Summary
Summary of The Amores; or, Amours
Key ideas
Key idea 1
A lover becomes his own comedy
In the Amores, Ovid follows a young lover through desire, quarrels, deception and apologies. The woman at the centre is Corinna, but his attention also wanders to other women. He resents rivals and makes himself look foolish as often as he makes himself look devoted.
The poems turn dinners, races and guarded doorsteps into scenes of private drama. Their wit comes partly from a poet playing with the rules of love poetry, rather than simply reporting what happened to him.
Key idea 2
Cupid changes the poet's plans
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Key idea 3
Love becomes a rival to war
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Key idea 4
Secrecy turns desire into drama
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Key idea 5
The lover's games cause harm
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Key idea 6
Poetry promises a life beyond love
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Key idea 7
The speaker is playing a role
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Key idea 8
Words and actions tell different stories
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
For readers who love playful, sensual and clever poems, and anyone curious about Roman daily life or the roots of later love poetry.
What this book is
The Amores is a book of love poems in Latin by Ovid, the Roman poet who later wrote the Metamorphoses. He wrote them in the days of the emperor Augustus. They reached the form we have in three books, with forty-nine poems in all. Ovid says in a short note at the start that he cut an earlier edition of five books down to three.
The poems follow a young man in love. He chases a woman he calls Corinna, quarrels with her, deceives her and begs her pardon. He also flirts with other women, hates his rivals and mocks himself. You get sharp wit, quick scenes of Roman life, and a poet who plays with the old rules of love poetry. You also meet a Rome of dinners, races, doorsteps and jealous husbands. Let us begin with the poet, the form he chose, and the joke that opens the whole book.
In this summary
- 1A poet turns epic into love songFree
- 2Love is a war, and Cupid wins
- 3Corinna and the art of secrecy
- 4Jealousy, betrayal and bad behaviour
- 5Poetry, rivals and the wish to last
- 6How to read and hear these poems
Key point 1 of 6
A poet turns epic into love song
Ovid belonged to a small group of Roman poets who wrote love elegy. Before him came Gallus, Tibullus and Propertius. They wrote in elegiac couplets, a pair of lines in which a long line is followed by a shorter one. The form gave the poems a gentle rise and fall, almost like a sigh.
The first poem sets the tone with a joke. Ovid says he meant to write a serious war poem in the long epic line. Then Cupid, the boy god of love, steals one foot from every second line. The poet is left with the limping couplet of elegy, and nothing to write about but love. The poem is about poetry itself, and it shows that Ovid knows the game he is playing.
This habit of winking at the reader runs through the book. The poet is the hero of his own poems, but he is never quite believable. He claims to be helpless in love, yet he plans every move like a general. He claims to be faithful, and then he is not. The pose is part of the fun.
The book was arranged by Ovid himself, so the order matters. Poems answer each other across the three books. A boast in one place is undone by a confession in another. Reading in order lets you feel the small plot behind the scattered scenes, from first desire to weariness and farewell.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
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Check yourself
What does Ovid's comparison of lovers and soldiers suggest?
Right. “Ovid sets up a rival life of private pleasure, and he claims it takes just as much effort and courage.”Not quite. “Ovid sets up a rival life of private pleasure, and he claims it takes just as much effort and courage.”
What exposes the lover's false denial about Corinna's maid?
Right. “In the next poem he speaks to the maid herself, and we see the denial was false.”Not quite. “In the next poem he speaks to the maid herself, and we see the denial was false.”
How should we understand the speaker's claims about his love life?
Right. “Roman poets of love created personas, and the lover in these poems is vain, sly and often foolish.”Not quite. “Roman poets of love created personas, and the lover in these poems is vain, sly and often foolish.”
Who’s who
- Ovid
- The poet speaks as a young lover, pursuing Corinna while mocking his own jealousy and romantic ambitions.
- Corinna
- Corinna is the speaker's beloved, a guarded woman whose relationship with him involves secrecy, quarrels and reconciliation.
- Cupid
- Cupid is the god of love who masters the poet and turns his ambitions toward love poetry.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 55,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 3 h 40 min
- Listening time6 h 5 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 13 other languages
Questions about The Amores; or, Amours
What is the Amores by Ovid about?
It is a book of Roman love elegies in three books. A poet-lover pursues a woman named Corinna, deals with jealousy, secrecy and rivals, and jokes about his own weakness and about the craft of poetry.
Who is Corinna in the Amores?
Corinna is the beloved at the centre of the poems. Ancient readers could not name a real woman behind her, and many scholars think she is a literary figure, a mask for the poet's idea of a lover.
What does the word Amores mean?
Amores is Latin for loves or love affairs. The title points to the many scenes of desire in the book, and to the playful way the poet treats love as both a passion and a pastime.
What is an elegiac couplet?
It is the Latin poetic form used in these poems. Each pair of lines joins a long line to a shorter one. Roman love poets used it for personal, emotional verse rather than epic or war.
Is the Amores worth reading today?
Yes, if you enjoy wit and Roman life. The poems are short, funny and sharp, and they show how love poetry was written long before modern verse. Some scenes are frank.
