Endlessly playful, this is also a work of integrity and courage, and a superb climax to the life of one of Rome's greatest writers. Read more showing the king of the gods as a savage rapist. It may also be read as a subtle but powerful political manifesto which derides Augustus' attempts to control his subjects by imposing his own mythology upon them: after celebrating the emperor as a Jupiter-on-earth, for example, Ovid deliberately juxtaposes a story. Both a calendar of daily rituals and a witty sequence of stories recounted in a variety of styles, it weaves together tales of gods and citizens together to explore Rome's history, religious beliefs and traditions.

Written after he had been banished to the Black Sea city of Tomis by Emperor Augustus, the Fasti is Ovid's last major poetic work. Ovid's design was to study the calendar in the light of old annals, and to show what events are commemorated on each day and the origins of the various events. This is Ovid's poetical calendar of the Roman year, with its various observances and festivals, written in elegiacs.

The Wisemans also include an informative introduction to the calendar, numerous helpful notes, a detailed index of names, and a glossary of Latin terms.Description for Fasti Paperback. This lively new edition by Anne and Peter Wiseman is the only modern prose translation of Ovid's Fasti and also the most accurate. The poem also relates a wealth of customs and beliefs, such as the unluckiness of marrying in May.

Among the stories Ovid tells at length are those of Arion and the dolphin, the rape of Lucretia, the shield that fell from heaven, the adventures of Dido's sister, the Great Mother's journey to Rome, the killing of Remus, the bloodsucking birds, and the murderous daughter of King Servius. Written in the late years of the emperor Augustus, and cut short when the emperor sent the poet into exile, the poem's tone ranges from tragedy to farce, and its subject matter from astronomy and obscure ritual to Roman history and Greek mythology. This is too large a topic, even within the confines of Fasti, to be adequately discussed here, but two points may help to clarify my approach. Ovid's poetical calendar of the Roman year is both a day-by-day account of festivals and observances and their origins, and a delightful retelling of myths and legends associated with particular dates.

Fasti poem