During his encounter with Lethaeus Amor in the Remedia amoris, in which he discusses techniques to forget a former lover, Ovid writes the following:
quisquis amas, loca sola nocent: loca sola caveto;
quo fugis? in populo tutior esse potes.
non tibi secretis (augent secreta furores)
est opus; auxilio turba futura tibi est.
tristis eris, si solus eris, dominaeque relictae
ante oculos facies stabit, ut ipsa, tuos.
This passage has been discussed in Hardie's treatment of Lethaeus Amor, and, while he directly addresses Ovid's use of
loci in this passage as I shall below, his focus is on the rich intertextuality – textual remembrances – within the
Remedia rather than the use of
loci in the
ars memoriae proper. Hardie points out numerous intertexts in the
Remedia, using the character of Lethaeus Amor to highlight the paradox of a learned reader of love poetry being unable to forget the poetry he has read, despite this specific oblivion being a precondition for curing oneself of love (as clearly directed at
Rem. am. 755–66). In this case, the
loca sola Ovid warns against are ‘topics of solitude’ which ‘conjure up for the experienced reader scenes of erotic despair’, thus calling to mind the lover's own lovelorn state.