EROTICA - Ancient Roman Erotic Poems 01
Ancient Roman Erotic Poem - “Amores” (1)
(sponsored by Amazon)
Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (43 BCE–17/18 CE)’s “Amores” (The Loves) was first published in 16 BCE. It is a collection of witty erotic elegies, detailing Ovid’s tumultuous, but humorous, personal love affairs.
Spanning 3 books (first published in 5 books), “Amores” explores various themes of jealousy, secret rendezvous, and the joys and pains of love.
Eroticism in “Amores”
Ovid’s “Amores” is a cornerstone of Roman erotic elegy, characterized by witty, humorous, subversive, and playful explorations of love and lust.
Unlike his predecessors in Roman poetry, Ovid treats love NOT as a tragic experience but as a frivolous game, militia amoris (warfare of love), focusing on Ovid’s personal pursuit of an elusive mistress, Corinna.
 |
| The Eros Farnese |
Ovid mocks the earnest erotic poetry of his time. To subvert the conventions, Ovid uses humor and absurdity to address erotic themes of jealousy, infidelity, and seduction.
Ovid utilizes military metaphors as militia amoris (warfare of love) to describe sexual pursuit, placing himself as a soldier in the service of Cupid.
“Thy lover is a soldier, and Cupid hath his camp. Aye, believe me, Atticus, every lover is a soldier. The age which suiteth war is also favourable to Venus. A fig for an elderly soldier! A fig for an elderly lover! The age which generals demand in a brave soldier is the age which a fair young woman demands in the possessor of her charms. Soldier and lover have, each, their vigil to keep; both couch upon the hard ground; both have their watch to keep, the one at the door of his mistress, the other at the door of his general. What a weary way the soldier hath to march! And the lover, when his mistress is exiled, will follow her, with a stout heart, to the uttermost limits of the world.” (elegy 9, book 1. Amores)
Pleasure – Voluptas
Erotic literature and art had already flourished in the ancient world long before and during the time of Jesus Christ.
Ovid designed “Amores” for voluptas (pleasure) as entertainment, linking the act of reading itself directly to sensual pleasure.
In Roman philosophy, especially in translations of Epicureanism from Greek into Latin, voluptas represents the highest good hedone (ἡδονή), meaning the absence of bodily pain and mental anxiety.
 |
| Banquet of Amor and Psyche (circa 1526–1528) by Giulio Romano |
In the 1st century BCE, Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius (circa 99–55 BCE) wrote a didactic poem “De Rerum Natura” (On the Nature of Things). The poem was composed with the purpose of explaining Epicurean philosophy to a Roman audience.
In “On the Nature of Things,” Lucretius equates Venus with voluptas (pleasure) in the beginning. Through this, Lucretius establishes voluptas (pleasure) as the fundamental atomic drive that attracts atoms to one another physically.
Voluptas sparks the genesis, fertility, and continuation of all living things in the spring. And Venus is both the physical process of desire and the pleasure that results from it.
“’Tis sweet, again, to view the mighty strife Of armies embattled yonder o’er the plains, Ourselves no sharers in the peril; but naught There is more goodly than to hold the high Serene plateaus, well fortressed by the wise, Whence thou may’st look below on other men And see them ev’rywhere wand’ring, all dispersed In their lone seeking for the road of life;” (Book 2, Proem, On the Nature of Things. Lucretius)
The Logistics of Illicit Love
In “Amores”, illicit love is highly calculated, subverting Augustan morals into an active, high-stakes game of militia amoris (warfare of love).
The logistics require escaping watchful eyes, bribing slaves, utilizing hidden codes, navigating the social friction of dating a married woman, domina, while managing her husband and doorkeeper…
Convivium (dinner party) and Secret Signals
“Cease not to bid thy husband drink; but add no kisses to thy prayers; and so long as he shall be able to swallow, stint not secretly to fill his cup with strong wine. When he is overcome by sleep and liquor, we ourselves will do what the place and the circumstances permit.” (Book 1, Elegy 4, Amores)
Illicit affairs in Rome frequently began at dinner parties, Convivium, where all parties were present, including the unsuspecting husband…
“Amores” reads like a literal playbook. Ovid orders his mistress to execute specific physical cues to signal her feelings across the table, utilizing nonverbal languages of nods and gestures.
“See to it that thou comest before thy husband. I do not surely foresee what, if thou dost so, may befall; yet be there before him. When he shall have lain him down beside the table, go thou, with mien demure, and lay thee at his side, but forget not, as thou passest, to rub my foot, but, secretly, so that he shall not see. Never take thine eyes off me; take heed of all my movements and note the discourse of my eyes. Secretly receive, and secretly send forth, these signals of our love. Though they utter no word, my eyebrows shall speak to thee; my fingers, aye, and the very wine itself shall have their language. When thou bethinkest thee of the delights we taste together, thou and I, pass thy dainty hand o’er the roses of thy cheeks, If there is aught wherewith thou wouldst secretly reproach me, softly, with thy fingers, touch the tip of thine ear. When the signs I make, or the words I speak, delight thee, then be sure, my starry one, to twist thy ring about thy finger.” (Book 1, Elegy 4, Amores)
The Ianitor (doorkeeper) and the Locked Door
In classical literature, a poem sung by exclusus amator (locked-out lover) at the doorstep of his mistress is a known motif as a paraclausithyron (παρακλαυσίθυρον).
While traditional Greek and Roman poets addressed their laments directly to the inanimate door, in “Amores”, Ovid innovates by directing his entire rhetorical plea to the ianitor (slave doorkeeper) who is physically chained to the entrance.
“Open, I say, open, or I, better prepared than thou, with my sword and with the fire I bear within my torch, will break into this disdainful house. Night, Love and Wine counsel no half-hearted measures. Night knoweth not shame. Love and Wine know not fear. Everything, prayers, threats have I essayed, but all in vain, nought could avail to move thee, O man more deaf than the door thou guardest! Thou wast not made to guard a lovely woman’s door. Thy office should be to keep the key of a loathsome dungeon. But see, the morning star is risen, and the cock’s shrill trumpet calls the labourer to his task.” (Book 1, Elegy 6, Amores)
Roman townhouses had heavy doors. Gaining entry across the hardened barrier means facing a stern ianitor (doorkeeper) chained to his post beside the entrance.
In the motif of paraclausithyron by exclusus amator (locked-out lover), if being locked out, the lover is left to sleep on the hard doorstep, even in the cold and rain, singing to the cruel door itself.
In this case, Ovid uses carmina (songs and poetry) as a picklock to plead with the guard, instead of using physical weapons. Ovid sings to recall past favors done for the servant to convince him to unlock the door.
 |
| Cupid (circa 1897–1899) by Bertel Thorvaldsen |
The Maid and the Go-Between
“O thou who with such happy art dost bind and range thy mistress’s hair, thou whom ‘twere unjust to place in the ranks of ordinary servants, Nape, as skilful in contriving nocturnal assignations as in conveying missives to my beloved, thou hast often persuaded the hesitating Corinna to come to my arms; thou whose loyalty hath ofttimes saved me in a crisis, take these tablets and deliver them this very morning to my mistress. May thine ingenuity prove triumphant over eve obstacle.” (Book 1, Elegy 11, Amores)
Access to the beloved requires the complicity of her household staff, particularly ancilla (handmaid, female servant).
To acquire the right for access, the lover needs to lavish bribes and promises on the ancilla (maid) who acts as a go-between, carrying his secret tabellae (wax tablets), love notes, and gifts without an obstacle.
Besides, to avoid getting caught by the husband, a preventive hiding strategy is required. The lover is often forced to hide in the maids' rooms or the closet, hiding away in the house.
“In payment for these my services, my dusky Cypassis, grant me the sweet pleasure of lying with you to-day. Why do you say no? Why, ungrateful girl, why pretend you are afraid? It will be enough to have deserved well of one of your masters. If you are silly enough to refuse, I shall confess all we have done, I shall become my own accuser, and I shall tell your mistress — yes, I shall, Cypassis — where and how often we have met, what we did, in how many ways, And what they were.” (Book 2, Elegy 8, Amores)
The Julian Laws – Leges Iuliae
 |
| Venus and Mars, with Cupid (Roman fresco in Pompeii) |
The Leges Iuliae (Julian Laws), specifically Lex Iulia de adulteriis coercendis (The Julian Law on the suppression of adulteries) (18 BCE), made adultery a criminal offense against the Roman state.
Under the 1st emperor Augustus (reign 27 BCE–14 CE), an unfaithful wife could be exiled to a remote island, and her paramour could lose half his property.
In response to the Julian Laws, Ovid writes this elegiac love poetry as an act of deliberate legal evasion. Ovid’s ingenious logistics are designed to bypass the laws entirely by exploiting social gray zones.
Through the logistics sung in “Amores”, mocking and challenging the surveillance state, Ovid enjoyed engaging in dangerous public trysts. Rather than seeking marriage, Ovid thrived even on the danger and the thrill of clandestine meetings.
“Poetry hath power to bring the blood-red moon to earth; poetry stayeth in mid-career the snow-white coursers of the sun. Poetry robbeth the serpent of his poisoned fang, and maketh the rivers to flow backward to their sources. Poetry hath battered down doors, it hath forced back locks, how tight soever they were welded to the massy oak.” (Book 2, Elegy 1, Amores)
In “Amores”, Ovid’s eroticism is playful, light-hearted, and intellectually detached rather than deeply emotional as Ovid focuses on the wit and artifice of courtship.
“Amores” laid the groundwork for “Ars Amatoria” (The Art of Love), the well-known ancient Roman sex guidebook written in 2 CE, in which Ovid further refined his scandalous, sensitive approach.
“Ars Amatoria” had eventually ended up with his banishment out of Rome by Emperor Augustus (reign 27 BCE–14 CE), by which Ovid could NEVER return to his home, Rome, during his lifetime…
Further reading (sponsored by Amazon):
● Llewelyn Morgan (2020). Ovid: A Very Short Introduction. 144 pages. Oxford University Press.
(sponsored by Amazon)
“Ovid: A Very Short Introduction” explains Ovid's background, social and literary, and introduces his poetry, on love, metamorphosis, Roman festivals, and his own exile, a restlessly innovative oeuvre driven by the irrepressible ingenium or wit for which Ovid was famous. In “Ovid: A Very Short Introduction,” Llewelyn Morgan also explores Ovid's immense influence on later literature and art, spanning from Shakespeare to Bernini! Throughout “Ovid: A Very Short Introduction,” Ovid's poetry is revealed as enduringly scintillating, Ovid’s personal story compelling, and the issues Ovid’s life and poetry raise of continuing relevance and interest!
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
1: Introduction: P. Ovidius Naso
2: Love poetry
3: Letters of the heroines
4: Metamorphoses
5: The Fasti
6: Exile poetry
Further reading
Index
