He was indisputably the greatest poet of his day, in the generation after Virgil. The normal course of events would have been to use that education in the verbal arts and become a wealthy senator a provincial governor. In those days there was still money and fame to be gained in poetry. At some point he announced to his parents that he wanted to be a poet. Ovid was being trained to be a great lawyer. He had the best education of the time which meant a training in the verbal arts. There are hints of a philosophical outlook of a world based on change. He zooms in to people who are main characters in the action, but a lot of the time he spends on the periphery of things. There are lots of small details with people on the side-lines focused on as some monumental historical thing happens in front of them. In Virgil duty is supposed to win but in Ovid passion almost always wins over duty. In Ovid’s work we see people caught in internal conflicts where they are torn between two courses of action, usually, passion on the one hand and duty on the other hand. Ovid can’t quite keep his focus on any specific thing, he likes to move from one piece of the story to a totally different story then back to the story he was telling. Ovid is more playful, intimate and prone to digression. OVID WITH LAUREL WREATH (CREDIT : WIKIMEDIA)
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