Learning to Love…Ovid!
In light of yesterday’s Grand National, I thought I’d turn to a Latin poet whom I have recently come to appreciate. I first encountered Ovid at around the age of fourteen, when I was handed his guide to picking up women at the racecourse, taken from his work Amores, as a translation exercise. I was slightly alarmed to be presented with a text which advocated spying on women as they watched the horses go round the track, and sneakily groping people amongst the crowded stands, and so pigeonholed Ovid as a rather immature, trivial and tedious poet. It’s safe to say, we got off on the wrong foot. Photo by Greg Roberts. Grand National day 2014. I wonder how many race goers took Ovid's advice to heart... I ran into Ovid again at AS level, with Book VIII of his epic poem, The Metamorphoses being assigned as a set text. Once again, I was far from overwhelmed. Reading his portrayal of the various exploits of Scylla and Daedalus, I felt that this was an extremely fo