Provided by the author(s) and NUI Galway in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite the published version when available. Title The poetics of science: intertextual and metatextual themes in Ovid's depiction of cosmic and human origins Author(s) Kelly, Peter Publication Date 2016-09-09 Item record http://hdl.handle.net/10379/6075 Downloaded 2021-09-28T20:42:11Z Some rights reserved. For more information, please see the item record link above. The Poetics of Science Intertextual and Metatextual Themes in Ovid’s Depiction of Cosmic and Human Origins By Peter M. J. Kelly A Thesis Submitted to the National University of Ireland, Galway in the College of Arts, Social Sciences and Celtic Studies for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Classics September 2016 Supervisor: Prof. Michael Clarke ii Preface This work explores ancient views of cosmogony and the material structure of the universe in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In particular it focuses on the way in which Ovid problematizes how we define myth and poetry versus science and philosophy. It examines how Ovid generates a parallel between the form and content of the text in order to depict a world where abstract scientific principles can become personified deities. This work will seek to reevaluate the impact of Greek Philosophy on Roman poetry through extending the series of intertexts which we may observe Ovid alluding to. Through following and analysing these sets of allusions this work will seek to gain an insight into Ovid’s depiction of the metatextual universe. iii iv For my Parents The scientist’s demand that nature shall be lawful is a demand for unity. When he frames a new law, he links and organizes phenomena which were thought different in kind; for example, general relativity links light with gravitation. In such a law we feel that the disorder of nature has been made to reveal a pattern, and that under the colored chaos there rules a more profound unity (Jacob Bronowski ‘On the Creative Process’, in: A Sense of the Future). v vi Contents Illustrations .................................................................................................. xiii Acknowledgements ..................................................................................... xiv Abbreviations ............................................................................................... xv Introduction: Intertextual Framework ............................................................ 1 1. Introduction ............................................................................................ 1 2. An Intertextual Framework .................................................................... 3 2.1 Intertextuality and Contemporary Critical Theory ........................... 4 2.2 Intertextuality in Latin Literature ..................................................... 5 3. A Taxonomy of Intertextual Categories ................................................. 8 4. Sequence of Chapters ........................................................................... 11 5. The Philosophical Backdrop ................................................................ 15 6. Before the Beginning and After the End: The Revised Preface to the Metamorphoses ........................................................................................ 17 Chapter 1: Atoms and Language .................................................................. 22 1. Introduction .......................................................................................... 22 2. Rereading the Proem ............................................................................ 23 2.1 The Language of Flux .................................................................... 23 2.2 The Proem as Rhetorical Trope...................................................... 25 2.3 Metathesis in Philodemus and Dionysius of Halicarnassus ........... 27 2.4 The Primordial Proem .................................................................... 33 3. Language and Atomic Structure .......................................................... 34 3.1 Lucretius’ Alphabet Analogy ......................................................... 34 3.2 Wordplay and Wit in the Metamorphoses ..................................... 38 4. The Elements of Language in Plato ..................................................... 40 4.1 Stoicheia ......................................................................................... 40 vii 4.2 Socrates’ Polysemous use of Stoicheia in the Theaetetus .............. 43 4.3 Elements and Syllables in the Timaeus ......................................... 45 4.4 Elementa in the DRN ...................................................................... 46 4.5 Atomic Theory in Epicurus ............................................................ 47 4.6 The Alphabet Analogy in the Atomists .......................................... 48 4.7 The Stoic Counterargument ........................................................... 51 4.8 Physics and the Proem ................................................................... 53 4.9 Cratylus and Pythagoras: Lost for Words ...................................... 55 5. Conclusion: Transforming Bodies and Texts ....................................... 58 Excursus 1: Prudentius’ Psychomachia ................................................... 61 Chapter 2: Fabricating a Textual Universe .................................................. 64 1. Introduction .......................................................................................... 64 2. Spinning a Callimachean Tradition ...................................................... 65 3. Weaving Atomic Structure in De Rerum Natura ................................. 70 4. Weaving in Plato’s Statesman .............................................................. 76 5. Conclusion ........................................................................................... 80 Chapter 3: Chaos and the Primordial Universe ........................................... 82 1. Introduction .......................................................................................... 82 2. Chaos and the Primordial Universe ..................................................... 84 2.1 Ovidian Chaos ................................................................................ 84 2.2 The Song of Orpheus and Empedocles .......................................... 85 2.3 Alternative Universal formation in the Fasti and Ars Amatoria .... 93 2.4 The Return of Chaos in Lucan ....................................................... 96 3. Ovidian Chaos and Lucretian Physics ................................................. 98 3.1 Mythologizing the Universe ........................................................... 98 3.2 The Atomic Storm: Lucretius’ Primordial Universe and its Formation ........................................................................................... 103 viii 3.3 Separation and Distinction ........................................................... 106 4. Further Comparisons and Intertexts ................................................... 109 4.1 Comparison with the Formation of the World in the Speech of Pythagoras .......................................................................................... 109 4.2 The War of Opposites and the Storm of DRN 6........................... 112 4.3 The Storm in the Aeneid ............................................................... 115 4.4 The Song of Silenus ..................................................................... 116 5. Conclusion ......................................................................................... 119 Excursus 2: Manilius’ Cosmos .............................................................. 120 Chapter 4: Ovidian Chaos and the Timaeus ............................................... 124 1. Introduction ........................................................................................ 124 2. Detecting the Influence of the Timaeus ............................................. 125 2.1 The Critical Backdrop and Cicero’s Translation ......................... 125 2.2 The Commentary Tradition .......................................................... 127 2.3 Lucretius and Epicurus’ Argument against the Timaeus ............. 128 3. Textual Parallels ................................................................................. 129 3.1 Naming the Demiurge .................................................................. 129 3.2 Chaos and the Clash of Opposites in the Timaeus ....................... 130 3.3 The Clash of Opposites in the Laws ............................................. 132 3.4 Forming the Universe: Comparisons and Contrasts with the DRN135 3.5 The Elemental Cycle .................................................................... 136 3.6 Alternative Elemental Cycles ....................................................... 139 4. Phaethon and the Cyclical Destruction of the World ......................... 142 4.1 Phaethon and the εἰκὼς μῦθος ...................................................... 142 4.2 Phaethon in the Metamorphoses and the DRN ............................. 144 4.3 Cosmic Destruction in Lucretius and Theophrastus .................... 147 5. The Timaeus and Pythagoreanism ..................................................... 149 ix 5.1 The Case of Pseudo-Aristotle’s De Mundo .................................. 150 6.2 Pythagoreanism in Rome ............................................................. 156 6. Conclusion