<i>Vivere me dices, sed sic, ut vivere nolim.</i> Zur Poetik der Existenz in Ovid, trist. 3, 7. Wiener Studien|Wiener Studien 126 126|

Trist. 3, 7 can be considered as prime example of Ovid’s mythography of exile: In this poem, which is placed at the centre of the collection, the situation of the isolated and exiled poet is reflected upon – nothing less is at stake than his existence. Ovid constructs a model of a life of writing which is spent on the threshold between virtual presence (in Roman society) and factual absence (in exile), between command of and loss of language. This situation is paradoxical: The speaker establishes his identity by reflecting upon his loneliness within society, i. e. he determines himself by means of his relation to the world and the others. In trist. 3, 7 this role of the other is assumed by the otherwise unknown addressee Perilla, a docta puella to whom Ovid claims to be an intellectual mentor. Ovid succeeds at the end of the poem in delineating the personal perspective of his own fame by also including a subversive political dimension in his indestructible literary ego