Ovid's Amores

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Ovid’s Amores
The main concept that surrounds Classical Greek literature is the fact that Eros, or love, is the enemy against all reason. In his collection of poems, Publius Ovidius Naso verifies and elaborates on this idea of irrationality. Through these poems, Ovid illustrated the power of Eros that can inevitably destroy not only a man’s reasoning, but also his dignity and his soul as well. Ovid’s concept of infidelity between lovers is key to the design of these poems. The narrator in this anthology is furiously bombarded with emotions of jealousy, both internally and externally, as a result of this infidelity. There are three main stages of jealousy to which the narrator experiences: possessiveness over a lover; being accused of infidelity, making him the victim of jealousy; and experiencing agonizing pain or sorrow as a result of unfaithfulness.
In the second poem of this collection, the narrator is extremely jealous and possessive over his lover. His jealousy is obvious right in the first line of the poem when he boldly states, “Your husband? Going to the same dinner as us? / I hope it chokes him” (2.1-2). This jealous characteristic simply makes the narrator writhe over the fact that he has to sit and watch while his lover’s husband touches her breasts (2.38) and puts his arms around her neck as he pleases (2.5-6). He losses all reason and begins to create situations in his mind; situations in which he stakes his claim over what he believes is rightfully his and causes a public scandal (2.39-40). It is here when the notion of Eros begins to set into place and the narrator drowns in his own madness.
Naturally, as these poems so boldly indicate, all humans are fickle. Turning the tables, the sixth poem shies away from the jealousy the narrator feels personally and demonstrates his role as the person causing envy. His lover is jealous of him and believes that he is being unfaithful to her. Looking at all of thes...