Perseus · Tufts
All Greek and Roman Materials
Collections: Classics · Papyri · Renaissance · London · California · Upper Midwest · Chesapeake · Boyle · Tufts History
Configure display · Help · Tools · Copyright · FAQ · Publications · Collaborations · Support Perseus
Classics:
Classics collection contents
About the Classics collection
Greek Hist. Overview
Art & Arch. Catalogs

Other Tools & Lexica
Plot:
  • sites on this page
  • sites in this document
  • dates in this document
    Display text chunked by:
    text
    book
    section (default)
    poem (default)
    carte (default)
    Contents:
  • Introduction
  • Ovid's Art of Love
  • Ovid's Remedy of Love
  • Ovid's Art of Beauty.
  • The Court of Love, a tale from Chaucer.
  • History of Love, by Charles Hopkins
  • Ovid's Amours.
    		•

    P. Ovidius Naso, Art of Love, Remedy of Love, Art of Beauty, Court of Love, History of Love, Amours (ed. various)

    Ovid's Amours.

    Editions and translations: Latin (ed. R. Ehwald) | English (ed. various) | English (ed. Christopher Marlowe)
    Your current position in the text is marked in red. Click anywhere on the line to jump to another position.
    text=Ars:book=1:line=54 text=Ars:book=1:line=126 text=Ars:book=1:line=197 text=Ars:book=1:line=269 text=Ars:book=1:line=341 text=Ars:book=1:line=412 text=Ars:book=1:line=483 text=Ars:book=1:line=554 text=Ars:book=1:line=626 text=Ars:book=1:line=697 text=Ars:book=1:line=769 text=Ars:book=1:line=841 text=Ars:book=2:line=28 text=Ars:book=2:line=100 text=Ars:book=2:line=172 text=Ars:book=2:line=244 text=Ars:book=2:line=316 text=Ars:book=2:line=387 text=Ars:book=2:line=457 text=Ars:book=2:line=529 text=Ars:book=2:line=600 text=Ars:book=2:line=671 text=Ars:book=2:line=743 text=Ars:book=2:line=814 text=Ars:book=3:line=63 text=Ars:book=3:line=135 text=Ars:book=3:line=207 text=Ars:book=3:line=278 text=Ars:book=3:line=350 text=Ars:book=3:line=422 text=Ars:book=3:line=492 text=Ars:book=3:line=564 text=Ars:book=3:line=636 text=Ars:book=3:line=707 text=Ars:book=3:line=779 text=Ars:book=3:line=851 text=Rem.:line=8 text=Rem.:line=80 text=Rem.:line=151 text=Rem.:line=222 text=Rem.:line=294 text=Rem.:line=365 text=Rem.:line=435 text=Rem.:line=507 text=Rem.:line=579 text=Rem.:line=650 text=Rem.:line=721 text=Rem.:line=793 text=Rem.:line=863 text=Med.:line=20 text=Court:line=8 text=Court:line=80 text=Court:line=152 text=Court:line=223 text=Court:line=294 text=Hist.:section=1:line=53 text=Hist.:section=3:line=14 text=Hist.:section=5:line=22 text=Hist.:section=6:line=15 text=Hist.:section=6:line=88 text=Hist.:section=8:line=18 text=Hist.:section=8:line=91 text=Hist.:section=8:line=164 text=Hist.:section=9:line=44 text=Hist.:section=10:line=66 text=Hist.:section=11:line=17 text=Hist.:section=12:line=60 text=Hist.:section=13:line=9 text=Hist.:section=14:line=42 text=Hist.:section=14:line=115 text=Hist.:section=14:line=188 text=Hist.:section=15:line=57 text=Hist.:section=15:line=129 text=Hist.:section=15:line=202 text=Hist.:section=16:line=52 text=Am.:book=1:poem=1:line=9 text=Am.:book=1:poem=2:line=46 text=Am.:book=1:poem=4:line=26 text=Am.:book=1:poem=5:line=8 text=Am.:book=1:poem=6:line=41 text=Am.:book=1:poem=7:line=8 text=Am.:book=1:poem=8:line=24 text=Am.:book=1:poem=9:line=2 text=Am.:book=1:poem=11:line=28 text=Am.:book=1:poem=13:line=12 text=Am.:book=1:poem=14:line=5 text=Am.:book=2:poem=3:line=1 text=Am.:book=2:poem=4:line=36 text=Am.:book=2:poem=5:line=19 text=Am.:book=2:poem=6:line=9 text=Am.:book=2:poem=7:line=13 text=Am.:book=2:poem=8:line=35 text=Am.:book=2:poem=10:line=6 text=Am.:book=2:poem=12:line=36 text=Am.:book=2:poem=14 text=Am.:book=2:poem=14:line=73 text=Am.:book=2:poem=16:line=38 text=Am.:book=2:poem=17:line=50 text=Am.:book=2:poem=18:line=60 text=Am.:book=2:poem=19:line=61 text=Am.:book=3:poem=1:line=69 text=Am.:book=3:poem=2:line=44 text=Am.:book=3:poem=3:line=40 text=Am.:book=3:poem=5:line=10 text=Am.:book=3:poem=6:line=29 text=Am.:book=3:poem=7:line=23 text=Am.:book=3:poem=7:line=96 text=Am.:book=3:poem=8:line=69 text=Am.:book=3:poem=9:line=6 text=Am.:book=3:poem=10:line=23 text=Am.:book=3:poem=11:line=45 text=Am.:book=3:poem=12:line=14 text=Am.:book=3:poem=13:line=1 text=Am.:book=3:poem=14:line=9

    Table of ContentsGo to Previous Next

    Elegy XII: He complains that the praises he has bestowed on his mistress in his verses, have occasioned him many rivals.

    Ill-omen'd birds, how luckless was the day,
    When o'er my love you did your wings display!
    What wayward orb, what inauspicious star
    Did then rule heav'n ? what gods against me war?
    She who so much my fatal passion wrongs,
    Was known and first made famous by my songs.
    I lov'd her first, and lov'd her then alone,
    But now, I fear, I share her with the town.
    Am I deceiv'd or can she be the same,
    Who only to my verses owes her fame
    My verse a price upon her beauty laid,
    And by my praises she her market made;
    Whom but myself can I with reason blame?
    Without me she had never had a name.
    Did I do this, who knew her soul so well?
    Dearly to me she did her favours sell;
    And when the wares were to the public known,
    Why should I think she'd sell to me alone ?
    'Twas I proclaim'd to all the town her charms,
    And tempted cullies to her venal arms;
    I made their way, I show'd them where to come,
    And there is hardly now a rake in Rome
    But knows her rates, and thanks my babbling muse:
    Her house is now as common as the stews;
    For this I'm to the muse oblig'd, and more
    For all the mischiefs envy has in store.
    This comes of gallantry, while some employ
    Their talents on the fate of Thebes and Troy,
    While others Caesar's godlike acts rehearse,
    Corinna is the subject of my verse.
    Oh, that I ne'er had known the art to please,
    But written without genius and success.
    Why did the town so readily believe
    My verse, and why to songs such credit give ?
    Sure poetry s the same it ever was,
    And poets ne'er for oracles did pass.
    Why is such stress upon my writings laid?
    Why such regard to what by me is said ?
    I wish the tales I've of Corinna told,
    Had been receiv'd as fables were of old;
    Of furious Scylla's horrid shape we read,
    And how she scalp'd her hoary father's lead:
    Of her fair face, and downward how she takes
    The wolf's fierce form, the dog's, or curling snake's;
    Serpents for hair, in ancient song we meet,
    And man and horse with wings instead of feet.
    Huge Tityon from the skies the poets flung,
    Encelladus's wars with Jove they sung;
    How by her spells, and by her voice, to beasts,
    The doubtful virgin chang'd her wretched guests;
    How Eolus did for Ulysses keep
    The winds in bottles while he plough'd the deep:
    How Cerberus, three headed, guarded hell;
    And from his car the son of Phoebus fell:
    How thirsty Tantalus attempts to sip
    The stream in vain, that flies his greedy lip:
    How Niobe in marble drops a tear,
    And a bright nymph was turn'd into a bear:
    How Progne, now a swallow, does bemoan
    Her sister nightingale, and pheasant son.
    In Leda, Danae, and Europa's rapes,
    They sing the king of gods in various shapes;
    A swan he lies on ravish'd Leda's breast,
    And Danae by a golden show'r compress'd;
    A bull does o'er the waves Europa bear,
    And Proteus any form he pleases wear.
    How oft do we the Theban wonders read,
    Of serpent's teeth transform'd to human seed!
    Of dancing woods, and moving rocks, that throng
    To hear sweet Orpheus, and Amphion's song ?
    How oft do the Heliades bemoan,
    In tears of gum, the fall of Phaeton!
    The sun from Atreus' table frightened flies,
    And backward drives his chariot in the skies.
    Those now are nymphs that lately were a fleet;
    Poetic license ever was so great.
    But none did credit to these fictions give,
    Or for true history such tales receive,
    And though Corinna in my songs is fair,
    Let none conclude she's like her picture there.
    The fable she with hasty faith receiv'd,
    And what, so very well she lik'd, believ'd.
    But since so ill she does the poet use,
    'Tis time her vanity to disabuse.

    Preferred URL for linking to this page: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Ov.+Am.+3.12.1

    Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education provided support for entering this text.

    This text is based on the following book(s):
    P. Ovidius Naso. Ovid's Art of Love (in three Books), the Remedy of Love, the Art of Beauty, the Court of Love, the History of Love, and Amours. Anne Mahoney. edited for Perseus. New York. Calvin Blanchard. 1855.


    Previous Next