Fasti (poem)

The poem is a significant, and in some cases unique, source of fact in studies of religion in ancient Rome; and the influential anthropologist and ritualist J.G.

"[4] In the late 1980s, however, the poem enjoyed a revival of scholarly interest and a subsequent reappraisal; it is now regarded as one of Ovid's major works,[5][6] and has been published in several new English translations.

These circumstances have led some to speculate that the poem was written on religious, patriotic, and antiquarian themes in order to improve Ovid's standing with the rulers of Rome and secure his release from exile.

The earliest classical calendrical poem which might have inspired Ovid is the Works and Days of Hesiod, which includes mythological lore, astronomical observations, and an agricultural calendar.

On the Roman side, Ovid particularly focuses on and employs Virgil's Aeneid and Eclogues, most notably in the long section on Anna in Book 3.

Ovid will regularly deliberately pass over material covered in the Aeneid and expand a small section or a neglected episode into an elaborate narrative.

It contains some brief astronomical notes, but its more significant portions discuss the religious festivals of the Roman religion, the rites performed upon them, and their mythological explanations.

The first episode (63–294) is an interview between the poet and the god Janus about the details of his nature as primal creator (Chaos), history, iconography, and festival on the Kalends of January.

He continues relating several shorter narratives, including the stories of Arion and the dolphin (79–118), Augustus' assumption of the title pater patriae (119-148), the myth of Callisto (153–192), the fall of the Fabii at the battle of the Cremera (193–242), and the fable of the constellations of the Raven, Snake, and Crater (243–266).

The end of the month includes the legends of Bacchus' discovery of honey for the Liberalia (713–808), a prayer to Minerva for the Quinquatrus (809–848), and the story of Phrixus and Helle for the Tubilustrium (849–878).

For this festival Ovid recounts the birth of Rhea's children, the castration of Attis, the goddess' transfer to Rome, and the story of Claudia Quinta (179–375).

The next extended section is regarding the festival of the Parilia which includes agricultural prayers, aetiologies of customs, and the story of the founding augury and death of Remus (721–862).

This book opens with the presentation by the Muses of three etymologies for the name of the month: the goddess Maiestas, the Roman elders (maiores), and Maia the mother of Mercury (1–110).

The cosmic identification of Vesta with the earth, the story of Priapus' attempted rape, the origin of the altar of Jupiter Pistoris (of the bakers) in the Gallic invasion of Rome, and the rescue of the Palladium by Metellus in a fire at the temple are recounted (249–468).

A short astronomical notice precedes the long discussion of the Matralia in which Ovid explains the origin of the cult of Mater Matuta who as Ino journeyed to Italy and was made a goddess (473–569).

[12] While Carole E. Newlands wrote in 1995 that the poem had suffered by comparison with other works of Ovid,[13] Fasti has since come to be "widely acclaimed as the final masterwork of the poet from Sulmo.

The work contains much material on Augustus, his relatives, and the imperial cult, as signalled in the preface by his address to Germanicus that explains that he will find "festivals pertaining to your house; often the names of your father and grandfather will meet you on the page."

[15] She points out that Ovid seems to use divine interlocutors and especially divine disagreements to avoid authority and responsibility for the poem's statements, that there is an inherent and destabilizing tension with the presence of traditional Roman matronae in an elegiac poem (an erotic genre and meter), and that Ovid often uses astronomical notices and undermining narrative juxtapositions as a way of subverting seemingly encomiastic episodes.

Seemingly problematic passages reflect mythological ambiguities that Ovid is playing with rather than subversion of the imperial family, and his burlesque treatments of religion are part of an established Roman attitude.