Ovid: Ibis

This reissue of Robinson Ellis's classic 1881 edition of Ovid's rarely studiedIbisincludes a new introduction by Gareth Williams that places the edition in the context of earlier and later developments in classical scholarship. Modeled on a poem of the same name by the Hellenistic author Callimachus,Ibisstands out as a contrived explosion of vitriol against an unnamed enemy, who is characterized in terms of the distinctive Egyptian bird. Ellis's edition of this notoriously opaque poem made a significant contribution to the understanding of Ovid; for today's readers it also illuminates a particular style of scholarship prevalent in the nineteenth-century study of Latin.

Robinson Ellis (1834–1913) was an English classical scholar, critic, and author. Gareth Williams is professor of classics at Columbia University.