Editing Ovid (section)

===''Epistulae ex Ponto'' ("Letters from the Black Sea")===
{{Main| Epistulae ex Ponto}}

The ''Epistulae ex Ponto'' is a collection in four books of further poetry from exile. The ''Epistulae'' are each addressed to a different friend and focus more desperately than the ''Tristia'' on securing his recall from exile. The poems mainly deal with requests for friends to speak on his behalf to members of the imperial family, discussions of writing with friends, and descriptions of life in exile. The first book has ten pieces in which Ovid describes the state of his health (10), his hopes, memories, and yearning for Rome (3, 6, 8), and his needs in exile (3). Book 2 contains impassioned requests to Germanicus (1 and 5) and various friends to speak on his behalf at Rome while he describes his despair and life in exile. Book 3 has nine poems in which Ovid addresses his wife (1) and various friends. It includes a telling of the story of [[Iphigenia#Among the Taurians|Iphigenia in Tauris]] (2), a poem against criticism (9), and a dream of Cupid (3). Book 4, the final work of Ovid, in 16 poems talks to friends and describes his life as an exile further. Poems 10 and 13 describe Winter and Spring at Tomis, poem 14 is halfhearted praise for Tomis, 7 describes its geography and climate, and 4 and 9 are congratulations on friends for their consulships and requests for help. Poem 12 is addressed to a Tuticanus, whose name, Ovid complains, does not fit into meter. The final poem is addressed to an enemy whom Ovid implores to leave him alone. The last elegiac couplet is translated: "Where's the joy in stabbing your steel into my dead flesh?/ There's no place left where I can be dealt fresh wounds."<ref>[http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/OvidExPontoBkFour.htm PoetryInTranslation.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108154119/https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/OvidExPontoBkFour.php |date=8 January 2020 }}, a translation of all of Ovid's exile poetry can be found here by A. S. Kline, 2003</ref>