Ars Amatoria - Background

Background

Book one of Ars Amatoria was written to show a man how to find a woman. In book two, Ovid shows how to keep her. The third book, written two years after the first books were published, gives women advice on how to win and keep the love of a man ("I have just armed the Greeks against the Amazons; now, Penthesilea, it remains for me to arm thee against the Greeks...").

The Ars amatoria can be called a burlesque satire on didactic poetry. It claims: Aeacidae Chiron, ego sum praeceptor Amoris ("As Chiron was to Achilles, so I am to Cupid"—in other words, "I pacified the wild Cupid"). Ovid offers advice to men on subjects such as, how to seduce and keep a woman, and also notably offers women advice on how to be attractive to men. He advises that, "if one is accompanying a lady to the horse-racing in the Circus Maximus, one should gallantly brush the dust from her gown. And if there isn't any dust there, brush it nonetheless. Also, "A young man should promise the moon to the object of his affections in letters—even a beggar can be rich in promises. A small woman, meanwhile, would be better advised to receive her suitor lying down ... but should make sure that her feet are hidden under her dress, so that her true size is not disclosed.".

Although Ovid protests Siqua fides arti, quam longo fecimus usu, / Credite: praestabunt carmina nostra fidem ("If you trust art's promise that we've long employed / our songs will offer you their promise"), and his erotic advice indicates a supposed broad understanding of female psychology, in part he is following a literary tradition, especially the two previous exponents of the Latin love-elegy, Propertius and Tibullus, and the (mostly lost) erotic poetry of the Greek Hellenistic period.