Ovid

Sorrows of an Exile (Tristia) Ovid

In AD8 Ovid's brilliant career was suddenly ruined when the Emperor Augustus banished him to Tomis (Constanta) on the Black Sea. The five books of Tristia (Sorrows) express his reaction to this savage and, as he clearly regarded it, unjust sentence. Their title belies them. Although their ostensible theme is the misery and loneliness of exile, their real message is one of affirmation. With a wit and irony that borders on defiance Ovid repeatedly asserts the injustice of his sentence and the per-eminence of the eternatl values of poetry over the ephemeral dictates of an earthly power. For this new translation Alan Melville has reproduced, in rhyming stanzas, the virtuosity, elegance, and wit of the original. `Melville has given the reader of whatever background a real taste of the Ovid who has delighted generations of readers.' This book is intended for students of classics from 6th-form level upwards; postgraduate students of European literature.