Ovid's Arachne, a doubly retrospective passage?
By Flora Iff-Noël, University of Florida
The Arachne episode in Ovid’s Metamorphoses has long been identified as metapoetic. Scholars pointed to the ancient association between text and textile. They opposed the classical aesthetics of Athena’s tapestry to the Hellenistic illusionism of Arachne’s, which they related to Ovid’s own poetic program. Sauron suggested that this artistic competition was inspired by Virgil’s Eclogues (3.38-46), and Rosati 1999 by the Georgics (4.333-349). Most specialists agree on the omnipresent references to Callimachean poetics, especially to the Aitia’s proem (e.g.
"An Answ'ring Cadence": Ovidian Retrospection in Henrietta Cordelia Ray's "Echo's Complaint"
By Rachel C. Morrison, University of California, Los Angeles
This paper aims to shed light on the layers of Ovidian retrospection in Henrietta Cordelia Ray’s 1910 poem “Echo’s Complaint,” which imagines what Echo might have said to Narcissus if she had the words. Working in the tradition of the Heroides (Walters 2007), Ray imagines a complex interior life for a mythical woman whose side of the story has not often been told.
Reading Dido diffractively: Moving beyond reflection as a metaphor
By Shona Edwards, University of Adelaide
There is a long history of scholars using optical metaphors to describe knowledge. In the study of ancient literature, metaphors of reflection and mirroring have been extensively used to describe the processes of imitation and reception of texts. This paper argues that metaphors of reflection and mirroring are limited by a hierarchical relationship between the reflection and the source, where the reflection is always dependent on and by definition secondary to the source.
Ovidian Narrators in Retrospect: past stories as a device for variation from the literary tradition and mythological innovation
By Juliette Delalande, Sorbonne Université - EDITTA
In Ovid’s work, several mythical characters practice retrospection, as they recount past adventures of which they were heroes or witnesses. These past adventures are often already well known in the literary tradition. Thus retrospection on the one hand allows characters to tell their past, and on the other hand enables the poet to allude to literary sources (Conte, 1986).
Like parens, like parricide: Ovid's retour of Rome in Tristia 3.1
By Lucy Mudie, University of Manchester
In Tristia 3.1, Ovid’s little book finally reaches Rome. Upon its arrival, it is taken on a tour of the city, which, on closer inspection, reveals itself as a revised version of Ovid’s description of Rome and its landmarks in Ars Amatoria 1. While the tour of the Ars focuses largely on the theatrical locations of the city, this Tristia “re-tour” homes in on a different type of theatrical display, namely: the princeps’ imperial image as Pater Patriae.