Eccentric Poetry. Ovid, Exile and the Prototype of a ‘Periphery’ Literature

Ovid’s journey towards Tomis is a reversal of Aeneas’ destiny, mostly because the exiled poet has to leave Rome with no promises of a glorious future. The new subjective elegy which originates at this (wild) periphery of the Empire cannot but be a sad elegy. However, Ovid’s “eccentric” exile poetry increasingly displays some remarkable traces of evolution. Towards the end of the Epistulae ex Ponto, the poet sketches a peculiar image of himself: that of an interethnic uates who has been able to find a new, unprecedented audience in the Greco-Getic tribes. The public role he now plays in Tomitan society allows him to engage in a sort of civilizing mission as an imperial officer. The exile still remains a harsh experience for Ovid: nonetheless, he cultivates the dream of gaining universal poetic renown even from the extreme boundaries of the world.