Editing Ovid (section)

===Literary success===
Ovid spent the first 25 years of his literary career primarily writing poetry in [[Elegiac|elegiac meter]] with erotic themes.<ref>The most recent chart that describes the dating of Ovid's works is in Knox. P. "A Poet's Life" in ''A Companion to Ovid'' ed. Peter Knox (Oxford, 2009) pp. xvii–xviii</ref> The chronology of these early works is not secure, but scholars have established tentative dates. His earliest extant work is thought to be the ''Heroides'', letters of mythological heroines to their absent lovers, which may have been published in 19 BC, although the date is uncertain as it depends on a notice in ''Am.'' 2.18.19–26 that seems to describe the collection as an early published work.<ref name="Trist. 4.10.53–4">''Trist.'' 4.10.53–54</ref>

The authenticity of some of these poems has been challenged, but this first edition probably contained the first 14 poems of the collection. The first five-book collection of the ''[[Amores (Ovid)|Amores]]'', a series of erotic poems addressed to a lover, Corinna, is thought to have been published in 16–15 BC; the surviving version, redacted to three books according to an epigram prefixed to the first book, is thought to have been published {{circa|8}}–3 BC. Between the publications of the two editions of the ''Amores'' can be dated the premiere of his tragedy ''Medea'', which was admired in antiquity but is no longer extant.

Ovid's next poem, the ''Medicamina Faciei'' (a fragmentary work on women's beauty treatments), preceded the {{Lang|la|[[Ars Amatoria]]}} (the ''Art of Love''), a parody of [[didactic poetry]] and a three-book manual about seduction and intrigue, which has been dated to AD 2 (Books 1–2 would go back to 1 BC<ref>{{cite book | last = Hornblower | first = Simon |author2=Antony Spawforth | title = Oxford Classical Dictionary | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1996 | page = [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780198661726/page/1085 1085] | isbn = 978-0-19-866172-6 | url =https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780198661726| url-access = registration }}</ref>). Ovid may identify this work in his exile poetry as the ''carmen'', or song, which was one cause of his banishment. The {{Lang|la|Ars Amatoria}} was followed by the ''Remedia Amoris'' in the same year. This corpus of elegiac, erotic poetry earned Ovid a place among the chief Roman elegists Gallus, Tibullus, and Propertius, of whom he saw himself as the fourth member.<ref name="Trist. 4.10.53–4"/>

By AD 8, Ovid had completed ''[[Metamorphoses]]'', a hexameter [[epic poem]] in 15 books, which comprehensively catalogs the metamorphoses in Greek and Roman mythology, from the emergence of the cosmos to the [[Imperial cult (ancient Rome)|apotheosis]] of [[Julius Caesar]]. The stories follow each other in the telling of human beings transformed to new bodies: trees, rocks, animals, flowers, [[constellation]]s, etc. Simultaneously, he worked on the ''[[Fasti (poem)|Fasti]]'', a six-book poem in elegiac couplets on the theme of the calendar of [[Roman festivals]] and astronomy. The composition of this poem was interrupted by Ovid's exile,{{Efn|''Fasti'' is, in fact, unfinished. ''Metamorphoses'' was already completed in the year of exile, missing only the final revision.<ref>Carlos de Miguel Moura. ''O mistério do exílio ovidiano''. In Portuguese. In: ''Àgora. Estudos Clássicos em Debate 4'' (2002), pp. 99–117.</ref> In exile, Ovid said he never gave a final review on the poem.<ref>''Tristia'' 1, 7, 14.</ref>}} and it is thought that Ovid abandoned work on the piece in Tomis. It is probably in this period that the double letters (16–21) in the ''Heroides'' were composed, although there is some contention over their authorship.