# Ars amandi vel Ars amatoria



## Casquilho

So, which is the actual name of Ovid's book? Some sources quote it as _Ars amandi_​ ("Art of loving"), which I can understand well, others as _Ars amatoria_, which isn't that easy to me.


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## Agró

Ars amatoria.

What do you not understand about this version?


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## Casquilho

I didn't understand your question. Are you asking me what I think _amatoria_ means? That's an adjective, which the dictionary render as "amatory, amorous, concerning or related to love or lovers".

If you're asking about the book, however the title be quoted, it always refers to the same book by Ovid, alias 3 books concerning the love, two of them dedicated to men and the third to the women.


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## Agró

Casquilho said:


> ...others as _Ars amatoria_, which isn't that easy to me.



This is what I was asking about. What's not that easy to you?


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## XiaoRoel

La diferencia tiene que ver con lo _activo_, -*nd*, y lo _pasivo_, -*to*-, en las cosas del amor.
*Agró*, que sabe inglés, igual os lo puede explicar más claramente.


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## CapnPrep

XiaoRoel said:


> La diferencia tiene que ver con lo _activo_, -*nd*, y lo _pasivo_, -*to*-, en las cosas del amor.


I  don't see any such distinction here. Both of these stem-forming verbal  suffixes are neutral with respect to voice, and in the specific case at  hand, the gerund_ amandi_ and the adjective _amatoria_ are both active, or agent-oriented. If anything, _amatoria_ is more active than _amandi_, being built upon the agentive noun _amator_.



Casquilho said:


> So, which is the actual name of Ovid's book?


This work is referred to traditionally by several titles. We don't know exactly what title Ovid wrote on his own copy (it was a long time ago). You can also be a true Latinist and just say _Ars_.


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## XiaoRoel

_*Amatorius*_ deriva del participio _pasado pasivo_ *amatus*nombre de agente *amator*, no de _amare_. Estoy medio dormido, mis disculpas. Como ayer, con lo cual mi mensaje anterior no vale nada.


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## XiaoRoel

XiaoRoel said:


> La diferencia tiene que ver con lo _activo_, -*nd*, y lo _pasivo_, -*to*-, en las cosas del amor.
> *Agró*, que sabe inglés, igual os lo puede explicar más claramente.


Esto que escribí es una tontería. Tanto _amandi_ como _amatoria_ se refieren a lo activo del juego sexual, a la seducción, que es de lo que trata esta obra de Ovidio (y su complementaria _Medicamina faciei_).


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## Casquilho

CapnPrep said:


> This work is referred to traditionally by several titles. We don't know exactly what title Ovid wrote on his own copy (it was a long time ago). You can also be a true Latinist and just say _Ars_.



So, may I choose? I'll then pick the _amandi_, which for some reason sounds better for me. Thank you all.


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## CapnPrep

You can choose. I think _Ars amatoria_ is more common in English, but the very first line of the first book contains the expression _artem amandi_ and declares it to be the topic at hand.


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