Blackwell Reference Online

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Another companion for Ovid … Arriving on the bimillenary of his exile to the shores of the Black Sea, perhaps this Companion is timely. More than one of the contributors to this volume has noted that we are living in another aetas Ovidiana , to borrow a famous, if somewhat problematic, phrase. Two excellent volumes of essays appeared in 2002, which offer readers of Ovid a wealth of information and provocation for future study. In preparing this volume I have had in mind the newcomers to Ovid's works, be they students or scholars, and the emphasis of the chapters has been on utility. Vast as the sweep of subjects covered in this Companion is, there are inevitably omissions, many of them deeply to be regretted. In particular, it proved impossible to do justice to every aspect of the rapidly developing field of reception studies, so the papers in the volume focus on literary receptions, with a heavy bias toward literature in English. Ovid's influence on the visual arts deserves a Companion of its own, which could not be included here. I have allowed the contributors considerable leeway in approaching their topics, including some variation in matters of presentation, such as the use of bc or bce to indicate dates. In the first instance thanks must go to all the contributors for their diligence, their forbearance, and their talents. I hope that my labors as editor have obscured ... log in or subscribe to read full text