Archive POPESCU Cristina
The Annals of Ovidius University Constanţa no.21 / 2010
POPESCU CRISTINA - Ovid and the Pontic Populations. Identity and Otherness in Ovid’s Poetry of Exile
(pag. 67-78)
The literary production of Ovid’s exile depicts the impression that the new way of life made on Ovid’s identity, in his twofold condition - of an exile and a poet - by means of emphasizing the unfamiliar otherness that was characterizing the place of his exile: the wars of Scythia Minor, the conflicts between the inhabitants of Tomis and various populations, aspects of the daily life, the environmental and climatic discomfort, as well as other aspects of the life in the Danubian- Pontic land. The 96 elegies of the exile exhibit the permanent tension between what can be called centre and periphery, i.e. between, on the one hand, Rome, the undisputed centre of the Empire and of the world (Urbscaput mundi), and, on the other hand, Tomis, a small port situated on the border of the Empire, where the civilized world ended. The Pontic elegies display, in a straightforward and unmediated way, the severe historical clash between the Roman world (Romanitas) and the Pontic Barbarian world (Barbaries), between civilization (Urbanitas) and barbarian (Barbaria).