In the Metamorphoses, Ovid retells the story of love and loss with his usual grace and charm hear the passage in the original Latin and follow in English here. Later, he will deal with the violent end of Orpheus, who renounces the love of women in his sadness and is torn to pieces by angry women in a Bacchanalian fury. In the illustration, by John William Waterhouse, nymphs find his head and his lyre, which have floated to the island of Lesbos.
Today’s new selection of poems on prospering love includes poems by Catullus, Ovid, Horace, Propertius and Virgil. You will find the links to follow here.
In this second selection of poems on a theme, love is not going so smoothly. Dido is being consumed by a passion for Aeneas which as yet is unrequited: Dido Continue Reading
This is the first of a new series of Pantheon Poets Latin medleys – a selection of Latin poems which share a common theme. The first is love, and specifically Continue Reading
Pyrrha the femme fatale has a new lover, who has yet to find out that the experience is not destined to be all calm weather and plain sailing. Horace speaks as someone who has survived shipwreck in Pyrrha’s stormy waters, and in gratitude for his escape has hung his wet clothes on the temple wall as a thank-offering to the God of the sea (Neptune, or Cupid?)
In the illustration a more famous siren, Cleopatra, awaits a visit from Mark Antony.
Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.