In 8 CE, Ovid was banished from Rome under mysterious circumstances. On the coast of the Black Sea, he wrote poetry that reflected on and sought reprieve from his exile. For centuries afterwards, poets who found themselves in states of exile or alienation used these works as models for Latin poems that made sense of their lot. In the first half of this class, we will read deeply from Ovid’s works. Then, we will turn to poets from Late Antiquity into modernity who drew from them. Our reading will help us think about the relationship between poetry and home, questions of genre in Latin poetry, and the human experience of exile.
