From ev23@umail.umd.edu Fri Jun  1 07:47:38 2001
Received: from mxu4.u.washington.edu (mxu4.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.8])
	by lists.u.washington.edu (8.11.2+UW01.01/8.11.2+UW01.04) with ESMTP id f51Elb062782
	for <classics@lists.u.washington.edu>; Fri, 1 Jun 2001 07:47:37 -0700
Received: from umailsrv2.umd.edu (umailsrv2.umd.edu [128.8.10.76])
	by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.11.2+UW01.01/8.11.2+UW01.04) with ESMTP id f51Elas30705
	for <classics@u.washington.edu>; Fri, 1 Jun 2001 07:47:36 -0700
Received: from umail.umd.edu (253a-38.umd.edu [128.8.146.38])
	by umailsrv2.umd.edu (8.11.3/8.11.3) with ESMTP id f51ElaA32462
	for <classics@u.washington.edu>; Fri, 1 Jun 2001 10:47:36 -0400 (EDT)
Message-ID: <3B17AB01.74304300@umail.umd.edu>
Date: Fri, 01 Jun 2001 10:47:29 -0400
From: Elizabeth Vandiver <ev23@umail.umd.edu>
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.72 [en] (Win98; U)
X-Accept-Language: en
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: classics@u.washington.edu
Subject: Bill Clinton as Ovid??
References: <20010601131608.61CE311F71B@volcano.planet.it>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Dear List,

In yesterday's *Washington Post*, a column by Richard Cohen said
that Bill Clinton's enemies saw him as "some oversexed,
overliberal, overbearing latter-day Ovid."

What interests me, and surprises me, is Cohen's choice of
*Ovid*. I suppose "oversexed" could apply well enough to Ovid,
and perhaps even "over-liberal"; but the use of "overbearing,"
with the apparent implication that Ovid was in a position of
some power, would surely strike the author of *Tristia* as
rather wide of the mark. (Not to mention the further implication
that Bill Clinton is a poet!!)

I'm curious to know if Cohen's words read equally oddly to other
list members. Was he just carried away with the repetition of
those "Ov-" sounds, perhaps assuming that few of his readers
would have any notion of who Ovid was, anyway? Or has the
praeceptor amoris made his way into popular culture as some sort
of symbol of middle-aged excess, and I just hadn't noticed
before now? 

Elizabeth Vandiver
.