Though he achieves great comic effect with this, Ovid could also be underlining the importance of the following poem by his inclusion of such a large portion of the Roman pantheon. There is also explicit evidence that Ovid is not merely -- or at least not solely -- talking about lust in the poem, at one point addressing the reader as, "You...who search for the essence of lasting love" (Part II, line 9). Later on in the poem, when describing instant love -- or lust -- in the courts, he paints the lawyers as ridiculous characters, clearly signaling his feelings towards them.

The messages themselves are not hard to find once one begins looking for them. Throughout the poem, there is a violent, militaristic aspect to the description of male seduction -- the opening of Part III suggest one might find a lover on "Pompey's shady colonnade" -- a subtle...
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