Ace and Proud: Virgo's Origin Story, Part II: Ovid, Metam. 1.149 - 150

Name:   Ovid Date:     43 BCE – 17 CE Region:    Sulmo [modern Italy] Citation:  Metamorphoses 1.149 - 150

And in the end, when Piety lay crushed in defeat,
the maiden Astraea, the last of the divinities,
left the realm of humanity still dripping with blood.

Victa iacet pietas, et virgo caede madentis
ultima caelestum terras Astraea reliquit.

Ovid [Publius Ovidius Naso; 43 BCE – 17 CE, modern Italy] was one of the most famous love poets of Rome’s Golden Age. His most famous work, the Metamorphoses, provides a history of the world through a series of interwoven myths. Most of his poetry is erotic in nature; for this reason, he fell into trouble during the conservative social reforms under the reign of the emperor Augustus. In 8 CE he was banished to Bithynia [modern Turkey], where he spent the remainder of his life pining for his native homeland.