1.
Greek mythology
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It was a part of the religion in ancient Greece. Greek mythology is explicitly embodied in a collection of narratives. Greek myth attempts to explain the origins of the world, and details the lives and adventures of a variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines. These accounts initially were disseminated in a tradition, today the Greek myths are known primarily from ancient Greek literature. The oldest known Greek literary sources, Homers epic poems Iliad and Odyssey, focus on the Trojan War, archaeological findings provide a principal source of detail about Greek mythology, with gods and heroes featured prominently in the decoration of many artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle as well as the adventures of Heracles, in the succeeding Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence. Greek mythology has had an influence on the culture, arts. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in the themes, Greek mythology is known today primarily from Greek literature and representations on visual media dating from the Geometric period from c. Mythical narration plays an important role in every genre of Greek literature. Nevertheless, the only general mythographical handbook to survive from Greek antiquity was the Library of Pseudo-Apollodorus and this work attempts to reconcile the contradictory tales of the poets and provides a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends. Apollodorus of Athens lived from c, 180–125 BC and wrote on many of these topics. His writings may have formed the basis for the collection, however the Library discusses events that occurred long after his death, among the earliest literary sources are Homers two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Other poets completed the cycle, but these later and lesser poems now are lost almost entirely. Despite their traditional name, the Homeric Hymns have no connection with Homer. They are choral hymns from the part of the so-called Lyric age. Hesiods Works and Days, a poem about farming life, also includes the myths of Prometheus, Pandora. The poet gives advice on the best way to succeed in a dangerous world, lyrical poets often took their subjects from myth, but their treatment became gradually less narrative and more allusive. Greek lyric poets, including Pindar, Bacchylides and Simonides, and bucolic poets such as Theocritus and Bion, additionally, myth was central to classical Athenian drama
2.
Fisherman
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A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishermen, the term can also be applied to recreational fishermen and may be used to describe both men and women. Fishing has existed as a means of obtaining food since the Mesolithic period, fishing has existed as a means of obtaining food since the Mesolithic period. During the time of the Ancient Egyptians, fishermen provided the majority of food for Egyptians, fishing had become a major means of survival as well as a business venture. Fishing and the fisherman have also influenced Ancient Egyptian religion, mullets were worshiped as a sign of the flood season. Bastet was often manifested in the form of a catfish, in ancient Egyptian literature, the method that Amun used to create the world is associated with the tilapias method of mouth-brooding. According to the FAO, there were about 39 million fishers in countries producing more than 200,000 tonnes in 2012, the total fishery production of 66 million tonnes equated to an average productivity of 3.5 tonnes per person. Most of this took place in Asian countries, where four-fifths of world fishers. Most fishermen are men involved in offshore and deep-sea fisheries, women fish in some regions inshore from small boats or collect shellfish and seaweed. In many artisanal fishing communities, women are responsible for making and repairing nets, recreational fishing is fishing for pleasure or competition. It can be contrasted with fishing, which is fishing for economic profit, or subsistence fishing. The most common form of fishing is done with a rod, reel, line, hooks. Lures are frequently used in place of bait, some people make handmade lures, including plastic lures and artificial flies. The practice of catching or attempting to catch fish with a hook is called angling, when angling, it is sometimes expected or required that the fish be caught and released. Big-game fishing is fishing from boats to catch large species such as tuna, sharks. Noodling and trout tickling are also recreational activities, for some communities, fishing provides not only a source of food and work but also community and cultural identity. The fishing industry is hazardous for fishermen, between 1992 and 1999, US commercial fishing vessels averaged 78 deaths per year. The main contributors to fatalities are, inadequate preparation for emergencies poor vessel maintenance, many fishermen, while accepting that fishing is dangerous, staunchly defend their independence
3.
Serifos
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Serifos is a Greek island municipality in the Aegean Sea, located in the western Cyclades, south of Kythnos and northwest of Sifnos. It is part of the Milos regional unit, the area is 75.207 square kilometres and the population was 1,420 at the 2011 census. It is located about 170 kilometres ESE of Piraeus, in antiquity the island was proverbial for the alleged muteness of its frogs. During the Roman imperial period, Serifos was a place of exile, after 1204 it became a minor dependency of the Venetian dukes of the Archipelago. In the late 19th century Serifos experienced a modest economic boom from exploitation of the extensive iron ore deposits. The mines closed in the 1960s, and Serifos now depends on tourism, worked blocks of island marble built into the walls of the medieval castle crowning Chora, the hilltop main town of Serifos, show that the ancient capital was there as well. Chance finds, primarily marble funerary sculpture, are displayed in the Archaeological Collection in Chora, work began in 2011 to study the fallen blocks for an eventual reconstruction. At least four other ancient towers have been located, including the megalithic Psaros Pyrgos or Couch of the Cyclops in the SW corner of the island. The so-called Castle of the Old Lady above Ganema and Koutalas preserves scant remains of a collapsed dry-stone construction in a notch below the rocky summits. Rough fragments of marble and rooftile, and archaic fine-ware potsherds on the SE terraces of the hillside. The fortified Monastery of the Taxiarchs, dedicated to the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, was built in 1572 just E of the village of Galani, the sole monk is Archimandrite Makarios, who entered the monastery as a youth in 1958 and continues to maintain it with admirable devotion. In the 20th century, the mines of Serifos were exploited by the mining company Societe des mines Seriphos-Spiliazeza and their leader was Constantinos Speras, a Serifos native educated in Egypt, who was an anarcho-syndicalist with long experience of labour struggles on the Greek mainland. In response to the strike, Grohman asked for the help of Greek authorities, four workers were killed and a dozen wounded. The workers, supported by their wives, attacked the gendarmes with stones, the freed leadership took control of island institutions and send a message placing Serifos under protection of the French fleet at Milos. This effort at collective proletarian self-organisation was cut short by the refusal of the French navy to intervene, Speras was arrested and charged with high treason, but released a few months later when the royalist government was ousted. Grohmann was given once again the control of the mines, after granting improved working conditions, Speras would return to Athens and resumed his labor activities, but was assassinated in 1943, allegedly by Communist Party maximalists
4.
Naiad
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In Greek mythology, the Naiads are a type of female spirit, or nymph, presiding over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water. They are distinct from gods, who embodied rivers. Arethusa, the nymph of a spring, could make her way through subterranean flows from the Peloponnesus, the Greek word is Ναϊάς, plural Ναϊάδες It derives from νάειν, to flow, or νᾶμα, running water. Naiad has several English pronunciations, /ˈneɪæd/, /ˈneɪəd/, /ˈnaɪæd/, /ˈnaɪəd/ and they were often the object of archaic local cults, worshipped as essential to humans. Boys and girls at coming-of-age ceremonies dedicated their childish locks to the local naiad of the spring, in places like Lerna their waters ritual cleansings were credited with magical medical properties. Oracles might be situated by ancient springs, Naiads could be dangerous, Hylas of the Argos crew was lost when he was taken by naiads fascinated by his beauty. The naiads were also known to exhibit jealous tendencies, salmacis forced the youth Hermaphroditus into a carnal embrace and, when he sought to get away, fused with him. The loves and rapes of Zeus, according to Graves readings, so, in the back-story of the myth of Aristaeus, Hypseus, a king of the Lapiths, married Chlidanope, a naiad, who bore him Cyrene. Aristaeus had more than ordinary mortal experience with the naiads, when his bees died in Thessaly and his aunt Arethusa invited him below the waters surface, where he was washed with water from a perpetual spring and given advice. St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans was formerly known as Nyades Street, and is parallel to Dryades Street. Crinaeae Eleionomae Limnades or Limnatides Pegaeae Potameides Bibliotheca 2.95,2.11,2.21,2.23,1.61,1.81,1.7.6 Homer. Odyssey 13.355,17.240, Iliad 14.440,20.380 Ovid, theogony Burkert, Walter, Greek Religion, Harvard University Press,1985. Robert Graves, The Greek Myths 1955 Edgar Allan Poe, Sonnet to Science 1829 The Naiades Naiad Nymphs
5.
Poseidon
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Poseidon was one of the twelve Olympian deities of the pantheon in Greek mythology. His main domain was the ocean, and he is called the God of the Sea, additionally, he is referred to as Earth-Shaker due to his role in causing earthquakes, and has been called the tamer of horses. He is usually depicted as a male with curly hair. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology, both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon. According to some folklore, he was saved by his mother Rhea, who concealed him among a flock of lambs and pretended to have birth to a colt. There is a Homeric hymn to Poseidon, who was the protector of many Hellenic cities, according to the references from Plato in his dialogues Timaeus and Critias, the island of Atlantis was the chosen domain of Poseidon. The form Ποτειδάϝων appears in Corinth, the origins of the name Poseidon are unclear. Walter Burkert finds that the second element da- remains hopelessly ambiguous, another theory interprets the second element as related to the word *δᾶϝον dâwon, water, this would make *Posei-dawōn into the master of waters. There is also the possibility that the word has Pre-Greek origin, Plato in his dialogue Cratylus gives two alternative etymologies, either the sea restrained Poseidon when walking as a foot-bond, or he knew many things. If surviving Linear B clay tablets can be trusted, the name occurs with greater frequency than does di-u-ja. A feminine variant, po-se-de-ia, is found, indicating a lost consort goddess. Poseidon carries frequently the title wa-na-ka in Linear B inscriptions, as king of the underworld, the chthonic nature of Poseidon-Wanax is also indicated by his title E-ne-si-da-o-ne in Mycenean Knossos and Pylos, a powerful attribute. In the cave of Amnisos Enesidaon is related with the cult of Eileithyia and she was related with the annual birth of the divine child. During the Bronze Age, a goddess of nature, dominated both in Minoan and Mycenean cult, and Wanax was her companion in Mycenean cult. It is possible that Demeter appears as Da-ma-te in a Linear B inscription, in Linear B inscriptions found at Pylos, E-ne-si-da-o-ne is related with Poseidon, and Si-to Po-tini-ja is probably related with Demeter. Tablets from Pylos record sacrificial goods destined for the Two Queens, the Two Queens may be related with Demeter and Persephone, or their precursors, goddesses who were not associated with Poseidon in later periods. The violated Demeter was Demeter Erinys, in Arcadia, Demeters mare-form was worshiped into historical times. Her xoanon of Phigaleia shows how the local cult interpreted her, a Medusa type with a horses head with snaky hair, holding a dove and a dolphin, probably representing her power over air and water
6.
Perseus
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Perseus beheaded the Gorgon Medusa and saved Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus. Perseus was the son of the mortal Danaë and the god Zeus and he was also the half-brother and great grandfather of Heracles. There is some prospect that it descended into Greek from the Proto-Indo-European language, in that regard Robert Graves has espoused the only Greek derivation available. Perseus might be from the Greek verb, πέρθειν, “to waste, ravage, sack, destroy”, according to Carl Darling Buck, the –eus suffix is typically used to form an agent noun, in this case from the aorist stem, pers-. Pers-eus therefore is a sacker of cities, that is, a soldier by occupation, the origin of perth- is more obscure. J. B. Hofmann lists the possible root as *bher-, from which Latin ferio and this corresponds to Julius Pokorny’s *bher-, “scrape, cut. ”Ordinarily *bh- descends to Greek as ph-. This difficulty can be overcome by presuming a dissimilation from the –th– in perthein, that is, Graves carries the meaning still further, to the perse- in Persephone, goddess of death. the classical Perse. daughter of Oceanus. Whether it may be identified with the first element of Persephone is only speculative. ”A Greek folk etymology connected the name of the Persian people. The native name, however, has always had an -a- in Persian, herodotus recounts this story, devising a foreign son, Perses, from whom the Persians took the name. Apparently the Persians themselves knew the story, as Xerxes tried to use it to suborn the Argives during his invasion of Greece, Perseus was the son of Zeus and Danaë, the daughter of Acrisius, King of Argos. Disappointed by his lack of luck in having a son, Acrisius consulted the oracle at Delphi, who warned him that he would one day be killed by his daughters son. In order to keep Danaë childless, Acrisius imprisoned her in a chamber, open to the sky, in the courtyard of his palace, This mytheme is also connected to Ares, Oenopion, Eurystheus. Zeus came to her in the form of a shower of gold, soon after, their child was born, Perseus—Perseus Eurymedon, for his mother gave him this name as well. Fearful for his future, but unwilling to provoke the wrath of the gods by killing the offspring of Zeus and his daughter, danaës fearful prayer, made while afloat in the darkness, has been expressed by the poet Simonides of Ceos. Mother and child washed ashore on the island of Serifos, where they were taken in by the fisherman Dictys, the brother of Dictys was Polydectes, the king of the island. When Perseus was grown, Polydectes came to fall in love with the beautiful Danaë, Perseus believed Polydectes was less than honourable, and protected his mother from him, then Polydectes plotted to send Perseus away in disgrace. He held a banquet where each guest was expected to bring a gift. Polydectes requested that the guests bring horses, under the pretense that he was collecting contributions for the hand of Hippodamia, Perseus had no horse to give, so he asked Polydectes to name the gift, he would not refuse it
7.
Medusa
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In Greek mythology Medusa was a monster, a Gorgon, generally described as a winged human female with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Gazers upon her hideous face would turn to stone, most sources describe her as the daughter of Phorcys and Ceto, though the author Hyginus makes her the daughter of Gorgon and Ceto. According to Hesiod and Aeschylus, she lived and died on an island named Sarpedon, the 2nd-century BCE novelist Dionysios Skytobrachion puts her somewhere in Libya, where Herodotus had said the Berbers originated her myth, as part of their religion. In classical antiquity the image of the head of Medusa appeared in the device known as the Gorgoneion. The three Gorgon sisters—Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale—were all children of the ancient marine deities Phorcys and his sister Ceto, in an ode written in 490 BC Pindar already speaks of fair-cheeked Medusa. In Ovids telling, Perseus describes Medusas punishment by Minerva as just, in most versions of the story, she was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who was sent to fetch her head by King Polydectes of Seriphus because Polydectes wanted to marry his mother. The gods were well aware of this, and Perseus received help and he received a mirrored shield from Athena, gold, winged sandals from Hermes, a sword from Hephaestus and Hadess helm of invisibility. Since Medusa was the one of the three Gorgons who was mortal, Perseus was able to slay her while looking at the reflection from the mirrored shield he received from Athena. During that time, Medusa was pregnant by Poseidon, when Perseus beheaded her, Pegasus, a winged horse, and Chrysaor, a giant wielding a golden sword, sprang from her body. Jane Ellen Harrison argues that her potency only begins when her head is severed, the basis of the Gorgoneion is a cultus object, a ritual mask misunderstood. In the Odyssey xi, Homer does not specifically mention the Gorgon Medusa, Lest for my daring Persephone the dread, harrisons translation states the Gorgon was made out of the terror, not the terror out of the Gorgon. According to Ovid, in northwest Africa, Perseus flew past the Titan Atlas, who stood holding the sky aloft, and transformed him into stone when he tried to attack him. Furthermore, the poisonous vipers of the Sahara, in the Argonautica 4.1515, Ovids Metamorphoses 4.770, the blood of Medusa also spawned the Amphisbaena. Perseus then flew to Seriphos, where his mother was about to be forced into marriage with the king, King Polydectes was turned into stone by the gaze of Medusas head. It is immediately obvious that the Gorgons are not really three but one + two, the two unslain sisters are mere appendages due to custom, the real Gorgon is Medusa. A number of early scholars interpreted the myth of the Medusa as a quasi-historical. According to Joseph Campbell, In 1940, Sigmund Freuds Das Medusenhaupt was published posthumously and this article laid the framework for his significant contribution to a body of criticism surrounding the monster. Medusa is presented by Freud as the supreme talisman who provides the image of castration — associated in the mind with the discovery of maternal sexuality —
8.
Andromeda (mythology)
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In Greek mythology, Andromeda is the daughter of the Aethiopian king Cepheus and his wife Cassiopeia. When Cassiopeias hubris leads her to boast that Andromeda is more beautiful than the Nereids, Andromeda is stripped and chained naked to a rock as a sacrifice to sate the monster, but is saved from death by Perseus. Her name is the Latinized form of the Greek Ἀνδρομέδα or Ἀνδρομέδη, ruler of men, from ἀνήρ, ἀνδρός man, from the Renaissance, interest revived in the original story, typically as derived from Ovids account. In Greek mythology, Andromeda was the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, king and her mother Cassiopeia boasted that her daughter was more beautiful than the Nereids, the nymph-daughters of the sea god Nereus and often seen accompanying Poseidon. To punish the queen for her arrogance, Poseidon, brother to Zeus and god of the sea, the desperate king consulted the Oracle of Apollo, who announced that no respite would be found until the king sacrificed his daughter, Andromeda, to the monster. Stripped naked, she was chained to a rock on the coast, Perseus was returning from having slain the Gorgon, Medusa. After he happened upon the chained Andromeda, he approached Cetus while invisible and he set Andromeda free, and married her in spite of her having been previously promised to her uncle Phineus. At the wedding a quarrel took place between the rivals and Phineus was turned to stone by the sight of the Gorgons head, Andromeda followed her husband, first to his native island of Serifos, where he rescued his mother Danaë, and then to Tiryns in Argos. Together, they became the ancestors of the family of the Perseidae through the line of their son Perses, Perseus and Andromeda had seven sons, Perses, Alcaeus, Heleus, Mestor, Sthenelus, Electryon, and Cynurus as well as two daughters, Autochthe and Gorgophone. Their descendants ruled Mycenae from Electryon down to Eurystheus, after whom Atreus attained the kingdom, according to this mythology, Perseus is the ancestor of the Persians. Andromeda is represented in the sky by the constellation Andromeda. Four constellations are associated with the myth, jean-Baptiste Lullys opera, Persée, also dramatizes the myth. Andromeda has been the subject of ancient and modern works of art, which typically show the moment of rescue, with Andromeda usually still chained. Examples include, one of Titians poesies, and compositions by Joachim Wtewael, Veronese, many versions by Rubens, Ingres, from the Renaissance onward the chained nude figure of Andromeda typically was the centre of interest. Rembrandts Andromeda Chained to the Rocks is unusual in showing her alone, the Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino composed an hour-long operatic drama called Perseo e Andromeda in 2000. In 1973, a film called Perseus was made in the Soviet Union as part of the Soviet animated film collection called Legends. The 1981 film Clash of the Titans retells the story of Perseus, Andromeda, and Cassiopeia, thetis was indeed a Nereid and also the future mother of Achilles. Andromeda is depicted as being strong-willed and independent, whereas in the stories she is only mentioned as being the princess whom Perseus saves from the sea monster
9.
Dionysus
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Dionysus is the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness, fertility, theatre and religious ecstasy in ancient Greek religion and myth. Wine played an important role in Greek culture, and the cult of Dionysus was the religious focus for its unrestrained consumption. He may have been worshipped as early as c, 1500–1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks, traces of Dionysian-type cult have also been found in ancient Minoan Crete. His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms, some are described by ancient sources as Thracian, in some cults, he arrives from the east, as an Asiatic foreigner, in others, from Ethiopia in the South. He is a god of epiphany, the god that comes and his festivals were the driving force behind the development of Greek theatre. The earliest cult images of Dionysus show a male, bearded and robed. He holds a staff, tipped with a pine-cone and known as a thyrsus. Later images show him as a beardless, sensuous, naked or half-naked androgynous youth, in its fully developed form, his central cult imagery shows his triumphant, disorderly arrival or return, as if from some place beyond the borders of the known and civilized. His procession is made up of female followers and bearded satyrs with erect penises, some are armed with the thyrsus. The god himself is drawn in a chariot, usually by exotic beasts such as lions or tigers and this procession is presumed to be the cult model for the followers of his Dionysian Mysteries. He is also known as Bacchus, the adopted by the Romans. His thyrsus, sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey, is both a beneficent wand and a used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents. As Eleutherios, his wine, music and ecstatic dance free his followers from self-conscious fear and care and those who partake of his mysteries are possessed and empowered by the god himself. The cult of Dionysus is also a cult of the souls, his maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings and he is sometimes categorised as a dying-and-rising god. Some scholars believe that Dionysus is a syncretism of a local Greek nature deity, Dionysus had a strange birth that evokes the difficulty in fitting him into the Olympian pantheon. His mother was a woman, Semele, the daughter of king Cadmus of Thebes, and his father was Zeus. Zeus wife, Hera, discovered the affair while Semele was pregnant, appearing as an old crone, Hera befriended Semele, who confided in her that Zeus was the actual father of the baby in her womb. Hera pretended not to believe her, and planted seeds of doubt in Semeles mind, curious, Semele demanded of Zeus that he reveal himself in all his glory as proof of his godhood
10.
Pirithous
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Pirithous was a son of heavenly Dia, fathered either by Ixion or by Zeus. No trace of such a tradition, which Homers listeners would have recognized in Nestors allusion. In disjointed episodes that have survived, Pirithous had heard rumors about Theseus courage and strength in battle and he rustled Theseus herd of cattle from Marathon, and Theseus set out to pursue him. Pirithous took up arms and the pair met, then became so impressed by each other took a oath of friendship. They were among the company of heroes that hunted the Calydonian Boar, later, Pirithous was set to marry Hippodamia. The centaurs were guests at the party, but they got drunk and tried to abduct the women, the Lapiths won the ensuing battle, the Centauromachy, a favorite motif of Greek art. Theseus and Pirithous pledged to carry off daughters of Zeus, Theseus chose Helen of Sparta and together they kidnapped her when she was 13 years of age and decided to hold on to her until she was old enough to marry. Pirithous chose a more dangerous prize, Persephone herself and they left Helen with Theseus mother, Aethra, and traveled to the underworld domain of Persephone and her husband Hades. When they stopped to rest, they found themselves unable to stand up from the rock as they saw the Furies appear before them, Heracles freed Theseus from the stone, but the earth shook when he attempted to liberate Pirithous. He had committed too great a crime for wanting the wife of one of the gods as his own bride. Homer, Odyssey XXI, 295-305, XI,631, Bibliotheca 2.5.12, virgil, Aeneid VI.393, Ovid, Metamorphoses, XII.218. Hyginus, Fabulae,79 Horace, Odes, IV,7 Pirithous appears in the Class of the Titans episode Recipe for Disaster voiced by Michael Donovan. His mythology of being trapped in the Underworld and being unable to be freed by Heracles remains unchanged in the series, Pirithous appears in the video game God of War III voiced by Simon Templeman. His name is spelled Peirithous here, Peirithous is shown as a prisoner of Hades for trying to make off with Persephone. Peirithous offers Kratos to free him in exchange for giving him the Bow of Apollo, Kratos ends up burning him to a skeleton with a Cerberus Mongrel and claims the Bow of Apollo
11.
Ovid
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Publius Ovidius Naso, known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love elegists and he enjoyed enormous popularity, but, in one of the mysteries of literary history, was sent by Augustus into exile in a remote province on the Black Sea, where he remained until his death. Ovid himself attributes his exile to carmen et error, a poem and a mistake and his poetry was much imitated during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and greatly influenced Western art and literature. The Metamorphoses remains one of the most important sources of classical mythology, Ovid talks more about his own life than most other Roman poets. Information about his biography is drawn primarily from his poetry, especially Tristia 4.10, other sources include Seneca the Elder and Quintilian. Ovid was born in Sulmo, in an Apennine valley east of Rome, to an important equestrian family and that was a significant year in Roman politics. He was educated in rhetoric in Rome under the teachers Arellius Fuscus and Porcius Latro with his brother who excelled at oratory and his father wanted him to study rhetoric toward the practice of law. According to Seneca the Elder, Ovid tended to the emotional, after the death of his brother at 20 years of age, Ovid renounced law and began travelling to Athens, Asia Minor, and Sicily. Ovids first recitation has been dated to around 25 BC, when he was eighteen and he was part of the circle centered on the patron Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, and seems to have been a friend of poets in the circle of Maecenas. 4.10. 41–54, Ovid mentions friendships with Macer, Propertius, Horace, Ovid was very popular at the time of his early works, but was later exiled by Augustus in AD8. He married three times and divorced twice by the time he was thirty years old and he had one daughter, who eventually bore him grandchildren. His last wife was connected in some way to the influential gens Fabia, the first 25 years of Ovids literary career were spent primarily writing poetry in elegiac meter with erotic themes. The chronology of early works is not secure, tentative dates. 2.18. 19–26 that seems to describe the collection as a published work. The authenticity of some of these poems has been challenged, between the publications of the two editions of the Amores can be dated the premiere of his tragedy Medea, which was admired in antiquity but is no longer extant. Ovid may identify this work in his poetry as the carmen, or song. The Ars Amatoria was followed by the Remedia Amoris in the same year and this corpus of elegiac, erotic poetry earned Ovid a place among the chief Roman elegists Gallus, Tibullus, and Propertius, of whom he saw himself as the fourth member
