Keywords
Bacchus
Vates
Exile
Ovid
How to Cite
Funding data
-
Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
Grant numbers 2017/01934-8
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to analyse Ovid’s elegy Tristia 5.3, in which he writes to the college of poets on the occasion of the Liberalia, sometimes directly addressing the god Bacchus to ask for his help and to put an end to his relegatio to distant Tomi. The fact that he addresses and invokes Bacchus and not the “god” Augustus, who ordered the Ovidian exile, has led critics to conjecture a veiled attack on the princeps. We will show, however, that the proximity to Bacchus is more an attempt to defend his poetry and affirm his work as a poet than a direct affront to the princeps. Moreover, it contributes to the construction of their profile as vates. To this end, we will first focus on examining the form and content of the poem. Then, we will discuss different positions that see in this elegy an affront to Augustus. Finally, we will offer our argument against such positions by pointing out that Ovid’s association with Bacchus as protector of the poets is congruent with the mention of the Bacchica serta (Tr. 1.7.2), which crowns the poet at the beginning of the Tristia.
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