Medea (Ovid)
The tragedy Medea was a youth work by the Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso . Except for two verses it has been lost in tradition.
The fragments
Ovid mentions in Amores 2,18,13-18 and Tristien 2,553-554 that he also wrote tragic poetry. Only two verses of a Medea tragedy that are quoted by other writers have survived:
Quintilian (Institutio Oratoria 8,5,6):
- Servare potui; perdere an possim, rogas?
- I could keep; if I can spoil you ask
Seneca Rhetor (Suasoriae 3,5,7):
- Feror huc illuc, uae, plena deo.
- Here and there it carries me, oh, filled with God.
Literary appreciation
The Roman rhetoric teacher and theorist Quintilian evidently considered the tragedy to be one of Ovid's best works; when he gave an overview of the entire Greek and Latin literature in the Institutio Oratoria around 100 AD ( inst. or. 10.1,46-131), he judged that Medea seemed to show him how great Ovid had if he would have preferred to master his talent instead of giving in to it ( inst. or. 10,1,98 Ovidi Medea videtur mihi ostendere, quantum seine vir praestare potuerit, si ingenio suo imperare quam indulgere maluisset ).
literature
- P. Ovidius Naso, The XII. Hero's letter: Medea to Jason. With a supplement: The Fragments of the Tragedy Medea. Introduction, text and commentary by Theodor Heinze, Verlag Brill, Leiden / New York / Cologne 1997 ( The "supplement" to the Medea fragments comprises pages 223-252 and represents the most exhaustive treatment of the topic to date. )