Metaphysics, Morality and Malevolence An investigation into the philosophical outlook inherent in the treatment of the myths in Ovid’s Metamorphoses Callum Hyland (B.A., Hons) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Tasmania August, 2016 This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for a degree or diploma by the University or any other institution, except by way of background information and duly acknowledged in the thesis, and to the best of my knowledge and belief no material previously published or written by another person except where due acknowledgement is made in the text of the thesis, nor does the thesis contain any material that infringes copyright. This thesis may be made available for loan and limited copying and communication in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968. Contents Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………4 Glossary ……………………………………………………………………………………36 Key Concepts ……………………………………………………………………………….39 Chapter 1: Phaethon ………………………………………………………………………44 Chapter 2: Ceres, Dis & Proserpina ………………………………………………………83 Chapter 3: Scylla …………………………………………………………………………117 Chapter 4: Meleager ………………………………………………………………………141 Chapter 5: Pyramus & Thisbe ……………………………………………………………163 Chapter 6: Pygmalion …………………………………………………………………….181 Chapter 7: Synthesis & Conclusions …………………………………………………….201 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………………239 Introduction For two millennia, the mythological tales contained in the Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidius Naso have been among the most widely read and influential of all classical works, but very little is known of the author himself: his character, his views, or his philosophical convictions. Moreover, most of the information which has been transmitted to us comes from explicit autobiographical references in his own works.1 Beyond the few biographical details of which there is no cause to doubt – such as Ovid’s date of birth, the age difference between him and his brother, or the number of his grandchildren – most of the references, as Holzberg (2006) astutely pointed out, are more than a little dubious, given that nearly all can be shown to primarily serve significant literary purposes (particularly those found in Tristia 4.10). On the whole, this undermines the likelihood of the factual accuracy of such references and, therefore, the deductions drawn from them.2 As a consequence, we have really very little to go on if we are to use what we know about the author as a guide to finding out why his works are as they are. General aims In light of this, we come to the problem of how better to understand the vast array of different and seemingly often conflicting issues found within Ovid’s most popular work, the Metamorphoses, when we only have the poem itself in which to look for answers. Investigation into this topic is not new, but is far from being exhausted, and has not yet yielded particularly satisfactory answers. Some decades ago, Charles Segal (1969a), in the introduction to his work on understanding the Metamorphoses through Ovid’s use of landscape within the poem, alluded to one of the poem’s key interpretational issues – that of the sense-of-life (the underlying implicit estimate of, attitude towards and feeling about 1 See White (2002), pp.1-25; Ziolkowski (2004), pp.19-24, who gives a good biography of Ovid’s life (mostly based on material found within Ovid’s works) and his reception in his own time and in the early A.D. years; and Frazer (1931), pp.xi-xxi, who gives an admirably detailed and yet concise summation of Ovid’s explicit autobiographical references and of what can be deduced from them. 2 See also Holzberg (2002), particularly pp.21, 45, and 176-98. 4 Introduction existence)3 implied within it: …for all its levity, the Metamorphoses has a grim and sombre side. Penetrating beneath Ovid’s fluent grace of language and versification, his charm of narrative, his wit and abundance of invention, his apt turning of rhetorical topoi, one finds a poem pervaded by violence, cruelty, and arbitrary suffering. How are we to evaluate these elements and what sort of “Weltanschauung” is implied in this polarity of urbanity and violence? These questions have not received sufficient attention. (p.1) With the problem of understanding the Metamorphoses in mind, my aim in this study is to identify and explain, through an investigation into Ovid’s manner of story-telling within the poem, what kind of philosophical outlook on life (view of the universe and the individual’s relation to it) is inherent in the text, and consequently what kind of sense-of-life this outlook is the progenitor of and expresses. To tackle this topic I am examining the views found within the poem in relation to three of the main branches of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology and ethics – areas which, together, broadly encompass nearly every branch of philosophy, and allow for a holistic view of the works’ implicit philosophical outlook.4 For the purpose of this investigation, I use the term metaphysics (which generally comes under the heading of epistemology – and indeed we will see presently that in this poem, characters’ ideas about metaphysics are tied to what they consider to be the sources of knowledge) to apply specifically to the branch of philosophy covering the nature of existence, of reality, the world, oneself, and one’s relationship to the universe (and the different forces active within it); epistemology to apply to the realm of knowledge, specifically, how it is acquired and certified – the status of concepts; and ethics to cover the realm of morality – the code of moral values by which one makes one’s choices in word and action.5 A summary of the results of this investigation, and an explanation of the sense-of-life associated with them, is given on pp.27- 8. 3 For easy reference, a list of definitions of key terms can be found in the Glossary (see pp.36-8). 4 I must regrettably exclude politics – the foundations on which social and political systems are based – from this study, with the hope of returning to it at a later date. To cover the topic properly would require looking at a completely new set of stories, since those which are most fruitful for gleaning an insight into the work’s politics (whether explicit or implicit) are few and far between and are generally different from those which are most informative in the realms of metaphysics, epistemology and ethics. 5 Given that, as we will see, a particular set of morals and values are associated with each distinct type of epistemological approach presented within the poem, I have referred to the two jointly as “epistemology and ethics” throughout this thesis. 5 Introduction Motivations My initial inspiration for this study came from purely selfish motives. From my earliest acquaintances with this monumental poet, the overall feeling I derived from reading his works was a distinctly negative one. However, admiring Ovid as a poet and storyteller, and particularly the Metamorphoses, I was never able to pinpoint the cause of such a negative impression. An observation of negativity itself within the poem is far from unique, and it has often been noted that the majority of the Metamorphoses’ stories end in misery, and that the stories as a whole give off a tragic feeling. Glenn (1986) repeatedly observes that through this consistent presentation of tragedy, Ovid is showing that “There is no perfect joy” (p.100), i.e. no joy unmarred. This sentiment is confirmed explicitly in a number of Ovid’s stories, such as that of Minos & Aeacus, in which we are told by the narrator that “truly never is there pure pleasure, and always some trouble comes upon happiness”6 “usque adeo nulla est sincera voluptas,/ sollicitumque aliquid laetis intervenit” (7.453-4). 7 However, explaining my negative impression through factors so superficial as tragedy and imperfection within the poem never seemed enough. I was looking for a deeper source for my seemingly blind and unspecific reactions, and wanted to understand the reason for my response, and to determine whether it was something implicit – rather than explicit – in the author’s works with which I fundamentally disagreed. Having been unable to find a satisfactory explanation that, even among the already formidable and ever increasing range of secondary literature on Ovid, 6 All translations in this thesis are my own unless otherwise specified. The text I use is that of Tarrant (O.C.T. 2004) unless otherwise specified, although I have occasionally taken the liberty of adding “!” and “?” marks to make sense of excerpts quoted. 7 Similarly, in that of Actaeon (3.131-252), we are told at one point that Cadmus, although seeming happy (“felix,” 3.132) in exile – with Venus and Mars for parents in law “but of course the final days of a man should be looked for, and no one ought to be called happy before dead and the final funeral rites” “sed scilicet ultima semper/ exspectanda dies homini, dicique beatus/ ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet,” (3.135-7), a sentiment already common on account of its use in ancient tragedy: e.g. Aes. Ag. 928-9; Soph. Oed. 1528-30; Eurip. Troiad. 510; but perhaps most famous from Herodotus, who attributes the sentiment to Solon, in dialogue with Croesus (1.32.25-8). Again this is a sentiment that seems to be true almost universally for Ovid’s stories. Indeed, the world Ovid portrays is a brutal one, and contains much tragedy and suffering. See also Fränkel (1956), who makes the rather pessimistic comment that “With a