Tristia

The Tristia (German: sad things ) are in five books narrated poetic letters in elegiac form, about 8 to 12 AD, taught the poet Ovid in his exile Tomis on the Black Sea in the years to various addressees. They will be continued in Epistulae ex Ponto four books (Letters from the Black Sea ), which were written in the years 12 to 17.

History

The Tristia tell the story of the end of the world exiled poet, his journey there, the dangers of the sea, with its storms; then stay at the Black Sea with the barbarian Getae; life in the distant city of Tomis, which is threatened constantly by wild hordes beyond the Danube, in a country that, adstricto perusta gelu, is burned from the hardest frosts. We may assume that the representation of exile not quite here corresponds to the reality, but Ovid oriented towards the literary patterns and simply reflects what others before him ( and he himself already ) wrote: hardly an epic without a storm at sea and ship disaster, hardly a mention of the distant Scythians, Sarmatians and Getae without reference to their inhospitable country. Or should we Ovid seriously believe that he had, qualiacumque manu, anyway, and with a trembling hand written at the Tristia, while waves high as mountains, quantitative montes aquarum! , The ship that would take him to Tomis devoured, along with his crew almost?

Other motifs that recur in the letters of the exiles, are probably more expression of Ovid's own experience and thus direct experience of exile. This includes those poems that the Fallen from grace to his wife and the few remaining friends, vix duo tresve, again, it was not addressed. Scis bene, cui dicam, you know that I 'm looking at you, he writes one of them, whose name he can not name, but the example is that in times of need show the true friends only. These also include, however, the flattering letters to Emperor Augustus, whom he described as the most gentle ruler, mitissime Caesar responds, in the hope that this would pardon him or grant him at least one of Rome closer exile. Another subject that determines the Tristia significantly, is the Greek myth: the role of the emperor and the fate of the poet are everywhere mirrored by examples from the world of gods and heroes. Here directs the Emperor, maxim dive, like Jupiter, the destiny of the world and the people are wrong because one away from home about, a patria fugi victus et exul, like another Ulysses. And the place of exile, the Black Sea coast, is Ovid reason enough to speak of Medea and Jason.

The Tristia not only mark the beginning of the exile literature, the famous poem 10 in the 4th book is also the first autobiography of a poet in detail how we do not know until then: Ille ego qui fuerim, tenerorum lusor amorum / quem legis, ut noris accipe, poste ritas Ovid calls a playful author tender love poems and then spreads his life from the eyes of posterity. With other authors we are often on the work alone instructed when we tap into their biographies, and run the risk that I keep in the lines for the author. Ovid's biography is in the Tristia.

And this work is also the source of choice for the question of why actually Ovid was banished to the Black Sea. The poet himself keeps a low profile, said that the reason laconically carmen et error: A seal, the love of art, namely, written under Augustus - who had previously imposed strict moral laws - had become his undoing and a misdemeanor, mistake happen, and without any intention of but the emperor to the annoyance. It seems clear that Ovid 's Ars Amatoria, the publication of which at the time of the exile already dated back eight years, only used as a pretext for the real reason for his exile must not pronounce. For in that error, the offense is alleged to have violated the emperor, was ultimately, we do not know. Once only says Ovid to sit causa non cruenta, no blood on his hands sticky, and elsewhere, he had happened to see something bad. Speculation about the reason for the exile are legion, one says even the Emperor Augustus had raped the Vestal Virgins in the forest of Aricia, and Ovid was an eye-witness of the scene. Find us so we prefer from, this question must remain under the current situation of unresolved sources!

The Tristia are at the beginning of a tradition of works of world literature, which are only made ​​possible from the experience of exile. And to Ovid's exile situation differs certainly from the others, especially those authors who had to leave their homes in the wake of the crimes of the last century. Ovid was, strictly speaking, only relegated, that he kept his fortune, and his books - the art of love, of course not - were still tolerated in Rome, and even incurred in Tomi poems were read. Tu i tamen pro me et aspice Romam he sends the new book on the way, which, as it is itself not allow him to representative to return home for him. Whether Relegation or exile, many of the experiences and observations of Ovid, life in a foreign land concerning, had to be noticed also the exile writers of the last century. The I in the Tristia and about living in Paris Composer Trautwein in Lion Feuchtwanger's novel " exile ", just to name one example of many who suffer from the same disease, to the longing for home.

The exile literature of the 20th century has the Tristia only prepares the ground really. Previously brought philologists and readers for the plaintiff, as " unmanly " acting Ovid hardly understand. Unlike Osip Mandelstam: He invoked his eponymous collection of poems on the Roman poet, and as a result of the experience of exile so many other finally learned the work after the 2nd World War, a new, positive rating. Here Ovid had itself contributed significantly to the view that his later work rich in linguistic terms not get to the books created in Rome. Some philologists is of course to blame for not having recognized modesty formulas such as the following in their meaning: ipse mihi videor iam DEDIDIKIsse Latine: nam DIDIKI GetiKE SarmatiKEQUE loqui ( I feel like I have the Latin already forgotten, and for that to speak energetically and Sarmatian learned ). Such statements include, of course, to the realm of the topos, when Ovid says he no longer controlling his native language, but the same can on shiny, the harsh guttural sounds of new languages ​​in the old sound. Or with Niklas Holzberg, the philologist: " That's how it so listen to when one is at his wits' end. "

Expenditure

• John B. Hall ( Eds.): P. Ovidi Nasonis Tristia, Stuttgart / Leipzig: Teubner, 1995, ISBN 3-8154-1567-5.
• SG Owen ( ed.): P. Ovidi Nasonis Tristium libri quinque, Ibis, Ex Ponto Libri quattuor, Halieutica, Fragmenta, Oxford: . Clarendon, 1915 reprints in 1951 and 1963.
• P. Ovidius Naso: Tristia, ed, trans.. and explained. by Georg Luck. 2 Bd, Heidelberg: Winter, 1967-1977.
• P. Ovidius Naso: Letters from exile. Latin and German, transmitted by Wilhelm willing. Munich: Artemis, 1990, ISBN 3-7608-1659-2.