Francesca Romana Berno, Ouidius sapiens In: Philosophy in Ovid, Ovid as Philosopher. Edited by: Katharina Volk and Gareth D. Williams, Oxford University Press. © Oxford University Press 2022. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197610336.003.0002 1 Ouidius sapiens Te Wise Man in Ovid’s Work Francesca Romana Berno amare et sapere uix deo conceditur (Publil. Sent. 22) Te focus of this chapter is not so much on a philosophical subject or theme as on a philosophical term, one of the most conspicuous of all, given the absence of the word philosophia in Ovid’s vocabulary: sapiens. * In ofering an overview of Ovid’s poetry—his erotic, epic, 1 and exilic works—I shall concentrate in par- ticular on passages that touch on the semantic feld of sapiens/sapientia. My spe- cifc goal is to establish (i) whether there is any sort of evolution of this idea throughout and across his works; (ii) whether any such evolutionary process is linked with larger philosophical issues, and, if so, how that linkage works; and (iii) whether Ovid can in some way be regarded as a sapiens himself. Introduction: Te Meanings of sapiens/ sapientia and Teir Uses in Augustan Poetry Sapientia is not frequently found in Augustan poetry: the sapio family, which is attested in Ennius and Lucretius, 2 is either totally absent or extremely rare * My thanks to Katharina Volk and Gareth Williams for the invitation to contribute to this volume, to Alessandro Schiesaro for editing my English, and to Martina Russo for her bibliographical help. 1 I use “epic” referring to Metamorphoses and Fasti, in the latter case only as a convenient shorthand. 2 Luck 1964: 203–9; Klima 1971: 71–85; Lucr. 2.8; 5.10 (philosophical meaning). Garbarino 1965: 254–73 notes that while Plautus explicitly links sapientia with phronēsis (Truc. 77–9), Ennius already draws a parallel with sophia (Ann. 218–19 V. 2  = 229–30 ROL = 211–12 FRL = Fest. 476.22; Philosophy in Ovid, Ovid As Philosopher, edited by Gareth Williams, and Katherina Volk, Oxford University Press USA - OSO, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/columbia/detail.action?docID=6789442. Created from columbia on 2021-12-16 13:30:42. Copyright © 2021. Oxford University Press USA - OSO. All rights reserved.