration by Frederico Righi Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD Don’t delight in curling your hair with tongs, don’t smooth your legs with sharp pumice stone. Leave that to those who celebrate Cybele the Mother, howling wildly in the Phrygian manner. Male beauty’s better for neglect: Theseus carried off Ariadne, without a…
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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book I Part XIII: Be Where She Is
llustration by Frederico Righi Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD Meanwhile, if she’s being carried, reclining on her bed, secretly approach your lady’s litter, and to avoid offering your words to odious ears, hide what you can with skill and ambiguous gestures. If she’s wandering at leisure in the spacious Colonnade, you…
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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book I Part XII: Write and Make Promises
llustration by Frederico Righi Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD Try wax to pave the way, pour it out on scraped tablets: let wax be your mind’s true confidante. Bring her your flattering words and play the lover: and, whoever you are, add a humble prayer. Achilles was moved by prayer to…
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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book I Part XI: Don’t Forget Her Birthday!
llustration by Frederico Righi Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD It’s a mistake to think that only farmers working the fields, and sailors, need to keep an eye on the season: Seed can’t always be trusted to the furrow, or a hollow ship to the wine-dark sea, It’s not always safe to…
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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book I Part IX: How To Win Her
llustration by Frederico Righi Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD So far, riding her unequal wheels, the Muse has taught you where you might choose your love, where to set your nets. Now I’ll undertake to tell you what pleases her, by what arts she’s caught, itself a work of highest art.…
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