{"product_id":"the-erotic-poems-isbn-9780140443608","title":"The Erotic Poems","description":"This collection of Ovid's poems deals with the whole spectrum of sexual desire, ranging from deeply emotional declarations of eternal devotion to flippant arguments for promiscuity. In the Amores, Ovid addresses himself in a series of elegies to Corinna, his beautiful, elusive mistress. The intimate and vulnerable nature of the poet revealed in these early poems vanishes in the notorious Art of Love, in which he provides a knowing and witty guide to sexual conquest - a work whose alleged obscenity led to Ovid's banishment from Rome in AD 8. This volume also includes the \"Cures for Love,\" with instructions on how to terminate a love affair, and \"On Facial Treatment for Ladies,\" an incomplete poem on the art of cosmetics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.The Erotic PoemsList of Abbreviations\u003cbr\u003ePreface and Acknowledgments\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Amores\u003cbr\u003eThe Art of Love\u003cbr\u003eCures for Love\u003cbr\u003eOn Facial Treatment for Ladies\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNotes and References\u003cbr\u003eSelect Reading List\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eOvid \u003c\/b\u003e(43 BC-AD 17) was born in central Italy. He was sent to Rome where he realised that his talent lay with poetry rather than with politics. His first published work was 'Amores', a collection of short love poems. He was expelled in A.D. 8 by Emperor Augustus for an unknown reason and went to Tomis on the Black Sea, where he died.\u003cb\u003eThe Art of Love\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eBook 1\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003eShould anyone here in Rome lack finesse at love-making,\u003cbr\u003e let him\u003cbr\u003e Try me—read my book; and results are guaranteed!\u003cbr\u003e Technique is the secret. Charioteer, sailor, oarsman,\u003cbr\u003e All need it. Technique can control\u003cbr\u003e Love himself. As Automedon was charioteer to Achilles,\u003cbr\u003e And Tiphys Jason's steersman, so I,\u003cbr\u003e By Venus' appointment, am made Love's artificer, shall be\u003cbr\u003e Known as\u003cbr\u003e The Tiphys, the very Automedon of Love.\u003cbr\u003e He's a wild handful, will often rebel against me,\u003cbr\u003e But still just a child—\u003cbr\u003e Malleable, easily disciplined. Chiron made young Achilles\u003cbr\u003e A fine musician, hammered that fierce heart\u003cbr\u003e On the anvil of peaceful artistry. So this future terror\u003cbr\u003e To friend and foe alike went in awe, it's said,\u003cbr\u003e Of his elderly teacher, at whose bidding the hand that in after-\u003cbr\u003e Time bore down Hector was held out for the tawse.\u003cbr\u003e As Chiron taught Achilles, so I am Love's preceptor:\u003cbr\u003e Wild boys both, both goddess-born—and yet\u003cbr\u003e Even bulls can be broken to plough, or spirited horses\u003cbr\u003e Subdued with bridle and bit.\u003cbr\u003e So love shall likewise own my mastery, though his bowshots\u003cbr\u003e Skewer my breast, though his torch\u003cbr\u003e Flicker and sear me. The worse the wounds, the deeper the branding,\u003cbr\u003e That much keener I to avenge\u003cbr\u003e Such outrage. Nor shall I falsely ascribe my arts to Apollo:\u003cbr\u003e No airy bird comes twittering advice\u003cbr\u003e Into \u003ci\u003emy\u003c\/i\u003e eat, \u003ci\u003eI\u003c\/i\u003e never had a vision of the Muses\u003cbr\u003e Herding sheep in Ascra's valleys. This work is based\u003cbr\u003e On experience: what I write, believe me, I have practiced.\u003cbr\u003e My poem will deal in truth.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAid my enterprise, Venus! Respectable ladies, the kind who\u003cbr\u003e Wear hairbands and ankle-length skirts,\u003cbr\u003e Are hereby warned off. Safe love, legitimate liaisons\u003cbr\u003e Will be my theme. This poem breaks no taboos.\u003cbr\u003e First, then, you fledging troopers in passion's service,\u003cbr\u003e Comes the task of finding an object for your love.\u003cbr\u003e Next, you must labour to woo and win your lady;\u003cbr\u003e Thirdly, ensure that the affair will last.\u003cbr\u003e Such are my limitations, such the ground I will cover,\u003cbr\u003e  The race I propose to run.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhile you are fancy-free still, and can drive at leisure,\u003cbr\u003e Pick a girl, tell her, \"you're the one I love.\u003cbr\u003e And only you.' But this search means using your eyes: a\u003cbr\u003e mistress\u003cbr\u003e Won't drop out of the sky at your fee.\u003cbr\u003e A hunter's skilled where to spread his nets for the stag, senses\u003cbr\u003e In which glen the wild boar lurks.\u003cbr\u003e A fowler's familiar with copses, an expert angler\u003cbr\u003e Knows the richest shoaling-grounds for fish.\u003cbr\u003e You too, so keen to establish some long term relationship,\u003cbr\u003e Must learn, first, where girl is to be found.\u003cbr\u003e Your search need not take you—belueve me—on an overseas\u003cbr\u003e voyage:\u003cbr\u003e A short enough trek will bring you to your goal.\u003cbr\u003e True, Perseus fetched home Andromeda from the coloured\u003cbr\u003e Indies,\u003cbr\u003e While Phrygian Paris abducted Helen in Greece,\u003cbr\u003e But Rome can boast of so many and such dazzling beauties\u003cbr\u003e You'd swear the whole world's talent was gathered here.\u003cbr\u003e The girls of your city outnumber Gargara's wheatsheaves,\u003cbr\u003e Methymna's grape-clusters,\u003cbr\u003e Birds on the bough, stars in the sky, fish in the ocean:\u003cbr\u003e Venus indeed still haunts\u003cbr\u003e Her son Aeneas' foundation. If you like budding adolescents\u003cbr\u003e Any number of (guaranteed) maidens are here to delight\u003cbr\u003e Your roving eye. Your prefer young women? They'll charm you\u003cbr\u003e By the thousand, you won't know which to choose.\u003cbr\u003e And if you happen to fancy a more mature, experienced\u003cbr\u003e Age-group, believe me, \u003ci\u003ethey\u003c\/i\u003e show up in droves.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHere's what to do. When the sun's on the back of Hercules'\u003cbr\u003e Lion, stroll down some shady colonnade,\u003cbr\u003e Pompey's, say, or Octavia's (for her dead son Marcellus:\u003cbr\u003e Extravagant marble facings, R.I.P.),\u003cbr\u003e Or Livia's, with its gallery of genuine Old Masters,\u003cbr\u003e Or the Danaids' Portico (note\u003cbr\u003e The artwork: Danaus' daughters plotting mischief for their cousins,\u003cbr\u003e Father attitudinizing with drawn sword).\u003cbr\u003e Don't miss the shrine of Adonis, mourned by Venus,\u003cbr\u003e Or the synagogue—Syrian Jews\u003cbr\u003e Worship there each Sabbath—or the linen-clad heifer-goddess's\u003cbr\u003e Memphian temple: Io makes many a maid what \u003ci\u003eshe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Was to Jove. The very courts are hunting-grounds for passion;\u003cbr\u003e Amid lawyers' rebuttals love will often be found.\u003cbr\u003e Here, where under Venus' marble temple the Appian\u003cbr\u003e Fountain pulses its jets high in the air,\u003cbr\u003e Your jurisconsult's entrapped by love's beguilements—\u003cbr\u003e Counsel to others, he cannot advise himself.\u003cbr\u003e Here, all too often, words fail the most eloquent pleader,\u003cbr\u003e And a new sort of case comes on—his own. He must\u003cbr\u003e Defend \u003ci\u003ehimself\u003c\/i\u003e for a change, while Venus in her nearby\u003cbr\u003e Temple snickers at this reversal of roles.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303585992933,"sku":"NP9780140443608","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780140443608_9d88b4bc-25b6-41bd-a106-96c41e0c43f7.jpg?v=1767739206","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-erotic-poems-isbn-9780140443608","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}