I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends: Ovid, Ex Ponto II.iii.41-49

 

Name:   Ovid Date:     43 BCE – 17 CE Region:    Sulmo [modern Italy] Citation: Letters from Pontus 2.3.41 – 48

Ovid wrote this poem while in exile, the lowest point of his life. In this passage, he reaches out to his friend Maximus for help while comparing their relationship with famous examples from mythology: 

 

Consider how Achilles honored his friend Patroclus when he died, 

And remember that this life of mine is a living death!

Theseus accompanied Pirithous to the Underworld;

How far off is my death from the Stygian waves?

Pylades supported Orestes through his mental crisis;

My troubles have given me no less a crisis.

Maximus, accept the same praise that these heroes received,

And keep doing what you are doing,

Helping me however you can while my life is in ruins.

Cerne quid Aeacides post mortem praestet amico:

instar et hanc vitam mortis habere puta.

Pirithoum Theseus Stygias comitavit ad undas:

a Stygia quantum mors mea distat aqua?

Adfuit insano iuvenis Phoceus Orestae: 

et mea non minimum culpa furoris habet.

Tu quoque magnorum laudes admitte virorum,

ut facis, et lapso quam potes adfer opem.

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.