„Idem sacra cano...”. The Poet and Princeps in Ovid's Fasti

Abstract

We have recently witnessed an increase in the interest of Ovid's Fasti (Calendar). Despite that there is still a discrepancy in the understanding of the passages concerning the princeps. In the light of his poetry in exile they were regarded as panegyric, whereas the poet himself here and there refers clearly to his erotic writing. Augustus was fully aware about treating his actions as a kind of breakthrough, and he instrumentally treated the national calendar and the events, especially political, that were mentioned in it. Addressing his work as his own commentary to the princeps, Ovid seems to be unveiling his manipulations as regards the time, the place and the worship. He keeps an ironical distance towards the Augustan ideology which is manifested also in using many times the metaphor and phraseology approved by the official poets - Virgil and Horace. It is therefore a „foreign speech,” sometimes exposed in a hyperbolical or humorous manner. The poet does not leave his earlier ludic attitude, and declares loyalty to Venery, the hitherto patroness, despite the new theme: „ideam sacra cano.” Similarly, he perceives the person of the princeps. In the Fasti first of all the tone of an ironist sounds, the one who seemingly glories „nomina et titulos principis.” This tone of the work may be revealed by such reading that does not stop on the surface of its literal understanding.