Why is Ovid’s lost tragedy Medea important?

Although Ovid’s tragedy Medea is now lost, it remains significant for several reasons:

• Critical Acclaim: The play was highly regarded by prominent ancient figures, including the critic Quintilian and the historian Tacitus, indicating its high literary quality during antiquity.1
• Literary Influence: It is believed that Ovid’s treatment of the Medea myth likely influenced the later work of the Roman philosopher and dramatist Seneca, who also wrote a play on the same subject.1
• Demonstration of Versatility: Written while Ovid was still in Rome, the tragedy serves as evidence of his creative range beyond the elegiac poetry and epic verse for which he is most famous.12

The loss of this work is considered a significant gap in the surviving corpus of Roman tragedy, a genre in which Roman writers generally struggled to produce counterparts to the great Athenian dramatists.13