The Orlando Furioso and Ovid's Revision of the Aeneid
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10613224 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Daniel Javitch |
| Year | 1984 |
| Volume | 99 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 1023 |
| Publication date | 1984-12-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Modern Language Notes (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0149-6611 • E-ISSN: 2326-1978 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2905398 |
| OpenAlex | W2326884207 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
Readers of the Orlando Furioso have recognized Ariosto's debt to Ovid ever since the first version of the poem was published in 1516. By the middle of the sixteenth century, editions of the Orlando Furioso already pointed out that such notable episodes in the poem as Bireno's abandonment of Olimpia and her ensuing lament, Ruggiero's rescue of Angelica from the monster Orca, Orlando's similar rescue of Olimpia, Fiordispina's lament upon discovering Bradamante's female identity, and other such pathetic monologues, were all imitations of Ovid. It would be redundant, then, to show that the Metamorphoses is a major subtext of the Orlando Furioso. Moreover, to point out that Ariosto imitated episodes from Ovid's major poem does not serve to distinguish him from a number of previous post-classical poets similarly indebted to Ovid. What does require emphasis and further comment is the fact that Ariosto's use of the Metamorphoses reflects a new understanding of Ovid's sensibility and intention. By its imitations of the Metamorphoses and by its formal and stylistic affinities with the Latin poem, the Furioso betokens a critical appreciation of Ovid that is unprecedented in the post-classical fortune of the Metamorphoses. Ariosto rediscovered features of Ovid's narrative technique and style which, though recognized in our time as distinctive aspects of Ovid's poetry, had gone largely ignored until Ariosto reclaimed them. In an earlier article, entitled Rescuing Ovid from the Allegorizers, I began to illustrate how Ariosto's imitation of the Meta
Art · Humanities · Byzantine Studies and History · Early Modern Spanish Literature · Renaissance and Early Modern Studies
| Citations per year | 0.12 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1985 - 2020 (36) |
| Highly cited | No |