Ovid's Wife in the Tristia and Epistulae Ex Ponto
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OVID’S WIFE IN THE TRISTIA AND EPISTULAE EX PONTO: TRANSFORMING EROTIC ELEGY INTO CONJUGAL ELEGY by AMY NOHR PETERSEN (Under the Direction of T. KEITH DIX) ABSTRACT Augustus exiled Ovid to Tomis in AD 8 in part, the poet says, because of his carmen, the Ars Amatoria. Ovid presents the misfortunes of exile in two collections of elegiac epistles, the Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto. As the recipient of nine epistles, Ovid’s wife is his most frequent addressee. Other poems throughout the two works also mention her. Ovid models the persona of his wife in the exile poetry on characters he developed in the Amores, Heroides, and Ars Amatoria. She appears initially as an abandoned heroine, then as a beloved from whom Ovid seeks fulfillment of his needs, and eventually becomes a pupil in imperial courtship. The resulting “conjugal love elegy” does not replace his earlier erotic elegy but recasts it as a means for Ovid to lament his misfortunes, present a new image for his poet-narrator, and immortalize his genius. INDEX WORDS: Augustus, Coniunx, Elegy, Epistolary Poetry, Epistulae, Exile, Latin, Livia, Ovid, Ovid’s wife, Tristia OVID’S WIFE IN THE TRISTIA AND EPISTULAE EX PONTO: TRANSFORMING EROTIC ELEGY INTO CONJUGAL ELEGY by AMY NOHR PETERSEN B.A., The University of Minnesota, 1996 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS ATHENS, GEORGIA 2005 © 2005 Amy Nohr Petersen All Rights Reserved OVID’S WIFE IN THE TRISTIA AND EPISTULAE EX PONTO: TRANSFORMING EROTIC ELEGY INTO CONJUGAL ELEGY by AMY NOHR PETERSEN Major Professor: T. Keith Dix Committee: Nancy Felson Erika Hermanowicz Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia December 2005 iv DEDICATION To my high school Latin teacher, Virginia Jensen, who continues to inspire me. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my committee members for their valuable assistance. Dr. Keith Dix patiently supported every new topic I proposed to him and always had the right source to recommend. Dr. Nancy Felson devoted countless hours to improving my writing and approach, for which I am very grateful. She helped to launch this thesis during her course on Ovid in the summer of 2003. Dr. Erika Hermanowicz kept me from despair with her supportive, insightful and enthusiastic feedback, often bringing a smile to my face with her reaction to Ovid’s words and wiles. I would also like to thank my family and friends for supporting me throughout my entire graduate school experience. They gave me the encouragement and understanding I needed to accomplish my goal. And I must not omit my gratitude to Sandra, Jim, Chuy, Dris, Fluffy and Sophie for offering me pleasant companionship and a place to work and sleep every summer. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ v INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1 The Poet’s Wife in the Exile Poetry................................................................ 10 Tristia.......................................................................................................... 10 Epistulae ex Ponto ...................................................................................... 45 2 The Roles of the Poet’s Wife in the Exile Poetry ........................................... 63 The Poet’s Wife as Heroine........................................................................ 65 The Poet’s Wife as Elegiac Puella ............................................................. 73 The Poet’s Wife as Matrona....................................................................... 80 The Poet’s Wife as Discipula ..................................................................... 91 The Poet’s Wife as Intermediary ................................................................ 97 3 Utilitas Officiumque ...................................................................................... 104 The Poet’s Wife as a Source of Consolation ............................................ 105 The Poet’s Wife as a Corrective to the Poet’s Image ............................... 109 The Poet’s Wife as a Source of Pathos..................................................... 116 The Contributions of the Poet’s Wife to His Immortality ........................ 125 CONCLUSION............................................................................................................... 132 WORKS CITED.............................................................................................................. 140 1 INTRODUCTION Ovid addresses seven epistolary poems of the Tristia and two of the Epistulae ex Ponto to his wife. He also refers to her in several other poems throughout these works, using such appellations as coniunx, uxor and domina. She receives the greatest and most tender attention in the Tristia, in which he laments that his misfortune is causing her suffering and lauds her devotion to him. As his exile in Tomis continues, he expresses frustration at her inability to remedy his situation, particularly in the Epistulae ex Ponto. With increasing vehemence, he exhorts her to merit the praise he has bestowed upon her in his poetry. Finally, when his disappointment over continuing exile turns to resignation, Ovid no longer addresses his wife in his poetry, abandoning her as a recipient along with his other previous addressees and turning his attention to new recipients in his fourth and final book of the Epistulae. Throughout both the Tristia and the Epistulae ex Ponto, Ovid portrays himself as a loving husband, saddened by his separation from his virtuous cara coniunx back home. This portrait of himself and his wife differs markedly from that of himself and his puella in his earlier elegiac poetry, where he is first a lover of an ungrateful and unresponsive domina, then a teacher of illicit love.1 In an ironic twist, Ovid and his wife assume the roles of certain characters from his pre-exilic works, including his erotic elegy, so that while Ovid creates a new image for himself as loyal spouse and promoter of marital virtue, he also composes new versions of his earlier works, with himself and his wife as 1 In the Amores and Ars Amatoria respectively. Ovid cites as one of the reasons for his exile the allegation that he had taught Roman matrons how to have affairs, Tr. 2.241-252. 2 the principal characters. He remains the poetic narrator and teacher, lamenting what he no longer has. At the same time he creates a new counterpart for himself in response to a new form of suffering. He is now a caring husband whom political conditions force to be absent from his pious wife; he is no longer a spokesman for bachelorhood whose unfaithful and fickle lover forces him to suffer unsatisfied physical desires. As wanton lovers, his earlier characters only feigned fidelity; as loyal spouses, the exilic narrator and his beloved become manifestations of a moral ideal. Thus, Ovid retains many characteristics of his pre-exilic personae while responding to his exclusion from Rome where Augustus was increasingly applying political force in his efforts to revive traditional Roman morality. Chapter One presents the occurrences of Ovid’s wife as both addressee and materia within the Tristia and the Epistulae and charts her transformation from a sympathetic character praised for steadfast spousal devotion to one exhorted to merit the praise she receives. In fashioning his wife’s character, Ovid repeatedly compares her to legendary heroines, such as Penelope and Andromache. By appropriating the idealized traits of these women to the character of his wife, he elevates not only her image but also his own as a sufferer of heroic proportion. Ovid employs topoi from various genres when portraying his wife. Although he introduces the reader to her in an epic-like scene as she bewails his departure, he primarily employs elegiac motifs to lament his separation from those he loves. In his final letter to his wife, he incorporates a didactic style within his elegy as he tells her how to petition Livia for his release from Tomis. 3 Chapter Two explores in detail how Ovid adapts elements from earlier poetry, including his own, in the poems that address or mention his wife. He casts her in several roles and for each he allots himself a corresponding role. The most frequent characterization of Ovid’s wife is that of the beloved from love elegy, a character particularly familiar from Ovid’s own Amores. As a man in exile, Ovid presents himself as the exclusus amator prevented from uniting with the objects of his love: his fatherland, his companions, and his wife. In order to bring about their reunion, Ovid asks his wife to play the part of an intermediary to assist in the efforts to secure his release from Tomis. In a sense, he tries to woo his wife as an elegiac lover woos his puella in order to get what he wants. Even though the separation from his wife recalls an elegiac scenario, Ovid does not fashion his wife as the puella from love elegy. Rather, he elevates his wife beyond even the stature of the virtuous wives of legend, Penelope, Laodamia, Andromache, Evadne and Alcestis.2 As a counterpart to his wife’s character, Ovid elevates himself by claiming that the dictates of an angry god have forced him to endure more than ancient heroes endured in their trials. Yet he likens