''Remedia Amoris'' (''Love's Remedy'' or ''The Cure for Love'')
. 2 ADis an 814-line poem in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...
by
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...
poet
Ovid
Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the ...
.
In this companion poem to ''
The Art of Love'',
Ovid
Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the ...
offers advice and strategies to avoid being hurt by
love
Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...
feelings, or to fall out of love, with a
stoic overtone.
Genre
''Remedia Amoris'' fell into the Hellenistic category of
didactic poetry
Didacticism is a philosophy that emphasizes instructional and informative qualities in literature, art, and design. In art, design, architecture, and landscape, didacticism is an emerging conceptual approach that is driven by the urgent need ...
, often carried out on mock-solemn subjects.
Goal and methods
Ovid's goal was to provide, for men and women alike, advice on how to escape safely from an unhappy love affair - emotional bondage - without falling into the tragic ends of such legendary figures as
Dido
Dido ( ; , ), also known as Elissa ( , ), was the legendary founder and first queen of the Phoenician city-state of Carthage (located in modern Tunisia), in 814 BC.
In most accounts, she was the queen of the Phoenician city-state of Tyre (t ...
or
Medea
In Greek mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the ...
.
Among the techniques he suggested were: keeping busy; travelling; avoiding wine and love poetry (!); and concentrating on the beloved's defects rather than their strong points.
Critical reactions
*
Alexander Neckam
Alexander Neckam (8 September 115731 March 1217) was an English magnetician, poet, theologian, and writer. He was an abbot of Cirencester Abbey from 1213 until his death.
Early life
Born on 8 September 1157 in St Albans, Alexander shared his b ...
in the Middle Ages thought that ''De Remedio Amoris'' was ''the'' most important book of Ovid's for scholars to read.
*Victorian views, seen for example in the work of
Oskar Seyffert
Oskar Seyffert (19 February 1862, Dresden – 22 February 1940, Dresden) was a German art professor at the ''Königliche Kunstgewerbeschule'' ("Royal Art and Vocational School") in the Kingdom of Saxony
The Kingdom of Saxony (german: Königre ...
, generally adjudged ''The Cure for Love'' to be "as frivolous as it is original and elaborate...and no less offensive in substance and tone".
*The 20th Century generally took a more positive view,
H J Rose
Herbert Jennings Rose FBA (5 May 1883, in Orillia – 31 July 1961, in St Andrews) was a Canadian-born British classical scholar, best remembered as the author of ''A Handbook of Greek Mythology'', originally published in 1928, which became for ...
calling Ovid's instructions both frank and ingenious; while from a different discipline
Eric Berne
Eric Berne (May 10, 1910 – July 15, 1970) was a Canadian-born psychiatrist who created the theory of transactional analysis as a way of explaining human behavior.
Berne's theory of transactional analysis was based on the ideas of Freud but ...
commended their continuing (metropolitan) practicality.
[E Berne, ''Sex in Human Loving'' (Penguin 1970) p. 226]
See also
References
External links
English translation of ''Remedia Amoris''*
Side-by-side Latin/English translation of ''Remedia Amoris''
{{Authority control
1st-century Latin books
Poetry by Ovid