Customer Reviews

Ovid: Fasti (Loeb Classical Library No. 253) (English and Latin Edition)

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This Penguin edition is very well done and preserves the meaning of the Latin without distorting or mangling it. The book also contains copious and well-researched notes to explain the numerous festivals, minor dieties, and individuals that Ovid mentions. The Fasti is invaluable as a glimpse of Roman culture, not only as a product of the Etruscan influences, but those of the other Italic peoples and the Greeks as well. Ovid skillfully adapts a plethora of "sacred rites unearthed from ancient annals" (1.7-8). What those "sacred annals" contained, we don't know for sure, but many of Ovid's stories included in the poem allude to and are corroborated by the works of Hesiod, Livy, Catullus, Lucretius, Vergil, and others. Ovid however puts his "slant" on things and makes associations that some argue are erroneous. Perhaps. But, taken as a whole, the Fasti is a great poem to also put Roman history into perspective. Ovid again and again stresses Rome's humble beginnings and it's current (for him) preeminence in the world -- "imperium sine fine."

A very well done translation of an amazing work that is not widely read in schools.

This one volume work in the Loeb Classical Series (# 253) is
Ovid's remarkable combining of poetry, myth, astrology,
astronomy, and commentary on Rome.
Apparently the work was written, or completed, while
Ovid was in exile in what is today Romania (in the
ancient city of Tomis), having been sent there by the
Emperor Augustus.
Ovid's life there must have been misery, anguish, and
hardship (how different from the famous poet all
Rome had talked about before his fall!). The poems

about that exile, along with letters which he sent back
to Rome, can be found in Loeb Classical volume, # 151,
-Tristia, Ex Ponto- (ISBN: 0674991672).
This present volume "is a poetical treatise on the
Roman calendar, which it discusses in chronological
order, beginning with the first day of January and
ending with the last day of June, where it stops
abruptly." (Introduction.) Ovid had intended to
write 12 parts to the work, but we only have the
first six. The author of the Introduction makes
some scholarly speculations about what happened to
the other six parts, which are very interesting.
This Loeb version is translated by James G. Frazer,
who himself had orginally published a 5-volume edition
of the -Fasti-, but trimmed a bit of his scholarly
commentary in order to produce this one-volume edition
for the Loeb series. Frazer (1854 - 1941) was a
British anthropologist, folklorist, and classical
scholar; his 12 volume opus, -The Golden Bough-,
is a world-famous work on comparative ancient religions,
myth, and cultural rites.
Ovid, himself, was exremely interested not only
in poetry, but in myth and cultural rites as well. That
is clearly evidenced in the -Fasti-. Here is an example
of the combining of poetry, with myth, and astrology/
astronomy from March 5: "When from her saffron cheeks
Tithonous' spouse shall have begun to shed the dew /
at the time of the fifth morn, the constellation,
whether it be the Bear-ward or the sluggard Bootes,
will have sunk and will escape thy sight. But not
so will the Grape-gatherer escape thee." There is
more to the quote which expands on the myth of the
origin of the constellation. There are excellent
notes to explain allusions, as well as a scholarly
Introduction to the volume.
Though Ovid was trying to find some way to gain
either commutation or release from his exile, he was
not successful (either under Augustus or his successor,
the Emperor Tiberius). Still, though seeking clemency,
Ovid nonetheless takes satiric swipes at Rome's
losing of ancient values. Ovid died in exile and
was buried in Tomis. "Sic transit gloria mundi."
-- Robert Kilgore.

The review posted above is for the Loeb edition of Ovid, which is very different from Fantham's edition.

Although this book does provide both the Latin and an English translation, the English itself must be translated to a more modern form of English. To anyone looking for dual language buy something other than the Loeb edition.

This is excellent book and the English translation is perfectly done. Comments in the end are really useful and helps to understand the poem better. In beginning there are maps of Ancient Rome which helps to travel with the text through the Ancient Rome. I am more than satisfied with this purchase.

Despite everything this page seems to suggest, if you order this volume, you will NOT receive a reprint of Frazer's original, now public domain, edition of Ovid's Fasti in the Loeb series. (The current Loeb edition of Ovid's Fasti is, by the way, only a very slightly revised version of Frazer's original edition.) What then do you receive instead? An unremarkable Latin-only edition of the Fasti that lacks a critical apparatus. One would be better off printing the Latin text directly from the Latin Library.

Publius Ovidius Naso's "Fasti" (calendar) is undoubtedly his most neglected piece of literature. It is justifiably belittled by his timeless epic the "Metamorphoses," it stands out as dull and lifeless when compared with the bawdy and lusty "Amores" and "Ars Amortoria," and it never reaches the emotional appeal of his famed "Heroides." Although the "Fasti" is a rich storehouse for Roman astronomy, religion, and ritual. And at times--mostly in the prologues to each of the calendars' months--Ovid takes his poetry to a level of creativity and depth that rivals his other poems; but unfortunately these are only short-lived. Another setback to the "Fasti" is the fact only six months out of the calendar year remain (January to June). It is up to question whether or not they were ever finished or simply didn't survive through the centuries; but nonetheless this misfortune is yet another hard knock for the "Fasti." It is certainly difficult to give Rome's most profound poet such a low rating, but when this is sized up with his other works, it doesn't stand a chance.