Put on the formal costume. Borrow your mother's driver.
Stepfather Mars will lend his triumph car.

There in your borrowed gear, the crowd shouting your glory,
Take the reins, strike a pose and hold it.
 (from Amores, 1.2)

Author's Epigram

Five booklets that Ovid first penned
now are three; he preferred to emend.
So if we don't please you, at least we can ease you
presenting two less to offend.

Ovid (c. 43 BC-AD17), a daring, original and passionate poet, has been an enduring influence on later poets. Amores is the work that first made Ovid famous, and infamous. A scandal in its day, and probably in part responsible for Ovid's banishment from Rome, Amores lays bare the intrigues and appetites of high society in the imperial capital at the time of Caesar Augustus. Clandestine sex, orgies and entertainments, fashion and violence, are among the subjects Ovid explores: the surface dazzle and hidden depths, secret liaisons and their public postures.

This new translation by Tom Bishop closely follows the movement and metre of Ovid's verse, rendering his world of love, licentiousness and conspiracy so as to catch Ovid's raciness. His introduction sets the work in historical context.

Introduction by Tom Bishop

Amores

Book One
Book Two
Book Three