This book reveals the literary ways in which Ovid dealt with his exile. It develops the self-portrait of a masterful poet whose individualism seems to presage modernity, and shows how Ovid makes creative use of mythic figures in order to locate his own cultural identity. He creates a tableau of an upside-down world of exile, in which he does not reject Roman values, but lays claim to them on his own terms.

Simone Seibert, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen.