Ovid (Classics) Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Augustus’ success in implementing monarchical rule at Rome is often attributed to innovations in the symbolic language of power, from the star marking Julius Caesar’s deification to buildings like the Palatine complex and Forum Augustum... more

Augustus’ success in implementing monarchical rule at Rome is often attributed to innovations in the symbolic language of power, from the star marking Julius Caesar’s deification to buildings like the Palatine complex and Forum Augustum to rituals like triumphs and funerals. This book illumines Roman subjects’ vital role in creating and critiquing these images, in keeping with the Augustan poets’ sustained exploration of audiences’ role in constructing verbal and visual meaning. From Vergil to Ovid, these poets publicly interpret, debate, and disrupt Rome’s evolving political iconography, reclaiming it as the common property of an imagined republic of readers. In showing how these poets used reading as a metaphor for the mutual constitution of Augustan authority and a means of exercising interpretive libertas under the principate, this book offers a holistic new vision of Roman imperial power and its representation that will stimulate scholars and students alike. (forthcoming with Cambridge University Press, spring 2018)

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The myth of Medea – it is well known – constitutes one of the fundamental archetypes which classical culture bequeathed to the Western world with regard to the portrayal of women. Its literary treatment in the ancient world begins already... more

The myth of Medea – it is well known – constitutes one of the fundamental archetypes which classical culture bequeathed to the Western world with regard to the portrayal of women. Its literary treatment in the ancient world begins already in the archaic Greek literature, although the fundamental core of the mythical story that has had the greatest impact in modern times is that which was developed by Euripides, who presented his tragedy Medea at the festival of 431 B.C in Athens. The purpose of my paper is to illustrate, via a new interpretation, the Nachleben or ‘afterlife’ of the myth of Medea with special reference to an anonymous ecphrastic epigram of Late Antiquity: Anth. Lat. 102 R.2 (= 91 Sh. B. = 13 Zurli). The epigram refers to the famous painting by Timomachus of Byzantium which was brought by Julius Caesar to Rome for the inauguration of the Forum Iulium, and which depicted Medea’s cunctatio, that is, our heroine at the point when she hesitates and is divided in her mind between desire for revenge and feelings of piety toward her children. My intention is to relate this variation on the theme of Medea to the changes which were taking place in the field of the Latin epigram already from the third century A.D., and which not only broadened the themes of the literary genre to include topics of a learned nature but also contributed to the literary experimentation of poetry in Late Antiquity.

This paper aims to advance scholarly understanding of the intellectual significance of Ovid's Fasti during the European Renaissance by examining a number of early modern poetic calendars modelled on the Ovidian poem. Recent studies of... more

This paper aims to advance scholarly understanding of the intellectual significance of Ovid's Fasti during the European Renaissance by examining a number of early modern poetic calendars modelled on the Ovidian poem. Recent studies of Ovid's Fasti have noted that the poem's propensity to contest the meaning of a particular occasion facilitates a sustained examination of the relationship between the past and present of Rome, through which the poet disrupts the reorganization of the Roman calendar by Augustus. This paper suggests that a similarly politically charged operation underpins a number of Renaissance fasti poems. Using these poems’ remembrance of the Sack of Rome (1527) as a case study, this article argues, firstly, that the genre's commemorative function is mobilized competitively by its early modern authors to reflect on the history and status of Rome, particularly the city's role as the caput mundi since antiquity. Secondly, it will be shown that in the second half of the sixteenth century the genre of calendrical poetry — and Ovid's Fasti in particular — became an important medium through which Renaissance humanists critiqued the nature of power at a time when political and ecclesiastical schisms hardened across Europe.

Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.18, in which Scylla throws a tiny pebble against Megara’s famous sounding tower, contains an exact, unique but unnoticed verbal echo of Helenus’ description of the sea-monster Scylla’s lair at Aeneid 3.432:... more

Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.18, in which Scylla throws a tiny pebble against Megara’s famous sounding tower, contains an exact, unique but unnoticed verbal echo of Helenus’ description of the sea-monster Scylla’s lair at Aeneid 3.432: resonantia saxa. The allusion tropes its own intertextual status as an ‘echo’ and contributes to the ludic confusion of the two Scyllas in this episode and elsewhere. The collision of the ‘tiny pebble’ with the Virgilian rocks further tropes the episode’s elegiac and Callimachean recasting of epic material. The childishness of the game is also part of the self-conscious puerility of the Metamorphoses’ poetics.

Ovid’s prediction of his own immortality in the sphragís of the Metamorphoses has been understood as a last transformation comparable, for its dualism, to metempsychosis and apotheosis. Yet an inquiry on the causes of these processes... more

Ovid’s prediction of his own immortality in the sphragís of the Metamorphoses has been understood as a last transformation comparable, for its dualism, to metempsychosis and apotheosis. Yet an inquiry on the causes of these processes permits to highlight the specificity of literary durability, which is a product of the favor of the readers and not of a natural law, like metempsychosis, or of a gift of the gods, like apotheosis.

This article argues that Ovid’s dead parrot poem, Amores 2.6, is a tribute to the didactic poet Aemilius Macer, who died in 16 B.C., was a friend of Ovid (Tr. 4.10.43-44), and was famous for his translations of Nicander’s Theriaca and... more

This article argues that Ovid’s dead parrot poem, Amores 2.6, is a tribute to the didactic poet Aemilius Macer, who died in 16 B.C., was a friend of Ovid (Tr. 4.10.43-44), and was famous for his translations of Nicander’s Theriaca and (probably) Boeus’ Ornithogonia. The imitatrix (“imitator”) parrot reflects Aemilius Macer’s skills as a translator, his interest in birds, and his humble didactic style and also plays on the name Aemilius (aemulatio, “emulation, imitation”) Macer (“thin”).

Arguing from a critical reading of the text, and scientific evidence on the ground, the authors show that the myth of Phaethon – the delinquent celestial charioteer – remembers the impact of a massive meteorite that hit the Chiemgau... more

Arguing from a critical reading of the text, and scientific evidence on the ground, the authors show that the myth of Phaethon – the delinquent celestial charioteer – remembers the impact of a massive meteorite that hit the Chiemgau region in Bavaria between 2000 and 428 BC.

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A revised version in Mnemosyne 70.5 (2017), 878-888.

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This paper suggests some far-reaching symbolic implications for women’s hair in Latin love elegy. Hair, hairdressing, hairdressers, and hair loss provided a metaphorical vehicle by which Tibullus (1.8), Propertius (2.18), and above all... more

This paper suggests some far-reaching symbolic implications for women’s hair in Latin love elegy. Hair, hairdressing, hairdressers, and hair loss provided a metaphorical vehicle by which Tibullus (1.8), Propertius (2.18), and above all Ovid (Ars Amatoria 3; Amores 1.11-2, 2.7-8, 1.7, and 1.14) interrogated the power relationships that underpinned Roman society: between master and slave, women and men, Rome and her provinces. In my analysis, elegiac hair becomes an index to the socioeconomic realities of urban self-fashioning as well as a locus of anxiety about Rome’s increasing reliance on imported labor and consumer goods.

In the Fasti, Ovid provides dates for a number of astronomical phenomena. For many years these were dismissed by scholars as wildly inaccurate; and this assumption of inaccuracy has formed the basis for a number of literary approaches to... more

In the Fasti, Ovid provides dates for a number of astronomical phenomena. For many years these were dismissed by scholars as wildly inaccurate; and this assumption of inaccuracy has formed the basis for a number of literary approaches to the Fasti. Some recent studies have challenged this view of Ovid’s accuracy, claiming that his dates are mostly accurate. This article examines the different conceptions of accuracy at work in these two positions, and explores the implication for literary approaches to the poem. By comparing Ovid’s accuracy with those of other ancient authors, and providing the first detailed exploration in Fasti scholarship of the problems inherent in modern calculations, ancient observations, and the ancient sources, I conclude that a focus on accuracy is not the most helpful methodology, and that a focus on the choice of constellation is a more productive tool for literary criticism.

The collection of the elder Seneca assembles quotations from scores of declaimers over a period spanning sixty years, from the Augustan Age through the early decades of the empire. A view is offered onto a literary scene, for this... more

The collection of the elder Seneca assembles quotations from scores of declaimers over a period spanning sixty years, from the Augustan Age through the early decades of the empire. A view is offered onto a literary scene, for this critical period of Roman letters, that is numerously populated, highly interactive, and less dominated by just a few canonical authors. Despite this potential, modern readings have often lumped declaimers together en masse and organizational principles basic to Seneca’s collection remain overlooked. This volume attempts to ‘hear’ the individual speech of declaimers by focusing on two speakers—Arellius Fuscus, rhetor to Ovid, and Papirius Fabianus, teacher of the younger Seneca. A key organizing principle, informing both the collection and the practice of declamation, was the ‘shared locus’—a short passage, defined by verbal and argumentative ingredients, that gained currency among declaimers. Study of the operation of the shared locus carries several advantages: (1) we appreciate distinctions between declaimers; (2) we recognize shared passages as a medium of communication; and (3) the shared locus emerges as a community resource, explaining deep-seated connections between declamation and literary works.

From the moment Rome established contacts with the Parthian empire in the 1 st century BC, its relations with the eastern neighbour became one of the most important points of Roman foreign policy. Attempts to subjugate Parthia ended in... more

From the moment Rome established contacts with the Parthian empire in the 1 st century BC, its relations with the eastern neighbour became one of the most important points of Roman foreign policy. Attempts to subjugate Parthia ended in Rome's crushing defeat at Carrhae in 53 BC. Having taken over power in the Roman Republic, Octavian Augustus became much more active in his oriental policy, wishing to erase the shame brought upon Rome by the defeat. The peace treaty signed in 20 BC was the Emperor's diplomatic success and was presented as a great triumph by the Roman propaganda. In this paper, I analyse several fragments referring to this agreement in the works of the Augustan poets Horace, Propertius and Ovid. The works, written over almost three decades, present this event from various perspectives. On the one hand, they show a strong intermixture of politics and literature, and on the other hand, great talent and artistic skill of the poets writing creatively about issues which were current in Rome at the time.

Última parte de las dos que componen un trabajo que se ocupa de analizar la influencia de la tradición clásica en un tema pictórico de gran predicamento entre los grandes maestros del Siglo de Oro de la pintura holandesa, La enferma de... more

Última parte de las dos que componen un trabajo que se ocupa de analizar la influencia de la tradición clásica en un tema pictórico de gran predicamento entre los grandes maestros del Siglo de Oro de la pintura holandesa, La enferma de amor o La visita del médico, con especial atención a su tratamiento en la obra de uno de sus más conspicuos representantes, el pintor de Leiden Jan Steen (1626-1679).
Abstract. Second one of a two-part analysis on the influence of the Classical Tradition on a favourite theme along the Dutch painters of the Golden Age, The lovesick maiden or The doctor’s visit, especially in the Leiden artist’s production, Jan Steen (1626-1679).

"The aim of the dissertation “Ovid in Alfonso X’s General estoria” is to study the translation of the Latin poet in the universal history conceived within the workshop directed by Alfonso X during the last quarter of the 13th century (ca.... more

"The aim of the dissertation “Ovid in Alfonso X’s General estoria” is to study the translation of the Latin poet in the universal history conceived within the workshop directed by Alfonso X during the last quarter of the 13th century (ca. 1270­-1284). The aforementioned work intended to recount the history of man from Genesis up to the reign of King Alfonso himself. The main source of the 'General estoria' is the Bible. Various pagan or “Gentile” (non­ Jewish) notes are added to the biblical material. In the first two parts of the 'General estoria', the basic sources for the Gentile stories are Ovid’s 'Metamorphoses' and 'Heroides'. This usage is complimented by fragments of the 'Fasti', the 'Remedia Amoris', the 'Ars Amatoria' and the 'Epistulae ex Ponto'. The study is also centred on the translation method of Ovid’s work as well as on the compilation techniques of the 'General estoria'. Thus, the present dissertation is structured as follows: 1) an Introduction where the rules that characterize the reading of Ovid in the Middle Ages are described ( ch. 1); 2) a study of the contextual elements of the Latin text in three sections: a study of the accessus, the glosses and commentaries that accompanied the Latin text in the medieval stage ( ch. 2); an analysis of the mythographic works inserted in the compilation (ch. 3); finally; the description of the characteristics which define the employing of Ovid’s less used works: the Fasti, the Remedia Amori, the Ars Amatoria and the Epistulae ex Ponto (ch. 4). In the end, the second part of the dissertation ( ch. 5) develops an exhaustive and detailed analysis of the fragments taken from Ovid’s works in the 'General estoria'.

This paper argues that Ovid deliberately arranged lines 3.507–10 of the Ars Amatoria to have the letters at line end spell out AMOR when read vertically. Together with the last word of the passage, which is itself Amor, this telestich... more

This paper argues that Ovid deliberately arranged lines 3.507–10 of the Ars Amatoria to have the letters at line end spell out AMOR when read vertically. Together with the last word of the passage, which is itself Amor, this telestich produces a shape that recalls a famous Γ-acrostic in Aratus. Since the relevant Ovidian lines discuss mirrors, they also constitute an invitation to read AMOR backwards as ROMA. The telestich thus emerges as engaging intertextually with a variety of plays on the city's name, including the famous AMOR-ROMA word squares that are preserved in Imperial Roman graffiti. Within the mildly subversive genre of elegy, Ovid's palindromic word play creates a contrast between traditional expressions of Roman military valor—familiar from works like the Aeneid, where an acrostic significantly spells out MARS—and his own world, where the city of ROMA has come to be dominated by AMOR.

When does imitation of an author morph into masquerade? Although the Roman writer Ovid died in the first century CE, many new Latin poems were ascribed to him from the sixth until the fifteenth century. Like the Appendix Vergiliana, these... more

When does imitation of an author morph into masquerade? Although the Roman writer Ovid died in the first century CE, many new Latin poems were ascribed to him from the sixth until the fifteenth century. Like the Appendix Vergiliana, these verses reflect different understandings of an admired Classical poet and expand his legacy throughout the Middle Ages.
The works of the “medieval Ovid” mirror the dazzling variety of their original. The Appendix Ovidiana includes narrative poetry that recounts the adventures of both real and imaginary creatures, erotic poetry that wrestles with powerful desires and sexual violence, and religious poetry that—despite the historical Ovid’s paganism—envisions the birth, death, and resurrection of Christ.
This is the first comprehensive collection and English translation of these pseudonymous medieval Latin poems.

Parues en l'an 8 avant J.-C., Les Métamorphoses d'Ovide nous présentent un monde imaginaire où la mort s'est presque complè-tement évanouie et où de nouveaux êtres continuent à apparaître à travers la transformation physique d'êtres... more

Parues en l'an 8 avant J.-C., Les Métamorphoses d'Ovide nous présentent un monde imaginaire où la mort s'est presque complè-tement évanouie et où de nouveaux êtres continuent à apparaître à travers la transformation physique d'êtres précédents. Il s'agit d'un monde en mouvement, fluide et fuyant. Si la naissance existe encore, la métamorphose du corps constitue un phénomène parallèle qui se manifeste dans les situations les plus variées et sans solution de continuité, depuis une origine primordiale jusqu'à présent. Les dieux et les mortels en font également l'expérience, mais avec une différence significative. Pour les dieux, la métamorphose est un instrument puissant qui leur donne le pouvoir de changer leur forme à volonté ; pour les mortels, au contraire, elle déclenche en un éclair une voie transfor-mationnelle sans possibilité de retour 1. Sans surprise, la plasticité illimitée des dieux est remplacée chez les hommes par une capacité de transformation bornée. Ainsi, si Jupiter prend temporairement la forme d'un taureau ou devient une pluie d'or afin de satisfaire ses désirs d'amour, le roi Lycaon devient un loup et la nymphe Syrinx un roseau creux. Daphné se transforme quant à elle en laurier et Actéon en cerf. Leurs métamorphoses sont irréversibles. 1. Ovide, Les Métamorphoses 8, 728-730.

As origens da poesia elegíaca remontam provavelmente à Grécia Antiga, adquirindo certa popularidade no século IV a.C., quando se torna um gênero literário. Em Roma, a elegia se destaca principalmente em fins da República e início do... more

As origens da poesia elegíaca remontam provavelmente à Grécia Antiga,
adquirindo certa popularidade no século IV a.C., quando se torna um gênero literário. Em Roma, a elegia se destaca principalmente em fins da República e início do principado de Augusto (séc. I a.C. – séc. I d.C.). São renomados os autores Ovídio, Tibulo e Propércio, que divulgam a elegia em suas diversas facetas: amorosa, sensual, saudosista, etc. A enunciação da amada nos poemas faz com que as cenas se tornem vívidas e calorosas. A busca do amor, intenso, que leva à quebra de qualquer regra é o principal tema de Ovídio, o poeta eternamente
apaixonado. Contrário às leis imperiais, o poeta sulmonense se dirige a soldados ou a maridos enganados e belas jovens para afrontar a recém-convocada moralidade augustana. É nesse ambiente que a obra de Ovídio consegue se destacar e ganhar originalidade na própria Roma antiga.

In recent years, several important poets and artists have responded to the myth of Actaeon in their creative works, taking Ovid’s Metamorphoses as their starting point, but also reacting to the set of Titian’s paintings which were... more

In recent years, several important poets and artists have responded to the myth of Actaeon in their creative works, taking Ovid’s Metamorphoses as their starting point, but also reacting to the set of Titian’s paintings which were reunited at the National Gallery in 2012. This paper focuses on the installations by Conrad Shawcross and Mark Wallinger, and the poem by Seamus Heaney, which were commis- sioned by the National Gallery in 2012, as well as on Ted Hughes’ translation in his Tales from Ovid (1998). All these works focus in different ways on key elements of Ovid’s episode, first and foremost the tension between innocence and desire in Actaeon’s actions, which is also at the heart of Titian’s influential painting and Hughes’ rewriting, as well as on the voyeuristic involvement of the spectator. A comparative analysis of these recent interpretations of the myth also offers the opportunity to delve deeper in the most peculiar features of Ovid’s text and its explicit autobiographical implications, and highlights his systematic occlusion of any narrative element which may be seen to foreground Actaeon’s culpability.

This article argues that the figure of Macer, who is characterized as a poet with elegiac and epic interests in Tibullus (2.6) and Ovid (Am. 2.18, Pont. 2.10, 4.16), is a pseudonym (“the lean lover”) for Valgius Rufus. The usual... more

This article argues that the figure of Macer, who is characterized as a poet
with elegiac and epic interests in Tibullus (2.6) and Ovid (Am. 2.18, Pont.
2.10, 4.16), is a pseudonym (“the lean lover”) for Valgius Rufus. The usual
candidates for Macer’s identity, Aemilius Macer and Pompeius Macer,
have nothing to recommend them but their name and status as poets. In
contrast, the information we learn about Valgius Rufus from Horace Carm.
2.9, the Panegyricus Messallae, and his surviving elegiac and hexametric
fragments fits extremely well with the portrait of Macer that emerges from
Tibullus and Ovid.

El Ibis de Ovidio, un enigmático poema escrito durante el exilio del poeta en Tomi, contiene una serie de violentas imprecaciones tomadas de la historia y de la mitología. Si bien este poema es en muchos aspectos diferente a los... more

El Ibis de Ovidio, un enigmático poema escrito durante el exilio del poeta en Tomi, contiene una serie de violentas imprecaciones tomadas de la historia y de la mitología. Si bien este poema es en muchos aspectos diferente a los anteriores escritos por el poeta, mantiene, mediante su carga de referencias mitológicas, un rasgo común de su producción en general. Los estudios sobre el Ibis han tendido a ser relegados por los estudiosos de la poesía de exilio de Ovidio o bien se han ido concentrando en encontrar respuesta para un número limitado de preguntas, resumidas por Williams (1996: 3) como “¿Quién es Ibis? ¿Qué hizo para provocar la maldición de Ovidio? ¿Qué se puede inferir del poema ovidiano sobre el largo, el metro, y el propósito (extra)literario del Ἶβις de Calímaco? ¿Quién fue Ἶβις?”, y son pocos los estudiosos que se han detenido a considerar el poema según contextos ovidianos, de exilio y poéticos. Ante esa carencia, en el presente trabajo, me propongo examinar el uso de la mitología que hace Ovidio en Ibis, partiendo de la hipótesis de que, al enumerar un sinfín de malos deseos en contra el
receptor, oculto bajo el pseudónimo de Ibis, el poeta retoma muchas de las figuras mitológicas que ha usado en Tristia para construir la mitologización de su propio sufrimiento en el exilio, y de este modo, el
mito funciona como mediador entre el yo lírico y la figura de Ibis, confirmando así, el sitio de este poema en el programa apologético del resto de su obra de exilio.
Palabras Clave: Ibis; Mitología; Ovidio.

In his autobiographical poem, Tristia IV 10, Ovid reviews his poetic career from the perspective of his exile. Quite strangely, however, he makes no reference at all to his major works, the Medea, the Fasti, and the Metamorphoses (only... more

In his autobiographical poem, Tristia IV 10, Ovid reviews his poetic career from the perspective of his exile. Quite strangely, however, he makes no reference at all to his major works, the Medea, the Fasti, and the Metamorphoses (only recalled through allusion at line 129). He presents himself as tenerorum lusor Amorum (echoing both his 'epitaph', trist. III 3, 73, and am. III 15, 1), and keeps making reference both explicitly and through allusions only to his amatory works. On the other side, he does not mention the Ars amatoria as a cause of his exile, referring only to his notorious error, and declares that Livor has never bitten any of his works, a disconcerting affirmation in the light of Livor's role at the beginning of am. I 15 and at rem. 361-396. Ovid's intertextual strategies and his constant revisions of his poetic career (especially in the Amores) are studied in order to make sense of the strange and contradictory self-portrait which emerges from trist. IV 10 and other poems from Ovid's exile (such as trist. II, III 3, V 1 (a 'recantation' of IV 10), Pont. III 3). Trist. IV 10 appears to be an emphatic and daring statement on Ovid's part on the immortal fame he has attained with his amatory works, including the Ars, in spite of Augustus' persecution.

The literary framework of Naevius’ Bellum Punicum and the construction of the Caesar-Augustus figure in the Jupiter-Venus dialogue of Aeneid 1 are seen as the preliminary phase for the transformation operated in Metamorphoses 15 by Ovid,... more

The literary framework of Naevius’ Bellum Punicum and the construction of the Caesar-Augustus figure in the Jupiter-Venus dialogue of Aeneid 1 are seen as the preliminary phase for the transformation operated in Metamorphoses 15 by Ovid, who inserts the dialogue, now concerning Julius Caesar, in a mythologized universal history, and displays a fictional representation based on the use or transformation of two Virgilian passages (Aen. 1, 223 ff.; Georg, 1, 474 ff.). This higher level of construction is closely linked to the degree of poet’s self-celebration: while only indirect references to immortality (Aen 9, 446-7; Aen 1, 379) appear in Virgil, Ovid announces his own rise super alta ... / astra (15, 875-6), putting himself over the matter of the literary representation.

Vesta and the Vestal priestesses represented the very core of Roman cultural identity, and Augustus positioned his public image beside them to augment his political legitimacy. Through analysis of material culture, historiography, and... more

Vesta and the Vestal priestesses represented the very core of Roman cultural identity, and Augustus positioned his public image beside them to augment his political legitimacy. Through analysis of material culture, historiography, and poetry that originated during the principate of Augustus, it becomes clear that each of these sources of evidence contributes to the public image projected by the leader whom Ronald Syme considered to be the first Roman emperor. The Ara Pacis Augustae and the Res Gestae Divi Augustae embody the legacy the Emperor wished to establish, and each of these cultural works contain significant references to the Vestals. The study of history Livy undertook also emphasized the pathetic plight of Rhea Silvia as she was compelled to become a Vestal. Livy and his contemporary Dionysius of Halicarnassus explored the foundation of the Vestal Order and each writer had his own explanation about how Numa founded it. The Roman poets Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Tibullus incorporated Vesta and the Vestals into their work in a way that offers further proof of the way Augustus insinuated himself into the fabric of Roman cultural identity by associating his public image with these honored clerics.

Propomos uma tradução da Heroidum Epistula VII em dístico elegíaco brasileiro, que tenta recriar o ritmo do dístico elegíaco latino através da oposição entre tônicas e átonas no português. Os hexâmetros contam com seis tônicas... more

Propomos uma tradução da Heroidum Epistula VII em dístico elegíaco brasileiro, que tenta recriar o ritmo do dístico elegíaco latino através da oposição entre tônicas e átonas no português. Os hexâmetros contam com seis tônicas obrigatórias, podendo estar no espaço entre uma delas e a seguinte mais uma tônica ou uma ou duas átonas; os pentâmetros seguem a mesma lógica, mas atentando para uma cesura obrigatória depois do terceiro pé, que deve ser tônico, e também para o último pé, igualmente tônico. É feita uma breve discussão sobre a forma escolhida.
We propose a translation of the Heroidum Epistula VII in Brazilian eligiac distichs, which tries to recreate the rhythm of the Latin elegiac distichs through the contrast between stressed and unstressed syllables in Portuguese. The hexameters have six main stressed syllables, which can have in the space between any of them and the following one a stressed, or one or two unstressed syllables; the pentameters follow the same logic, but with a special feature: they have an obligatory caesura in the third foot, which must be stressed; the last foot also needs to be stressed. A short discussion about the chosen form is offered.

The paper focuses on the question of Consolatio ad Liviam’s author and date, which has been recently faced again in two important books. A survey of how the author of the epicedium introduces himself to the readers and a closer... more

The paper focuses on the question of Consolatio ad Liviam’s author and date, which has been recently faced again in two important books. A survey of how the author of the epicedium introduces himself to the readers and a closer examination of the intertextual relationships between the Consolatio and Ovid’s works allow to prove with reasonable certainty that the poem was composed not before 13 A.D. (and therefore is not a ‘true’ epicedium for the death of Drusus) and that the author pretends to be Ovid (that is to say, the Consolatio is not just a ‘chronological’ fake, but a proper pseudepigraphon).

Ichthyonymia Graeco-Latina. The Importance of the Modern Greek and Romance Lexical Data for Correct Identification of the Latin Fish-Names. In his poem entitled Halieutica Ovid describes many Mediterranean fishes and sea animals. Most of... more

Ichthyonymia Graeco-Latina. The Importance of the Modern Greek and Romance Lexical Data for Correct Identification of the Latin Fish-Names. In his poem entitled Halieutica Ovid describes many Mediterranean fishes and sea animals. Most of them is firmly identified in the scientific literature. Other fish-names refer to unknown species of fish. It is necessary to discuss eight Latin fish-names of uncertain identification on the basis of the fish terminology attested in the Modern Greek dialects, as well as the Romance languages and idioms, in particular in the Italian dialects.

This book provides an overall interpretation of the Bellum civile based on the examination of an aspect completely neglected by previous scholarship: Lucan’s literary adaptation of the cosmological dialectic of Love and Strife. According... more

This book provides an overall interpretation of the Bellum civile based on the examination of an aspect completely neglected by previous scholarship: Lucan’s literary adaptation of the cosmological dialectic of Love and Strife. According to a reading that has found favor over the last three decades, the poem is an unconventional epic that does not conform to Aristotelian norms: in order to portray his vision of cosmic dissolution, Lucan composes a poem characterized by fragmentation and disorder, lacking a conventional teleology, and whose narrative flow is constantly delayed. My study challenges this interpretation by illustrating that although Lucan invokes imagery of cosmic dissolution, he does so without altogether obliterating epic norms; rather, the Bellum civile transforms them from within in order to accomplish its purpose: namely, condemnation of the establishment of the Principate and the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Greek and Roman thought traditionally construes Love and Strife as two contrasting forces that govern the universe: Love is usually constructive in its creative function, whereas Strife is deadly and, therefore, destructive; but there is also a destructive form of Love, which causes distress and grief, and a constructive form of Strife, which incites individuals to improve the condition of humankind. In Greek and Latin epic these forces are normally in balance. In particular, in Vergil’s Aeneid, a poem that celebrates the founding of Rome, and its re-founding thanks to Augustus, the action of destructive forces is usually followed by that of constructive forces. Lucan reverses this structure by strategically removing Love and Strife in their positive instantiations from the narrative universe of the Bellum civile, and by increasing the role of their negative counterparts, in order to stage the irreversible annihilation and “de-founding” of Rome that follows the victory of Caesar and the consequent fall of the Republic.

This paper explores the depiction of magic in Amores 3.7, an elegy in which "Ovid" suffers from impotence and wonders if a witch is to be blamed for his predicament. Adding to existing metapoetic readings, I argue that the poem combines... more

This paper explores the depiction of magic in Amores 3.7, an elegy in which "Ovid" suffers from impotence and wonders if a witch is to be blamed for his predicament. Adding to existing metapoetic readings, I argue that the poem combines allusions to famous witches from earlier Greco-Roman literature with detailed evocations of actual rites that are familiar to us from the material record, such as the piercing of magic dolls and the casting of binding and separation spells. These acts were meant to cause the same deathlike sensations that Ovid experiences in Am. 3.7, which means that-even though the poem ultimately calls the efficacy of magic into question-it nevertheless provides a "realistic" portrayal of these spells' imagined effects.

While senators and equestrians both played substantial roles in adjudicating legal cases in Rome, we can rarely assign specific involvement to individuals. But Ovid tells us of three separate judicial functions he fulfilled, and this... more

While senators and equestrians both played substantial roles in adjudicating legal cases in Rome, we can rarely assign specific involvement to individuals. But Ovid tells us of three separate judicial functions he fulfilled, and this article suggests that his participation should be viewed as representative of the judicial roles other equestrians of similar standing played in early imperial Rome.