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A Study of the Twice-Told Tales in Ovid's Fasti and Metamorphoses

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A Study of the Twice-Told Tales in Ovid's Fasti and Metamorphoses 1 Beyond Persephone: A Study of the Twice-Told Tales in Ovid’s Fasti and Metamorphoses Emily J. Goode UCL – PhD 2 I, Emily J. Goode confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. ______________________ 3 Abstract There are several narratives told by Ovid in both the Fasti and Metamorphoses and, excluding the rape of Persephone, there has been little or no analysis of them. This thesis is the first focused comparison of all of the twice-told tales in the Metamorphoses and the Fasti . This thesis presents a close-reading of four of the most substantial twice-told tales, the rape of Callisto, the rape of Europa, the apotheosis of Romulus, and the death of Hippolytus. We find that the Metamorphoses and Fasti are woven together with strong invitations to compare between the two texts. Broadly this thesis finds that genre and, in particular, interest in divine action is an important distinguishing feature between the twice- told tales; divine action being present to a greater degree in the Metamorphoses narratives. This thesis then surveys the remaining twice-told tales with an emphasis on their position within the text. Here we find that the twice-told tales are positioned so as to increase the intertextual pull between the Metamorphoses and Fasti . Comparison of the twice-told tales also reveals insights into the individual texts, and in this respect the Fasti , as the lesser investigated of the two texts, particularly benefits. We argue that the twice-told tales in the Fasti reveal that the Fasti is a text characterised by the flux of genre and tone. Sexual comedy, a theme found to be present in several twice-told tales, is an important part of the way the Fasti maintains this flux. Comparison of twice-told narratives is then complemented by a comparison of a non-narrative discourse on animal sacrifice. This thesis demonstrates that comparison of this non-narrative episode is both invited with strong verbal echoes, and reveals useful insights into the two versions. Non-narrative operates in a similar way to narrative in the Metamorphoses and Fasti . 4 Table of Contents Introduction: 5 Chapter One: Romulus’ Apotheosis: Epic and Elegy: 21 Chapter Two: Callisto: Gender and Comedy: 50 Chapter Three: The Thrice-Told Europa: 83 Chapter Four: Hippolytus, The Twice-Told Man: 101 Chapter Five: The Other Twice-Told Tales: 119 Chapter Six: Animal Sacrifice Discourses: 132 Conclusion: 157 Works Cited: 162 5 Introduction ‘Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.’ William Shakespeare, King John, Act 3 scene 4 There are several twice-told tales in Ovid; they are never (despite Lewis’ opinion in King John ) tedious but they are vexatious: excluding the rape of Persephone, little or no comparison of them has taken place and any relationship between them has scarcely been examined. This thesis will be the first focused analysis of all of the twice-told tales in the Metamorphoses and the Fasti . Some have doubted that the twice-told tales in Ovid should be examined. As recently as 1996 one critic called the comparison of the Metamorphoses and the Fasti ‘unfair and misleading’ (Johnson: 15). 1 However Johnson himself was unable to avoid making comparisons demonstrating that comparison can be irresistible. 2 Little also considered the comparison of these two texts to be a misguided venture, particularly as relates to a comparison of genre. As the Fasti is an aetiological poem whilst the Metamorphoses engages with Graeco-Roman myths, comparison is, in his opinion, unjustifiable because ‘it is self-evident that such a fundamental difference must result in a different sort of poem, of style, of narrative’ (Little 1970: 69). However, it is precisely these points that this thesis wishes to consider: how the function of the poem changes (or does not) Ovid’s way of telling a tale in terms of his style, his narration, his diction, his imagery, in fact all the facets of literary composition. As we shall see a comparative 1 It is Johnson’s concern that comparison between twice-told tales leads these tales to be read ‘in isolation from [their] thematic networks’ (1996: 15). This thesis will argue that comparison does not necessarily lead to isolation of these tales from their respective texts, indeed it can enhance our appreciation of the wider context. 2 Johnson, (1996) on the differences in the reader's understanding of Diana's reaction to Callisto in the Metamorphoses and Fasti (16), and on the different ways that Ovid subverts the 'patriarchal version' of the Callisto myth (21f). 6 reading will elucidate each twice-told tale, and improve our understanding of the Metamorphoses and the Fasti more widely. If we accept that a comparison of these two Ovidian texts is a valid methodology, another question arises: ‘why compare the Metamorphoses and the Fasti rather than any of Ovid’s other works’? It is certainly possible to compare other works by Ovid, 3 but there are several reasons why a comparison between the Metamorphoses and the Fasti is the most inviting. The supposed similar time of composition means it is possible that Ovid was composing them simultaneously. Ovid had promised in his introduction to the Metamorphoses , ‘di, coeptis (nam vos mutastis et illas)/ adspirate meis primaque ab origine mundi/ ad mea perpetuum deducite tempora carmen!’ ( M. 1.2-4) and, as the first word of the Fasti is ‘tempora’, critics see the Fasti as a fulfilment of the declaration that opens the Metamorphoses .4 ‘Tempora’ provides a strong invitation to read the two texts together. We may also consider that Ovid invites comparison when he tells the same stories in both the Metamorphoses and the Fasti. The Metamorphoses and the Fasti share not only the longest example of a story told twice by Ovid (the rape of Persephone) but also the greatest number of examples: the rape of Callisto, the rape of Europa, the apotheosis of Romulus, the death of Hippolytus, the apotheosis of Julius Caesar, Tatius’ siege of Rome and others. These twice-told tales may also come as something of a surprise to the reader; although one might expect a little overlap of material on Roman history, the amount of Greek stories told-twice is unexpected. Ovid was under no compulsion to retell stories in both the Metamorphoses and Fasti and that he did so constitutes a very strong invitation for comparison. That he uses similar and even identical diction in the two versions makes this invitation still more compelling. This thesis will consider the effects of these intertextual links 5 on our reading. Context is, of 3 For example the story of Daedalus and Icarus told in the Metamorphoses ( M. 8.183-235) and the Ars Amatoria (2.21-98). 4 See Barchiesi (1991), Hardie (1993), and Wheeler (1999). 5 This thesis notes Sharrock’s anxiety that intertextuality, particularly between the works of a single author, can also be viewed by the reader as intratextuality (2000: 24-5). However for the purposes of this thesis the term ‘intertextuality’ will be used. 7 course, essential 6 and this thesis will endeavour to highlight both the conventional teleological drive of the Metamorphoses and the calendrical order of the Fasti, against the disruptive intertextual pull of the twice-told tales. The question ‘should we compare the twice-told tales in the Metamorphoses and Fasti ?’ is much more easily answered than the question ‘how should we compare the twice-told tales in the Metamorphoses and the Fasti ?’. To attempt to answer this question it will be useful to trace the critical tradition of comparing the twice-told tales in the Metamorphoses and Fasti . In 1919 a new method of exploring Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Fasti was born with Richard Heinze’s paper ‘Ovids Elegische Erzählung’. 7 Heinze’s novel idea was to compare the Metamorphoses and Fasti and to use his findings to identify the essential differences between the two texts. Focusing primarily on the rape of Persephone, the longest twice-told tale, Heinze sought to demonstrate that the principal difference in the narrative style of the two rapes of Persephone was determined by their genre; the Metamorphoses version was epic and the Fasti version was elegiac and as such each employed a style appropriate to their genre. Heinze then went further and attempted to extrapolate from these differences the characteristics of epic and elegy as a whole. Heinze characterised the Persephone narrative in the Metamorphoses (and tacitly epic as a whole) as ‘active’, objective, grandiose, highlighting godly majesty, energetic, with a solemn dignity, and concise. He defined the Persephone story in the Fasti (and tacitly elegy as a whole) as ‘passive’, subjective and personal, idyllic, with little discernible rhetoric, dampening the majesty of the gods, more 8 lively, and concerned with grief and mourning. 6 Johnson’s point that the individual stories in the Metamorphoses and the Fasti suffer when taken out of context is well made (1996: 15). 7 Reprinted in 1960. The references in this thesis are to this edition. 8 Heinze also thought he could distinguish a generic difference between descriptions of countryside in which rape scenes take place (1960: 313-4). 8 Heinze’s statement of his position can most easily be seen in the following quote: 9 ‘In der Metamorphosenerzählung herrschen starke aktive Affekte, jähe Liebe und jäher Zorn, in der Fastenerzählung weichere Empfindungen, schmerzliche Klage und Mitleid. In den Metamorphosen ist die göttliche Majestät der Personen geflissentlich gesteigert; in den Fasten wird die Gottheit vermenschlicht.
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