Ovid and Mythography

Bibliographic Data

ID23407992
AuthorsJ Farrell (0000-0002-7721-9428, University of Pennsylvania, corresponding author)
Year2022
Pages261-273
Publication date2022-10-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueThe Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Mythography (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190648312.013.20
OpenAlexW4307715104
ISBN9780190648312
LanguageEN
References cited17

Few, if any, Greek or Latin authors have had greater influence on the reception of classical mythology than Ovid. The Metamorphoses is paramount in this regard, but Ovid’s entire oeuvre engages with mythology and mythography both by anticipating aspects of his magnum opus or by taking a pointedly different approach from it. Two aspects of Ovid’s work are mutually informing but readily distinguishable from each other. First, like other poets, Ovid reacts in sophisticated ways to earlier poetic treatments of specific myths. This aspect has to do with establishing his place in the canon of ancient Greek and Roman writers who were essential reading for any educated, cultivated person. Second, Ovid also appropriates the forms and procedures of mythographic scholarship in prose. The structure of the Metamorphoses, for instance, resembles that of a mythological handbook or encyclopedia, e.g., the one ascribed to Apollodorus, or of a universal history, such as that of Diodorus Siculus. It seems likely that Ovid meant his debt to both traditions, the literary and the scholarly, to be apparent, and that the energy generated through hybridization—by crossing “elevated” poetic genres with more “utilitarian” prose ones—is what makes Ovid so valuable to the artistic and scholarly reception of ancient mythography.

Ancient Greek · Art · Encyclopedia · Latin literature · Linguistics · Literature · Magnum opus · Mythology · Poetry · Reading (process) · Scholarship · Classical Antiquity Studies · Historical and Literary Studies · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · Philosophy

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