Fasti Format: Paperback

Ovid; Boyle, Anthony J.; Woodard, Roger D.

ISBN 10: 0140446907 / ISBN 13: 9780140446906

Published by Penguin Random House, 2000

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 9780140446906

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Fasti Format: Paperback
• Publisher: Penguin Random House
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140446907
• ISBN 13: 9780140446906
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Written after he had been banished to the Black Sea city of Tomis by Emperor Augustus, the Fasti is Ovid's last major poetic work. Both a calendar of daily rituals and a witty sequence of stories recounted in a variety of styles, it weaves together tales of gods and citizens together to explore Rome's history, religious beliefs and traditions. It may also be read as a subtle but powerful political manifesto which derides Augustus' attempts to control his subjects by imposing his own mythology upon them: after celebrating the emperor as a Jupiter-on-earth, for example, Ovid deliberately juxtaposes a story showing the king of the gods as a savage rapist. Endlessly playful, this is also a work of integrity and courage, and a superb climax to the life of one of Rome's greatest writers.

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About the Author

Ovid (43 BC-AD 17) was born in central Italy. He was sent to Rome where he realised that his talent lay with poetry rather than with politics. His first published work was 'Amores', a collection of short love poems. He was expelled in A.D. 8 by Emperor Augustus for an unknown reason and went to Tomis on the Black Sea, where he died.