Part I: Now it is time to teach the girls.
Part II: Take care with how you look.
Part III: Taste and elegance in hair and dress.
Part IV: Make-up, but in private.
Part V: Conceal your defects.
Part VI: Be modest in laughter and movement.
Part VII: Learn music and read the poets.
Part VIII: Learn dancing and games.
Part IX: Be seen around.
Part X: Beware of false lovers.
Part XI: Take care with letters.
Part XII: Avoid the vices, favour the poets.
Part XIII: Try young and older lovers.
Part XIV: Use jealousy and fear.
Part XV: Play cloak and dagger.
Part XVI: Make him believe he is loved.
Part XVII: Watch how you eat and drink.
Part XVIII: And so to bed….
The first two books of Ovid‘s “Ars Amatoria” were published around 1 BCE, with the third (dealing with the same themes from the female
perspective) added the next year in 1 CE. The work was a great popular success, so much so that the poet wrote an equally popular
sequel, “Remedia Amoris”(“Remedies for Love”), soon after, which offered stoic advice and strategies on how to avoid being hurt by love
feelings and how to fall out of love.
It was not, however, universally acclaimed, and there are accounts of some listeners walking out of early readings in disgust. Many have
assumed that the bawdiness and licentiousness of the “Ars Amatoria”, with its celebration of extramarital sex, was largely responsible for Ovid‘s
banishment from Rome in 8 CE by the Emperor Augustus, who was attempting to promote a more austere morality at that time. However, it is
more probable that Ovid was somehow caught up in factional politics connected with the succession and/or other scandals (Augustus’ adopted
Part II: Take care with how you look.
Part III: Taste and elegance in hair and dress.
Part IV: Make-up, but in private.
Part V: Conceal your defects.
Part VI: Be modest in laughter and movement.
Part VII: Learn music and read the poets.
Part VIII: Learn dancing and games.
Part IX: Be seen around.
Part X: Beware of false lovers.
Part XI: Take care with letters.
Part XII: Avoid the vices, favour the poets.
Part XIII: Try young and older lovers.
Part XIV: Use jealousy and fear.
Part XV: Play cloak and dagger.
Part XVI: Make him believe he is loved.
Part XVII: Watch how you eat and drink.
Part XVIII: And so to bed….
The first two books of Ovid‘s “Ars Amatoria” were published around 1 BCE, with the third (dealing with the same themes from the female
perspective) added the next year in 1 CE. The work was a great popular success, so much so that the poet wrote an equally popular
sequel, “Remedia Amoris”(“Remedies for Love”), soon after, which offered stoic advice and strategies on how to avoid being hurt by love
feelings and how to fall out of love.
It was not, however, universally acclaimed, and there are accounts of some listeners walking out of early readings in disgust. Many have
assumed that the bawdiness and licentiousness of the “Ars Amatoria”, with its celebration of extramarital sex, was largely responsible for Ovid‘s
banishment from Rome in 8 CE by the Emperor Augustus, who was attempting to promote a more austere morality at that time. However, it is
more probable that Ovid was somehow caught up in factional politics connected with the succession and/or other scandals (Augustus’ adopted
