Classical Civilisation A-Level: Love and Relationships - Ovid Critics

Gibson

not all of the text makes fun of its addresses

Richin

combination of stylistic brilliance with violent content... fascinating but repellent

D'Ambra

[Augustus] focused on a visionary programme to reform Roman society... to revive morality... [he] even ordered the exile of his daughter Julia for her flagrant violation of the adultery laws

D'Elia

he detested homosexual activity in which one partner is no more than a victim to the other's desire

Verstraete

the poet's rejection (of homosexual love) is not quite as sweeping and vehement as some scholars would have us believe

Verstraete (2)

A relationship between an older man and a boy or an adolescent, as Ovid sees it, cannot be sexually satisfying to both partners

Hollis

Ovid does say that the 'poem has nothing to do with married women' ... and indicates he expects the ladies who read his work are meretrices

Hollis (2)

Ovid gains his effect by parody and incongruity... by writing an extended didactic poem on love, with all the proper mannerisms, Ovid achieves a hilarity never captured before