Ovid’s Exile كتاب · المقتنيات

As is well known, the famous poet Ovid was exiled from the Eternal City to the farthest reaches of the Empire, namely to Moesia on the Black Sea. Most think this was because Ovid angered Emperor Augustus by writing the obscene “Art of Love”, but I have come to believe this theory is wrong and the real reason for Ovid’s departure from Rome was different.

I came across the earliest copy of Ovid’s other work, the famous “Metamorphoses”, a collection of stories about change and transformation. I was surprised to see a poem I have not encountered in other editions of this work, under the most intriguing title “Dawn and Dusk”.

This poem must have been excised from later editions. Why? Perhaps because it revealed secrets which were never meant to be shared. One wonders, how did Ovid discover them? And was he truly exiled… Or maybe sent forth on a mission to unearth yet other hidden truths, in the wildest forests and mountains of Eastern Europe?