Ovid\'s Intention in the Art

Ovid's Intention In The Art Of Love: Outline

Different interpretations

Can be read "seriously" -- real advice given by a cad

Can be read more satirically/profound -- hidden social messages

Different receptions throughout history

Textual evidence supports the idea that Ovid placed important and meaningful social messages in the subtext

Why the Text Isn't Just Dating Advice: External Factors

Though often satirical, Ovid was also a serious poet

Banished for his writings -- unlikely if he was not taken seriously in his own time

Other works also considered to have important social commentary

Why the Text Isn't Just Dating Advice: Internal Factors

Invocation of gods at beginning

"You too, who search for the essence of lasting love"

Ridicules instant love (i.e. lust) with lawyer scene

Social Messages in Subtext

Violent, militaristic aspect of male seduction -- Pompey's colonade

Continues at theatre -- "hunt," rape of Sabines

Tacit disapproval of militancy -- "boy wages war's un-boy-like agenda"

V. Overriding Social Message

1. Explain the overall social message of the work, as far as discernable in opening sections.

2. Further textual evidence

VI. Conclusion

1. Thesis Restatement: Ovid's Art of Love" is clearly a work with some serious undertones, and not merely a frivolous work of jocular poetry.

2. Recapitulate basic textual hints/evidence

Ovid's Intention in the Art of Love

The Ancient Roman poet Ovid is perhaps best known for his Metamorphoses, which details many of the ancient Greek and Roman mythological stories. The epic poems in this work tell stories that are both poignant and humorous, heroic and often highly sexual. Ovid deals more overtly with sexuality and seduction in his lesser-known work Ars Amatoria, but his tone is less serious. It is very possible to read this work as the humorous writings of a poet who was undoubtedly very gifted but who in this instance decided to purse more puerile and less noteworthy subjects. This is, in fact, how the Art of Love has been received by many scholars throughout the time since it was first published. It is also possible, however, to read the poem as a deep and subtle satire that suggests some changes Ovid wished to see occur in Roman society. These social messages in the subtext of the poem have also been debated by scholars, and the work has provoked drastically different responses through the ages. A careful examination of the text reveals that Ovid almost certainly intended something grander than a simply humorous poem about how to seduce someone -- instead, there is a carefully satirical subtext.

Before examining the text, a few external details about Ovid and the work make also make it likely that Ovid did not intend the Art of Love to be taken as a purely light-hearted dating advice handbook. Though he often wrote in a satirical manner, Ovid was also a serious poet. His work was of the highest caliber that Rome produced, and the people of his time knew it. This makes it unlikely that he would have published something that was entirely frivolous. As evidence of how seriously he was taken, Ovid was banished for some of the views and subjects of his writing -- this hardly would have occurred if he was a meaningless comic. Finally, his other works such as Metamorphoses also contain explicit and subtextual social commentary.

There are also some little hints provided explicitly in the text of the Art of Love that suggest its true importance. At the outset, Ovid spends a lengthy amount of time invoking various gods and goddesses either to help him in his endeavor, or to address them as a mortal not quite asking permission to proceed but explaining himself as he goes along. Though he achieves great comic effect with this, Ovid could also be underlining the importance of the following poem by his inclusion of such a large portion of the Roman pantheon. There is also explicit evidence that Ovid is not merely -- or at least not solely -- talking about lust in the poem, at one point addressing the reader as, "You...who search for the essence of lasting love" (Part II, line 9). Later on in the poem, when describing instant love -- or lust -- in the courts, he paints the lawyers as ridiculous characters, clearly signaling his feelings towards them.

The messages themselves are not hard to find once one begins looking for them. Throughout the poem, there is a violent, militaristic aspect to the description of male seduction -- the opening of Part III suggest one might find a lover on "Pompey's shady colonnade" -- a subtle reminder of the famous Roman general and military genius (Part III, line 1). This militaristic theme continues even more explicitly in the next part, which details finding a woman at a theatre. First, Ovid describes the search as a "hunt" -- quite predatory and violent, diminishing the power and rights of the women -- and then mentions the rape of the Sabines in a way that almost seems to blame the women for making a spectacle of themselves, as they do in the theatre (Part IV, line 1, 13-4). This could be interpreted as chauvinism on Ovid's part, but later on he refers to when a "boy wages war's un-boy-like agenda" -- a fairly tacit statement against militancy (Part VI, line 6).