Ovid's Amores and Ars Amatoria: some shared themes

Abstract

This thesis examines aspects of the relationship that exists between the Amores and the Ars Amatoria. The fact that Ovid intended this relationship between the poems to be noticed and appreciated is observed, and that Ovid's re-use of his own material from the Amores in the Ars is part of a deliberate motif which underlines his declaration that it is experience that moves his work. Ovid's treatment of five major topics (the Circus, the Dinner-Party, Hair, Guarded Love, and the Lena) is analysed in detail in separate chapters, and other themes and topics that recur throughout the poems are also covered, although in less detail, within the Introduction and Conclusion. Ovid's persona as a lover/poet in the Amores and its transition to that of teacher/poet in the Ars is also taken into consideration, and the fact that humour and didactic-which are such important elements in the Ars-are already present in the Amores.