The garden of wildflowers that Ovid plants outside of his hut is a minor symbol that represents playfulness as a healthy form of frivolity. Although Ovid lets go of his frivolous past while living in Tomis, he still plants a patch of flowers to add color and life to the drab village. Villagers in Tomis are entirely practical—the village women think Ovid’s garden is a foolish waste of time since flowers are not edible, nor do they possess any utility that aids survival. To Ovid, this suggests that the villagers have no concept of play whatsoever. They are so utilitarian and hardy that they lead joyless, colorless lives. Nevertheless, Ovid hopes that the women will someday be enticed by the beautiful flowers and enjoy them. Thus, the garden represent a “subversive” act of playfulness that challenges the villagers’ severe practicality, without preventing Ovid from being productive or straying into the frivolity that defined his past life.
Ovid’s Garden Quotes in An Imaginary Life
For these people it is a new concept, play. How can I make them understand that till I came here it was the only thing I knew? Everything I ever valued before this was valuable only because it was useless, because time spent upon it was not demanded but freely given, because to play is to be free. Free is not a word that exists, I think, in their language.
Ovid’s Garden Symbol Timeline in An Imaginary Life
