Roman · -43–17
Ovid transformed classical mythology into narrative art, creating a compendium of transformations that shaped Western culture's imagination for two millennia. His Metamorphoses weaves together over 250 myths, from the world's creation to Julius Caesar's apotheosis, unified by the theme of change. Playful, ironic, and psychologically acute, Ovid brought gods and heroes down to human scale. Augustus exiled him to the Black Sea in 8 CE for reasons still debated; he never returned. Medieval and Renaissance artists drew more extensively from Ovid than from any other classical source. Shakespeare, Titian, and Bernini all found their material in his pages.