Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC–17/18 AD), commonly known as Ovid, was a Roman poet and one of the most influential writers of classical Latin literature. Born in Sulmo, in central Italy, he came from a prosperous family and received an education in rhetoric before choosing poetry as his career. Ovid became famous for his elegant, witty, and imaginative poetry, particularly his works on love and mythology. His best-known work, Metamorphoses, is an epic poem comprising stories of transformation drawn from Greek and Roman mythology. It became one of the most important sources of classical mythology for later European writers and artists. His other major works include Amores, Ars Amatoria, Heroides, and Fasti. In AD 8, Ovid was exiled by order of the Roman emperor Augustus to Tomis on the Black Sea. The reasons for his exile remain uncertain, and Ovid himself referred to the cause as “a poem and a mistake.” He spent the remainder of his life in exile and died there around AD 17 or 18. His poetry had a profound and lasting influence on European literature, art, and the Western literary tradition.