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The Art of Love uses the same impudent, witty tone that pervadesmuch of the Loves, but without their anguish. It had enormousinfluence in the Middle Ages, when it was studied seriously as a source on thetrue nature of love, but was also often considered scandalous.
Book I
\"Car\" in this translation means \"chariot.\" The word\"car\" existed in English for horse-drawn vehicles long before theinvention of automobiles.
Automedon was Achilles\' charioteer in the TrojanWar.
Tiphys steered the Argo through many hazards under the leadership ofJason.
Achilles was educated as a boy by the aged centaur Chiron.
Achilles kills Hector in one of the climactic scenes of theIliad. Apollo inspired lofty lyric verse, Clio was sometimesconsidered the muse of epic poetry. Why does Ovid say he doesn\'t need divineinspiration to write this work?
Perseus\' wife Andromeda came from Ethiopia,not India; but ancient writers often confused the two countries as equallydistant and exotic.
The Grecian girl Paris took was of course Helen, wife ofAgamemnon.
The sheltered spots convenient for meeting women include Pompey\'sportico built to shelter people at the theater in case of rain, the Portico ofOctavia, the sister of Augustus (born Octavian), and the Portico of Livia. TheTemple of Palatine Apollo was built during Augustus\' reign and was surrounded byporch decorated with statues of the fifty daughters of Danaus who murdered theirhusbands. All were popular shady gathering spots near places of entertainment.The other spots mentioned are places of worship in Rome where Ovid says willingwomen can be encountered.
Many Jews lived in Rome, and a considerable numberof Romans converted to the religion.
The section on the lawcourts involves anelaborate series of puns in Latin comparing legal battles to courtship.
In the section on the theater he depicts the abduction of theSabine women , which took place at an outdoor festival they had been invited to(see the note for the \"Vigil ofVenus.\") Then follows the racetrack passage whichreworks Book III, Elegy II. Most scholars prefer the firstversion; can you see why?
No aspect of Roman life, despite the violence of ourpopular entertainments, is more alien to us than the pleasure the Romans took inwatching human beings be killed in gladiatorial shows. How does Ovid say thespectator can become the victim at one of these shows?
Our translation here skips ahead to a passage about looking for women at amilitary triumph. He uses it as an excuse to flatter shamelessly the politicalaccomplishments of Augustus Caesar and his grandson Gaius Caesar who failed tosucceed him as emperor, despite Ovid\'s prophecies of a brilliant career. Heimagines that their campaign against the Parthians will result in a brillianttriumphal march, thus justifying this lengthy digression.
In the section onparties, he warns against falling at love while under the influence of wine. Paris was asked by Venus, Juno, and Minerva to judge which ofthem was the most beautiful (the scene, called \"The Judgment of Paris,\"has been often depicted in paintings).
What does he say is the otherdisadvantage to falling for a woman at a party?
Baiae was a resort nearNaples. Women frequently attended processions in honor of Diana Nemorensis atAricia, about ten miles south of Rome. Propertius writes about Cynthia\'sparticipation.
Having established where women are to be found, Ovid now begins to describe howto seduce them. Summarize his views on feminine psychology in the sectionbeginning \"First: be a confident soul.\"
There follows a list ofmonstrous feminine passions from mythology whose point is that if women have beenknown to go to such lengths for passion\'s sake, surely they will be willing toengage in a more normal love affair.
For Byblis, see theMetamorphoses, ix:, ll. 447-665. Myrrha, like Byblis, repented ofher incestuous passion and hanged herself.
QueenPasiphae\'s affair with the great bull of Crete resulted in the birth of theminotaur. As he often does, Ovid proceeds to group together myths with a similartheme, in this case humans and cattle. Europa was carried off by Jupiter in theform of a bull, a scene often depicted in art. After mentioning Io and Europa,Ovid returns to Pasiphae and the wooden cow she had built to enable her to matewith the bull.
Aerope, wife of Atreus, had an affair with her brother-in-lawThyestes which led to a deadly feud, leading ultimately the infamous banquet atwhich Thyestes was deceived into eating the dead bodies of his own children. Inhorror, day turned to night, described here as Phoebus Apollo, charioteer of thesun, turning his vehicle around to abort its rising.
Scylla\'s magic lock ofhair protected him until his daughter betrayed him out of love for Minos. ThisScylla is here identified with the sea-monster described in the Odyssey.
Agamemnon, commander of the Greek forces at Troy,returned home to be slain by his faithless wife Clytemnestra.
Creusa was the princess that Jason married after he rejectedMedea. Medea took vengeance by killing her with a poisoned robe and thenmurdering her own children (see Euripides\' Medea).
The next threeexamples of monstrous female passion involve women who, frustrated in theirattempts to seduce men, falsely accuse them of rape. The most famous is Phaedra, who tried to seduce her stepson Hippolytus (and isthe subject of another tragedy by Euripides, the Hippolytus). Why doyou suppose that such stories are so popular in many cultures?
The passage recommending securing the cooperation of the maid recalls Book II, Elegies VII & VIII, although he here warns againstactually seducing her--at least until her mistress has been safely bedded.
After ten years of fruitless siege at Troy, the Greeks pretended to depart,leaving behind an enormous wooden horse, secretly filled with soldiers. After thecelebrating Trojans had hauled the horse inside the city, the soldiers sneakedout under cover of darkness and threw open the gates of Troy to the waiting Greektroops.
How does Ovid recommend lovers take advantage of a woman\'s anger withanother man?
Why does he say it is an advantage to have succeeded in seducingthe maid?
The Battle of the River Allia in 390 BCE was remembered bitterly asa disastrous defeat for the Roman (Latian) forces at the hands of the Gauls.
Jews in Rome popularized the idea of a Sabbath day of rest and the seven-dayweek.
Why does he recommend against courting on a woman\'s birthday?
Thescene with the peddler is a delightful little vignette which one could easilyimagine being acted on the stage. The language is here somewhat modernized: the\"check\" is actually a promise to pay; but birthday cakes were genuinelyRoman.
After Achilles killed Prince Hector at Troy and treated the bodysavagely, he was nevertheless persuaded to return it to King Priam for burial.
Cydippe was tricked into marrying her lover Acontius when he rolled in front of her an appleon which he had inscribed \"I swear by Artemis to marry Acontius.\" Shepicked it up, read it aloud, and realized she was now bound by the oath.
The next section recommends the study of rhetoric as it was studied by lawyers.Clever oratory was much admired in Rome. \"Periods\" are phrases.
Penelope\'s suitors tried to get her to marry for many years, but she resistedthem until her husband Ulysses returned home, twenty years after he had left. Ittook ten years to conquer Troy. What do you think of his advice onpersistence?
The lover has to turn around to see the woman he loves in thetheater audience because females were confined by law to the last few rows.
Rome did have actresses, but males also commonly played female parts.
Some mendid curl their hair, but were not considered very manly for doing so.
Thepriests of the cult of Cybele shaved their legs as well as castratingthemselves.
Adonis was a handsome youth with whom Venus fell in love.
Bacchus is the god of wine: he is suggesting that wine may help seduce a woman.This is the excuse for the story which follows. When Ariadne had been abandonedon Naxos by Theseus, she uttered long, bitter laments which became a stereotypein poetry; but Ovid rejects the version of the story which has her committingsuicide and has her rescued promptly by Bacchus.
Hymenaeus is the god ofmarriage. Note the assumption that the woman may well be married, though this isnot suggested elsewhere. Severe penalties against adultery were enacted about thetime this was written, and it has sometimes been supposed that Ovid\'s repeatedcelebration of the seducing of other men\'s wives may have been one of the causesof his exile.
This section is developed out of materials originally used in The Loves Book I, Elegy IV. Eurytion was one of thecentaurs killed in the battle between the Lapiths and Centaurs when the lattergot drunk at the marriage feast of Pirithous.
What does Ovid say are theadvantages of pretending to be drunk? His toast \"to the fellow she sleepswith\" is ambiguous, of course: the listeners think he is speaking of herhusband, she knows he is speaking of the lover.
Juno and Pallas lost the beauty contest to Venus when judged by Paris. It wasclaimed that when Jupiter was carrying on his affair with Io, he swore falsely toJuno that he was not. From that time on he ordained that lovers should not bepunished for their false oaths.
Styx, the river of death, was the only entityby which the gods swore.
What is his excuse for saying it is all right tocheat women?
The myth of King Busiris of Egypt may reflect a distant memoryof human sacrifices carried out in Egypt.
Since it never rains in Egypt, therains referred to may be those far upstream which cause the Nile to swell.
Phalaris was a historical figure, the cruel tyrant of Acragas in Sicily c.570-554 BCE. He had a hollow bronze bull designed in which to roast humansacrifices; but the first victim was its designer.
Note the repeated insistence that women\'s resistance is not to be takenseriously. The Romans tended sometimes to romanticize rape, as in the rape of theSabine women, although it could also beconsidered a terrible crime, as in the rape of Lucretia, who was praised forcommitting suicide when raped by Sextus Tarquinius after making her husband swearto kill the rapist.
Phoebe and Hilaira were sisters abducted by the Dioscuri,considered sons of Jupiter: Castor and Pollux.
Achilles\' mother Thetis triedto thwart the prophecy that he would die at Troy by isolating him on the islandof Scyros and having him raised as a girl. However, he fell in love with theprincess Deidamia, revealing his gender when he raped her.
The triumph ofVenus on Mount Ida was her winning of the beauty contest judged by Paris. Shewon by bribing Paris with Helen, an act which triggered the Trojan War.
PallasAthena, though female, was also awar goddess, and is usually portrayed withhelmet, spear, and shield.
Achilles killed Hector with a spear, of course, andnot a skein of wool
What evidence is there toward the end of this section thatalthough Ovid has few scruples about using force, he isn\'t really enthusiasticabout it?
Here is introduced another element in the description of love-longing which wasto become standardized for centuries: pallor.
The legends of Orion and Daphnis(\"the shepherd-boy\") referred to here are lost, but the point isclear.
Thinness is another classic symptom of love-longing.
Patroclus andAchilles were such close friends that the latter was persuaded to rejoin thebattle against Troy after quitting because he felt cheated of his proper battlespoils only when Patroclus was killed by Hector, and Achilles felt bound toavenge his friend. This is the central action of Homer\'s Iliad. Part of those spoils was the maiden Briseis, whoserelationship to Achilles Patroclus respected.
Achates is the loyal companionof Aeneas in Virgil\'s Aeneid, and his name became synonymous withfriendship.
Proteus was famous for his ability to transform himself intomyriad shapes.
Book II
The first two parts of the book have explained how to find and capture a woman.This part tells how to keep her.
Homer and Hesiod were the early writers whorecorded the classic myths, serving almost as a Bible to the Greeks.
Pelopswon Hippodamia in a chariot race. The story of Daedalus has been often retold,including by Ovid himself, in the Metamorphoses. One can see himedging toward that work in such passages as these where he allows himself to getcarried away with recounting a myth.
To say one is willing to swim the Styx isto say that one is willing to face death itself, since Styx is the riverseparating Hades from the land of the living.
The heat of the sun melted thewax holding Icarus\' feathers together. His story was often told to illustrate theconsequences of reckless and immoderate behavior. The conclusion is simply thatlove cannot be controlled.
It was believed that foals were born with a growthon their foreheads which was immediately bitten off by its mother. However, ifone could be secured intact it would be a wonderful love potion.
Medea was a powerful sorceress but she could not keep Jasonfrom leaving her for Creüsa, whom she killed with a poisoned cloak. Ulysses\'men were transformed into animals by the sorceress Circe, but he managed to savehimself and his men despite her magical powers.
What does he recommend insteadof magic potions?
What are the most important qualities in a man, according toOvid?
Ulysses lived with Circe on the island of Aeaea for a whole year andwith the nymph Calypso on Ogygia even longer. In both cases he had difficultyconvincing the women to let him go.
Rhesus was an ally of the Trojans,betrayed by a Trojan prisoner (Dolon) to the Greeks. How does Calypso use thetelling of this story to argue against his departure?
Ovid makes it clear thathis ideas of courtship do not aim at marriage. As in most ancient cultures, Romanmarriages were arranged.
He alludes back to the incident depicted in theLoves, Book I, Elegy VII. He takes for granted that hisearlier poems are well known to his readers. How is his advice in this sectiondifferent from that at the end of Book I?
Atalanta was the athletic virginwho outran all her suitors although they ran naked, she in armor. Melanionfinally caught her, however, with the trick described in thenotes to the Loves, Book III, Elegy II.
Women used tobe routinely advised to lose at games in order to please men; what is Ovid\'sadvice to men?
\"Mules\" are slippers.
According to some Romanwriters, after the mighty Hercules defiled the temple of the oracle at Delphi, hewas condemned to slavery and sold to Queen Omphale of Lydia, who, among othermore heroic tasks, required him to dress as a woman, sing, and spin. The image ofthe hyper-masculine Hercules forced to behave in such an effeminate manner hasamused many writers and artists. After many sufferings, Hercules was finallyallowed to become an immortal and live among the gods.
Ovid compares love towar, but he does not emphasize aggression. What aspects of war does he use asmetaphors for love?
When Apollo dared to restore a dead man to life, Jupiterpunished him severely, and his continued defiance led to a sentence of working asa slave for a mortal for a year. It was at Admetus\' court that he labored.
TheGreek Leander swam across the Hellespont to be with his beloved Hero.Noblesse oblige is a French phrase for the sort of politeness thatsocial superiors owe to their inferiors.
On July 7th of each year the Romanscelebrated the feast of Juno Caprotina (\"under the fig tree\") inmemory of an incident in which the Gauls had demanded the Romans hand over tothem certain matrons and virgins. Their maidservants were substituted, and whenthey were to be collected, signalled to the Roman troops to fall on the Gauls anddestroy them.
Amaryllis is a typical Arcadian figure whose fondness forchestnuts was mentioned in Virgil\'s Eclogue 2, line 52.
What does Ovid have tosay about the value of poetry?
Medusa was a ferocious monster with snakes forhair whose fierce looks literally froze those who looked upon her.
What limitdoes Ovid place on the would-be lover\'s attentions to his beloved when she isill?
When Demophoon deserted his bride Phyllis, shecommitted suicide, and his own death ultimately resulted.
Laodamia grieved sofor the husband she had lost at Troy that Hermes brought him back from the deadfor three hours, but when he returned to Hades at the end of that time, shekilled herself. These stories are all extreme examples of the saying\"Absence makes the heart grow fonder.\"
The counter-example, ofcourse, is Menelaus. Most ancient authors were prone to blame Helen for herdesertion of Menelaus, but Ovid, ever sympathetic to adulterous wives, is anexception.
Female worshippers of Bacchus, when filled with Dionysian frenzy,were supposed to be capable of ripping apart animals and even men with their barehands.
Notice that the warning against jealousy is directed especially athusbands.
Clytemnestra hated her husband for many reasons, notably havingsacrificed their daughter Iphigeneia to secure fair winds for Troy. His claiming of Briseis was a minor issue. He broughtCassandra, daughter of Priam, back from Troy as his prize. Clytemnestra\'s loverAegisthus, according to some versions, helped her murder Agamemnon upon hisreturn home. The adulterous pair were subsequently murdered by her son Orestes.Ovid claims she was mainly motivated by jealousy in order to make her examplesuit his purpose.
Note how subtle is Ovid\'s advice about effective lying.
Ovid\'s list of aphrodisiacs is translated somewhat loosely here.
Ovid\'s flipdefense of his own inconsistency sows how unserious much of this advice is.
Fortuna was a very important goddess; those she smiled on were said to befortunate.
Roucoulade is a French word referring to the cooingof doves.
According to some ancient thinkers, the universe was created out ofa chaotic void. The world was not so much created as organized. Ovid\'s creationstory concentrates on how creatures learned to mate. The lesson is: doing it isnature\'s way.
Machaon, son of Asclepius, was a physician from the Greek sideat Troy.
On the temple of Apollo at Delphi was inscribed the famous motto,\"Know thyself.\"
In what way is Ovid\'s advice of showing yourself offto best advantage self-deprecating?
The honey of Mount Hybla (andconsequently its bees) was especially prized.
Ovid recommends the conventionalgesture of hanging a garland on the woman\'s door, referred toearlier.
The Oracle of Dodona was where Aeneas went for advice. Note howOvid admits that he doesn\'t always take his own advice.
When Venus wascommitting adultery with Mars, her husband Vulcan trapped them in a net andcalled the other gods to witness the crime; but they were amused instead and theresult was shame for Vulcan rather than Venus. The lame Vulcan was the armorer ofthe gods, and worked at his forge inside the volcanic Mt. Aetna.
The sun-godis Apollo.
Paphos was an island sacred to Venus.
The famous Eleusinianmysteries of Ceres swore their participants to the utmost secrecy.
One versionof the story of Tantalus says that he stole the sacred nectar and ambrosia of thegods and shared their secret with humanity. His punishment is discussed above, in the notes to the Loves, Book II, Elegy II. Venuswas almost always portrayed nude, but often attempting to conceal her breasts andgroin (see the Cnidian Aphrodite of Praxiteles or the Venus deMedici).
Easily-shocked readers are warned that the following sectiongets graphic. Again, \"person\" is archaic English for\"body.\"
Andromeda was an Ethiopian, but was generally consideredbeautiful. The prejudice against dark skin was mild, but pervasive. Perseusrescued her from a sea monster.
Andromache was wife of Hector, prince ofTroy.
What a Young Girl Ought to Know was first published in1895 by Mary Wood-Allen, National Superintendent of the Purity Department ofWoman\'s Christian Temperance Union and remained the standard (very restrained)book on sex for young women for decades. This is one of our translator\'s littlejokes.
Affairs with adolescent males were commonplace (though oftendisapproved of) in classical Rome, but the boys were not supposed to receive muchpleasure from the sex involved. His objection to such affairs is not moral: hesimply thinks the best sex delights both lovers. Much of Ovid\'s graphic advice onlovemaking seems very contemporary.
Helen\'s daughter Hermione was aboutnineteen when she was promised to both Orestes and Neoptolemus as a bride.
Hector was mostly famous as a warrior, but he did manage to wed Andromache.
Briseis was the captive Achilles won in the Trojan War.
Although expertson sex now advise against striving with undo anxiety for simultaneous orgasm,Ovid\'s endorsement of it is generous, not self-centered.
The palm branch is asymbolic award for victory in a contest.
Nestor was the wise olderadvisor of the Greeks at Troy. The rest were as described.
Automedon wasAchilles \' charioteer.
The Amazons were female allies ofthe Trojans defeated by Achilles and the Greeks.
Spoils from a victory werededicated to the gods.
Book III
Ovid now turns to advice for women.
Amphiaraus wasone of the heroes of the disastrous battle of the Seven against Thebes, and wassaved from the shame of being speared in the back only by being sent by Jupiterdirectly to Hades, where the chief river was the Styx (\" Stygian \" isthe adjectival form). Eriphyle was bribed to betray her husband into death,which helped trigger the battle that ended the life of Amphiaraus, so likeMenelaus and Agamemnon, he was a good man wronged by a wicked woman, though lessdirectly.
When Admetus was told he could only be spared if someone else gavehis or her life in his place, his wife Alcestis volunteered. Euripides\'Alcestis is a moving depiction of this story. Evadne committedsuicide on the pyre of her husband Capaneus after his death in the battle of theSeven against Thebes. Note how readily Ovid condemns men as compared to women.
When Demophoon abandoned Phyllis , she ran nine times to the sea in search ofhim. The woods were said to have shed their leaves out of pity for her.
Aeneas, after having seduced Queen Dido of Carthage, abandonedher to continue to Italy, and she committed suicide.
Stesichorus wrote a poemexpressing the conventional view that Helen was to blame for the Trojan War, butVenus angrily blinded him and he wrote a second poem claiming that she neverdeserted her husband, that the entire episode with Paris was a divinely-causedillusion. This story is the basis for the remarkably comic \"tragedy\"Helen by Euripides.
Myrtle was associated with Venus.
Notehow his first advice is no warning against love, but a conventional carpe diem warning, taken to grotesquelengths. He is not really giving women defenses against men, but urging them togive in. Diana was normally chaste, but she fell in love with Endymion, who came from the region of Kariae, near Mount Latmos. Aurora (the dawn) was so infatuated with Cephalus that she carried himoff, but the pink sky each morning reflects her shameful blushes.
HandsomeAdonis was killed by a boar before Venus could make love with him.
The sonVenus had by Anchises was the famous hero Aeneas.
She bore several childrento her lover Mars, including Harmonia (an allegory for love overcoming war,creating harmony).
The next section concentrates on how women should makethemselves seductive, but Ovid takes time to develop another passage flatteringAugustus for his construction projects, though he says the most importantimprovements have been in manners rather than architecture. His time is stillconsidered the \"golden age\" of imperial Rome.
Gold threads weresometimes woven into extravagant clothing.
These \"makeover\" tipswill sound familiar to readers of modern women\'s magazines.
Note how Ovidenthusiastically celebrates variety.
Hercules won Iole in an archery contestwith her father.
According to some versions, abandoned Ariadne did not killherself but was rescued and wed by Bacchus.
Purple Tyrian dye was rare andprecious.
Neireids were sea-nymphs. The Romans and Greek made most of theirgarments from wool, though it was often very finely woven so as to be quitelight, even translucent.
Andromeda was so beautiful that the jealous godspunished her island home of Seriphos.
Both Greeks and Romans generallypracticed the removal of all body hair, at least when young.
A \"Mysianmere\" would be a lake where barbarians live.
The Art ofBeauty, a treatise on make-up, is printed in this volume, but seemsnever to have been finished. What is his general attitude toward beauty aids?
The girl with the upside-down hair had of course snatched up her wig toohastily.
Parthian warriors were known for their trick of riding their horses backward in battle in order to shoot at those pursuing them; Ovid is joking that topsy-turvy hair is suitable only for barbaric Parthian women.
The women he says he is not trying toteach were all naturally famous beauties.
The stripes he mentions aredecorative borders to clothing, permitted only to nobles.
Although his adviceon hiding unattractive features may be exasperating, we\'ve all heard advice likeit by modern writers.
The Golden Mean--\"nothing in excess\"--was asolemnly-held ideal of the Greeks, here given a frivolous twist.
Ulysses hadhimself tied to the mast so that he could safely hear the alluring but dangeroussong of the sirens while his men rowed safely on with their ears plugged.
Women were often depicted as musicians in Roman art.
Orpheus persuaded thespirits of the dead to restore his wife Eurydice to him through his skill on thelyre.
The Phoenician psaltery is a ten- or twelve-stringed instrument.
Hislist of love poets includes some we have read, and his contemporary and modelTibullus.
\"Arms and the man\" is the opening of Virgil\'sAeneid.
Lethe is the stream of death that obliterates all memory;Ovid is claiming his works will live on after him, and doing a little advertisingfor his books at the same time.
\"Rolling the bones\" is casting thedice: he is speaking of gambling.
The Romans did not play chess, but ourtranslator here cleverly updates Ovid\'s references to another board game.
Onewonders what would have happened if a man, having read Ovid\'sadvice in Book II to lose, were to play against a woman who had read hissimilar advice to women here. Such inconsistencies reveal his essential light andfrivolous attitude.
His praise is once more directed to \"our leader\"Augustus, who in his youth had defeated the rebellious naval forces of Antony andCleopatra at the battle of Actium. Agrippa was Augustus\' son-in-law, who built amemorial to the battle.
The crimson on the sand and the games was blood fromthe gladiatorial combats.
In the section about over-elegant men Ovid finallyoffers some advice for women which can legitimately be called defensive.
[Themeaning of the reference to Priam is disputed.]
Note the gifts-for-sexequation which is still popular among many men today.
Hemlock and aconite arepowerful poisons.
It is audacious of Ovid to suggest that a woman\'s refusal tohave sex is equivalent to violating the sanctity of the Temple of the VestalVirgins.
Etna is a volcano.
Medusa\'s glance turned men to stone.
Minerva was said to have invented the aulos, or double flute;but when she saw how playing it distorted her features by looking at herreflection in the water, she abandoned it.
Tecmessa was Ajax \'s captive wife,melancholy at having been enslaved.
Andromache\'s rolein myth as the wife, then widow of Hector, was a sad one. Ovid may be thinking ofher image in Euripides\' drama named after and in his Trojan Women. A herald precedes a notable person, announcing his or her name.
Cynthia wasPropertius\' beloved, Lesbia Catullus\'. For the now more obscure Nemesis, Tibullus\' love, our translator has substituted Delia, one of Diana\'s names, but oftenused as a name for women generally.
Note how after having criticized his ownart as useless, he here praises it. Clearly he is aware that his advice will beread skeptically; he is simply trying to charm by being amusing.
Ovid prettyconsistently recommends mature men as lovers. What are his objections to youngmen in this section?
The advice about stimulating love through jealousyrecalls the Loves, Book II, Elegy XIX, but less amusingly.
Thais was a famous Athenian courtesan; as a professional shecould choose her lovers as she pleased.
The passage about women \"setfree, and not too long ago\" is addressed to recently-freed slave women,called \"libertinae.\"
For Danae, see the notes onthe Loves, Book II, Elegy XIX.
Bona Dea (the \" Good Goddess \")was worshipped only by women.
Note how Ovid characteristically interruptshimself, amazed at giving his secrets away.
The story of Procris is another of the long interpolations whichanticipate the Metamorphoses, and differs substantially from more familiaraccounts of her story.
He repeats his comments on drinking at parties, thistime directed at women, for whom they may have more dire consequences.
Havingearlier recommended attractive postures for repose, he now goes so far as tosuggest which lovemaking positions are the most attractive in a passage whichreadily calls to mind the term \"sex object.\"
Note that although hesuggests faking an orgasm if necessary, he regrets having to do so. He is fairlyconsistently sympathetic with women\'s needs for pleasure.
The finalrecommendation against asking for gifts seems rather self-interested.
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