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This book is part of our Classics Series in partnership with Dickinson College Commentaries. Turpin's commentary is also available online at http://dcc.dickinson.edu/ovid-amores/preface |
Read William Turpin's introduction to Ovid's Amores on our

From Catullus to Horace, the tradition of Latin erotic poetry produced works of literature which are still read throughout the world. Ovid’s Amores, written in the first century BC, is arguably the best-known and most popular collection in this tradition.
Born in 43 BC, Ovid was educated in Rome in preparation for a career in public services before finding his calling as a poet. He may have begun writing his Amores as early as 25 BC. Although influenced by poets such as Catullus, Ovid demonstrates a much greater awareness of the funny side of love than any of his predecessors. The Amores is a collection of romantic poems centered on the poet’s own complicated love life: he is involved with a woman, Corinna, who is sometimes unobtainable, sometimes compliant, and often difficult and domineering. Whether as a literary trope, or perhaps merely as a human response to the problems of love in the real world, the principal focus of these poems is the poet himself, and his failures, foolishness, and delusions.
By the time he was in his forties, Ovid was Rome’s most important living poet; his Metamorphoses, a kaleidoscopic epic poem about love and hatred among the gods and mortals, is one of the most admired and influential books of all time. In AD 8, Ovid was exiled by Augustus to Romania, for reasons that remain obscure. He died there in AD 17.
The Amores were originally published in five books, but reissued around 1 AD in their current three-book form. This edition of the first book of the collection contains the complete Latin text of Book 1, along with commentary, notes and full vocabulary. Both entertaining and thought-provoking, this book will provide an invaluable aid to students of Latin and general readers alike.
Born in 43 BC, Ovid was educated in Rome in preparation for a career in public services before finding his calling as a poet. He may have begun writing his Amores as early as 25 BC. Although influenced by poets such as Catullus, Ovid demonstrates a much greater awareness of the funny side of love than any of his predecessors. The Amores is a collection of romantic poems centered on the poet’s own complicated love life: he is involved with a woman, Corinna, who is sometimes unobtainable, sometimes compliant, and often difficult and domineering. Whether as a literary trope, or perhaps merely as a human response to the problems of love in the real world, the principal focus of these poems is the poet himself, and his failures, foolishness, and delusions.
By the time he was in his forties, Ovid was Rome’s most important living poet; his Metamorphoses, a kaleidoscopic epic poem about love and hatred among the gods and mortals, is one of the most admired and influential books of all time. In AD 8, Ovid was exiled by Augustus to Romania, for reasons that remain obscure. He died there in AD 17.
The Amores were originally published in five books, but reissued around 1 AD in their current three-book form. This edition of the first book of the collection contains the complete Latin text of Book 1, along with commentary, notes and full vocabulary. Both entertaining and thought-provoking, this book will provide an invaluable aid to students of Latin and general readers alike.
This book contains embedded audio files of the original text read aloud by Aleksandra Szypowska.
Click here to access book reviews by course leaders.
Ovid, Amores (Book 1)
William Turpin | May 2016
264 | 35 colour illustrations | 6.14" x 9.21" (234 x 156 mm)
Dickinson College commentaries, vol. 2 | ISSN: 2059-5743 (Print); 2059-5751 (Online)
ISBN Paperback: 9781783741625
ISBN Hardback: 9781783741632
ISBN Digital (PDF): 9781783741649
ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 9781783741656
ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 9781783741663
ISBN Digital (XML): 9781783744190
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0067
BIC subject codes: DB (Classical texts), HBLA1 (Classical civilisation), 4KL (A-Levels Aid), CFP (Translation and interpretation); BISAC: LIT004190 (LITERARY CRITICISM / Ancient & Classical), LIT025030 (LITERARY CRITICISM / Subjects & Themes / Politics); OCLC Number: 951659425.
BIC subject codes: DB (Classical texts), HBLA1 (Classical civilisation), 4KL (A-Levels Aid), CFP (Translation and interpretation); BISAC: LIT004190 (LITERARY CRITICISM / Ancient & Classical), LIT025030 (LITERARY CRITICISM / Subjects & Themes / Politics); OCLC Number: 951659425.
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Preface
Abbreviations
1. The Life of Ovid
2. The Amores
3. The Manuscript Tradition of Ovid’s Amores by Bart Huelsenbeck, with the assistance of Dan Plekhov
4. Select Bibliography
5. Scansion
Prosody
Elision
The elegiac couplet
Reading aloud
6. Epigram: preface from the author
Notes on the Epigram
7. Amores 1.1: Ovid finds his muse
Suggested reading
Amores1.1
Notes
8. Amores 1.2: Conquered by Cupid
Suggested reading
Amores 1.2
Notes
9. Amores 1.3: Just give me a chance
Suggested reading
Amores 1.3
Notes
10. Amores 1.4: Secret signs
Appendix: the vir
Suggested reading
Amores 1.4
Notes
11. Amores 1.5: The siesta
Suggested reading
Amores 1.5
Notes
12. Amores 1.6: On the doorstep
Suggested reading
Amores 1.6
Notes
13. Amores 1.7: Violence and love
Suggested reading
Amores 1.7
Notes
14. Amores 1.8: The bad influence
Suggested reading
Amores 1.8
Notes
15. Amores 1.9: Love and war
Suggested reading
Amores 1.9
Notes
16. Amores 1.10: Love for sale
Suggested reading
Amores 1.10
Notes
17. Amores 1.11: Sending a message
Suggested reading
Amores 1.11
Notes
18. Amores 1.12: Shooting messengers
Amores 1.12
Notes
19. Amores 1.13: Oh how I hate to get up in the morning
Suggested reading
Amores 1.13
Notes
20. Amores 1.14: Bad hair
Suggested reading
Amores 1.14
Notes
21. Amores 1.15: Poetic immortality
Suggested reading
Amores 1.15
Notes
Full vocabulary for Ovid’s Amores, Book 1
© 2016 William Turpin
The Manuscript Tradition of Ovid’s Amores © 2016 Bart Huelsenbeck

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the text; to adapt the text and to make commercial use of the text providing attribution is made to the author (but not in any way that suggests that he endorses you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information:
William Turpin, Ovid, Amores (Book I). Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2016, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0067
Further details about CC BY licenses are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Recordings made for this volume by Aleksandra Szypowska, CC BY 4.0.
Please see the captions for attribution relating to individual images. For information about the rights of the Wikimedia Commons images, please refer to the Wikimedia website. Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omission or error will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher.
The Manuscript Tradition of Ovid’s Amores © 2016 Bart Huelsenbeck

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the text; to adapt the text and to make commercial use of the text providing attribution is made to the author (but not in any way that suggests that he endorses you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information:
William Turpin, Ovid, Amores (Book I). Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2016, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0067
Further details about CC BY licenses are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Recordings made for this volume by Aleksandra Szypowska, CC BY 4.0.
Please see the captions for attribution relating to individual images. For information about the rights of the Wikimedia Commons images, please refer to the Wikimedia website. Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omission or error will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher.
Cover image: Sleeping Cupid, Royal Ontario Museum. Image from Wikimedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sleeping_Cupid_-_Royal_Ontario_Museum_-_DSC09788.JPG
Please find below the list of the embedded audio files of the original text read aloud by Aleksandra Szypowska included in this publication. You can click on the DOI link and access them on YouTube. You can also download the audio files in MP3 format. All recordings have been released under a CC BY license.
Epigram
http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0067.22
MP3
Amores 1.1
http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0067.23
MP3
Amores 1.2
http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0067.24
MP3
Amores 1.3
http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0067.25
MP3
Amores 1.4
http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0067.26
MP3
Amores 1.5
http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0067.27
MP3
Amores 1.6
http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0067.28
MP3
Amores 1.7
http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0067.29
MP3
Amores 1.8
http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0067.30
MP3
Amores 1.9
http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0067.31
MP3
Amores 1.10
http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0067.32
MP3
Amores 1.11
http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0067.33
MP3
Amores 1.12
http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0067.34
MP3
Amores 1.13
http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0067.35
MP3
Amores 1.14
http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0067.36
MP3
Amores 1.15
http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0067.37
MP3