Exile and Relegation in Dante and Ovid * (Critical Essay‪)‬

Robert Wilson, in "Exile and Relegation in Dante and Ovid," contrasts Dante's exile with Ovid's confinement to a faraway place. Although Dante and Ovid are often grouped together as poets of exile, a fundamental difference marks the nature of the two poets' exile. Ovid is relegated rather than exiled, so that he is confined to Tomis, whilst Dante is excluded from Florence. This basic difference of orientation resides at the basis of differences in Dante's and Ovid's treatment of their places of exile in particular, and may also explain the reasons Dante does not refer much to Ovid's exile in relation to his own (in addition, obviously, to the culpa to which Ovid admitted, while Dante could not and did not). Any list of exiled authors almost invariably includes Dante and Ovid, probably the two most famous exiled poets of all. (1) Indeed Ovidius exsul became virtually an exemplum of literary exile in the Middle Ages, and has been a point of reference for exiled writers since. (2) Despite the fact that both are categorised as exiles Dante cannot be included among those who consciously position themselves in a line of descent from Ovid.