The Offense of Love: Ars Amatoria, Remedia Amoris, and Tristia 2 (Wisconsin Studies in Classics) - Softcover

Ovid

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0299302040 ISBN 13: 9780299302047

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press, 2015

Synopsis

Ovid's Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) and its sequel Remedies for Love (Remedia Amoris) are among the most notorious poems of the ancient world. In AD 8, the emperor Augustus exiled Ovid to the shores of the Black Sea for "a poem and a mistake." Whatever the mistake may have been, the poem was certainly the Ars Amatoria, which the emperor found a bit too immoral.
            In exile, Ovid composed Sad Things (Tristia), which included a defense of his life and work as brilliant and cheeky as his controversial love manuals. In a poem addressed to Augustus (Tristia 2), he argues, "Since all of life and literature is one long, steamy sex story, why single poor Ovid out?" While seemingly groveling at the emperor's feet, he creates an image of Augustus as capricious tyrant and himself as suffering artist that wins over every reader (except the one to whom it was addressed).
            Bringing together translations of the Ars Amatoria, Remedia Amoris, and Tristia 2, Julia Dyson Hejduk's The Offense of Love is the first book to include both the offense and the defense of Ovid's amatory work in a single volume. Hejduk's elegant and accurate translations, helpful notes, and comprehensive introduction will guide readers through Ovid's wickedly witty poetic tour of the literature, mythology, topography, religion, politics, and (of course) sexuality of ancient Rome.

Finalist, National Translation Award, American Literary Translators Association 

A Choice Outstanding Academic Book

About this title

About the Author:

Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso, 43 BC AD 17) was a popular Roman poet best known for his multivolume poem of myth and history, Metamorphoses. Julia Dyson Hejduk is a professor of classics at Baylor University. She is the author of Clodia: A Sourcebook and King of the Wood: The Sacrificial Victor in Virgil's  Aeneid.”

Review:

"The quality of Hejduk's translations is consistently high: they combine linguistic accuracy with a wit and verve that nicely rise to the challenge of Ovidian humor and irony." Gareth Williams, Columbia University


"To conjoin Tristia 2 with the Ars and Remedia is unique and an excellent idea. Hejduk is an accomplished translator and a scholar who has written widely on Ovid. The expectations raised by those qualifications are not disappointed in the translation, which is accurate, readable, and true to the spirit and style of Ovid." John F. Miller, University of Virginia


“The verve and energy Hejduk musters and dedicates to these notorious and ironic poems will appeal to undergraduates, just as her nearly 60-page introduction and bibliography will appeal to scholars. . . . Hejduk provides the reader with a wickedly entertaining poetic tour of the literature, mythology, topography, religion, politics, and (of course) sexuality of ancient Rome. Highly recommended, undergraduates and above; general readers.”—Choice


“A translation which is very readable without drawing unnecessary attention to itself. . . . Dyson Hejduk is also thoroughly familiar with recent scholarship on [these] poems.”—Times Literary Supplement

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0299302040
• ISBN 13: 9780299302047
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 294