Search

Disputes over Ovid's genuine attitudes towards Roman emperor Octavian have never ceased among Western scholars of classics. Never a motivated dissident, Ovid was unfortunately an adherent to the idea of artistic autonomy, which, against the backdrop of a unified Augustan cultural order, was interpreted by the imperial family as a political stance. In order to return to Rome or suffer less severely, the banished poet would have to appease the emperor with servile penitence, but Ovid was frequently impelled by his obstinacy as an artist and indignation at his unmerited torments to overlook his real-life needs and give his works an ironic twist. While in some poems, his venom of criticism is ingeniously dissimulated beyond easy detection, his defiance is alarmingly obvious in others. Although Octavian, Livia, and Tiberius usually appear as gods in Tristia and Ex Ponto, they are revealed, through various means of artistry, to be no more than ruthless rulers on earth whose self-imposed apotheosis is constantly ridiculed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]