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Ovid's `Odyssey': Met

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Ovid's `Odyssey': Met OVID'S `ODYSSEY': MET. 13,623-14,608 BY J. D. ELLSWORTH The title of this paper is intentionally paradoxical, since the standard phrase used to describe the section of the Metamorphoses cited above is Ovid's And, to be sure, Ovid did structure this part of the Metamorphoses around the journey of Aeneas from Troy to Rome, using Vergil's Aeneid as his literary mode12). This strategy was dictated by Ovid's declared intention in the prologue of his poem of bringing his continuous narrative down to his own time3). Scholars have been quick to point out, however, that much of Met. 13,623-14,608 does not concern itself with Aeneas, but with other subjects. For example, Brooks Otis feels that Ovid reduces the Aeneas story "to a bare frame for pleasant amatory episodes" that "contribute nothing to the development"; Charles Segal says that Ovid "achieves an effect of destructive levity by inserting into Aeneas's story seven hundred lines of racier and frothier stuff: the 1) F. Bömer, P. OvidiusNaso: Metamorphosen,Buch XII-XIII (Heidelberg 1982), 361. - In addition to the above, citations of the following works in this article are by author's name: E. J. Bernbeck, Beobachtungenzur Darstellungsartin OvidsMetamor- phosen, Zetemata 43 (Munich 1967). R. Coleman, Structure and Intention in the Metamorphoses,CQ 21 (1971). S. Döpp, VirgilischerEinfluss im Werk Ovids (diss. Munich 1968). O. S. Due, Changing Forms: Studies in the Metamorphosesof Ovid, Classica et Mediaevalia 10 (Copenhagen 1974). G. K. Galinsky, Ovid's Metamor- phoses:An Introductionto the Basic Aspects(Berkeley and Los Angeles 1975). H.-B. Guthmiiller, Beobachtungenzum Aufbau der MetamorphosenOvids (diss. Marburg 1964). M. Haupt, R. Ehwald, and M. von Albrecht, P. OvidiusNaso: Metamor- phosen,II (5th ed., Zurich and Dublin 1966). G. LaFaye, Les Mitamorphosesd'Ovide et leurs modilesgrecs (Paris 1904). W. Ludwig, Struktur und Einheit der Metamorphosen Ovids (Berlin 1965). B. Otis, Ovid as an Epic Poet (Cambridge 1966). 2) Several general works on the Metamorphosesconsider the way in which Ovid adapted the Aeneid, e.g., Döpp, 118-40. For a monograph devoted to the subject, see M. Stitz, Ovid and Vergils Aeneis: InterpretationMet. 13.623-14.608 (diss. Freiburg 1962). 3) Met. 1.3-4; cf. Coleman, 472; Galinsky, 218-9. 334 frivolous marine tales of Galatea, Glaucus, Scylla, and Circe"; and G. Karl Galinsky sees "a near total absence" of any endeavor to relate these stories to that of Aeneas-they are "interruptions' 14 ) - That Ovid should limit himself to telling the story of Aeneas in this section of the Metamorphoses is a requirement imposed on him by modern scholars. As is clear from his prologue, and from the poem itself, Ovid intended to make his work on the all-pervasive nature of change a complete one. The events after the Trojan War were not limited to the travels of Aeneas; they also encompassed the Returns of the Greeks, the most noteworthy being that of Odysseus. It is, therefore, unlikely that he would ignore the Odyssey, considering its importance to Latin literature and its fascination to the Augustan poets5). My intention in this paper is to show that one of Ovid's major concerns throughout Met. 13,623-14,608 is to tell the story of the Odyssey as completely as possible, an aim almost totally ignored in the relevant scholarship. Ovid's integration of the Odyssey into his 'Aeneid' not only adds greater cohesiveness to this section, but determines the form and content of several of the stories that scholars consider extraneous or digressive to their context (in their view, the story of Aeneas). Ovid uses three different means to tell his `Odyssey' : first, he in- cludes some of the adventures of Odysseus in his narrative; second, he makes literary references to the text of the Odyssey; and, third, he tells several stories in such a way as to emphasize similarities be- tween them and events in the Odyssey. Although these three techni- ques occasionally overlap, it will be useful to treat them separately. (1) It was, in fact, not difficult for Ovid to integrate some of the adventures of Odysseus into his story of Aeneas, since he, like Vergil, conceived of Aeneas as following in the wake of Odysseus. Ovid puts a summary of Odysseus's travels from Polyphemus to Circe into a conversation between two of his former companions that meet at Caieta (Met. 14,159-441): Achaemenides, a figure 4) Otis, 314, cf. 279, 286; C. P. Segal, Myth and Philosophyin the Metamorphoses: Ovid's Augustanismand the Augustan Conclusionof Book XV, AJPh 90 (1969), 270; Galinsky, 221-2, cf. 245, 247. 5) See R. J. Ball, Tibullus the Elegist: A Critical Survey,Hypomnemata 77 (Göt- tingen 1983), 50-65, esp. 64-5. .
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