The Simile of the Fractured Pipe in Ovid's Metamorphoses 4
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11737671 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Carole E Newlands (Cornell University, corresponding author), Carole Newlands |
| Year | 1986 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 143-153 |
| Publication date | 1986-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ramus (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0048-671X • E-ISSN: 2202-932X |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0048671x00003398 |
| OpenAlex | W2970672360 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 7 |
When Pyramus, the romantic hero of Ovid's tale of ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ ( Met. 4.55-166), mistakenly assumes his beloved Thisbe is dead and thus kills himself beneath a mulberry tree with a sword, Ovid punctures this moment of tragic pathos by a simile comparing the blood spurting from Pyramus' wound to water gushing from a broken pipe (4.119-24): demisit in ilia ferrum, nec mora, ferventi moriens e vulnere traxit et iacuit resupinus humo: cruor emicat alte, non aliter, quam cum vitiato fistula plumbo scinditur et tenui stridente foramine longas eiaculatur aquas atque ictibus aera rumpit. he plunged the sword into his groin, and straightaway, dying, he drew it from the seething wound and lay back on the ground: the blood spurts high exactly as when a pipe, split open from corrupted lead, ejaculates a long stream of water through the tiny hissing aperture and bursts upon the air with its blows
Art · HERO · Literature · Simile · SWORD · Theology · Anatomy · Classical Antiquity Studies · Literature, Magical Realism, García Márquez · Medicine · Philosophy · Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism
| Highly cited | No |
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