Ovid's Metamorphoses: Erring by Design
Jay Dickson, Reed College
2/16/04
OUTLINE OF LECTURE:
I. Introduction: The mystery of Ovid's exile
II. Metamorphoses: error or order?
A. Narrative as endless metamorphosis
B. Narrative as establishing order
III. Willed transformations in poetry and politics
A. Apollo and Daphne
B. The Apotheoses of the Caesars
C. Phaethon
D. The Apotheosis of Ovid
TIMELINE:
44 BCE Julius Caesar murdered
43 Ovid born in Sulmo; triumvirate of Octavian, Lepidus, and Mark Antony formed
42 Deification of Julius Caesar
31 Battle of Actium: Octavian defeats Antony and Cleopatra
20 Ovid composes Amores [Little Loves]
child, Julia the Elder, for her adulteries
c. 1-c. 8 CE Ovid composes Metamorphoses
8 Augustus banishes Ovid to Tomis on the Black Sea; Julia the Younger (Julilla) also banished in same year
14 Death and deification of Augustus; Tiberius becomes emperor
17 Ovid dies at Tomis
TERMS:
relegatio : a special (and relatively mild) form of Roman exile where the exiled person and his or her family may keep property despite his or her banishment
carmen : a poem
error : a blunder or an indiscretion; literally, "losing one's way"
scelus : an evil deed or serious crime
aition : a story explaining the cause or reason for something
Apocolocyntosis : literally, "the transformation into a pumpkin"; the title of a satire by Seneca about the death of Emperor Claudius
QUOTATIONS:
A. Today is truly the Golden
Age: gold buys honours, gold
Procures love.
-- Ars Amatoria II. 277-9
B. Although two crimes [duo crimina], a poem and a blunder [carmen et error],
Destroyed me, one unmentioned must remain.
For who am I to renew your wounds, great Caesar?
It's overmuch that I once caused you pain.
The other's left, that a foul poem proves me
A teacher of obscene adultery.
--Tristia II. 207-12
C. Of bodies changed to other forms I tell:
You Gods, who have yourselves wrought every change,
Inspire my enterprise and lead my lay
In one continuous song [carmen perpetuum] from nature's first
Remote beginnings to our modern times.
--Metamorphoses I. 1-5
The fault was fortune’s and no guilt that day,
For what guilt can it be to lose one’s way?
--Meta. III. 144-6
E. As the tale spread views varied; some believed
Diana’s violence unjust; some praised it,
As proper to her chaste virginity.
Both sides found reason for their view.
--Meta. III. 257-60
F. He sees the loose disorder of her hair
And thinks what if it were neat and elegant!
He sees her eyes shining like stars, her lips--
But looking's not enough!--her fingers, hands,
Her wrists, her half-bare arms--how exquisite!
And sure her hidden charms are best!
--Meta. I. 498-503
G. 'My bride', said he, 'since you can never be,
At least, sweet laurel, you shall be my tree.
My lyre, my locks, my quiver you shall wreathe;
You shall attend the conquering lords of Rome
When joy shouts triumph and the Capitol
Welcomes the long procession; you shall stand
Beside Augustus' gates, sure sentinel
On either side, guarding the oak between.
My brow is ever young, my locks unshorn;
So keep your leaves' proud glory ever green.'
--Meta. I. 556-65
H. The flattery here seems crude and excessive... The apotheosis motif has little or no organic connection with metamorphosis as otherwise conceived; the history is not really assimilated to the myth. Augustus is no logical conclusion to either the mythology or the philosophy of the carmen perpetuum. And no one, surely, can miss the conventionality of the panegyric at the end.
--Otis, p. 304.
I. Fine feats indeed, but how can they compare
With being father of so fine an heir,
Under whose sovereignty mankind is given
Such plenteous blessings by the Powers of heaven?
Lest therefore he be born of mortal seed,
His father must be made divine.
--Meta. XV. 759-64
J. Grant the day dawn far off, a time beyond
Our generation, when Augustus’s soul,
Leaving the world he rules, to heaven repairs
And there, though taken from us, hears our prayers!
--Meta. XV. 867-70.
K. Had Phaethon lived, he'd shun the sky; the horses
His folly longed for he'd refuse to hold.
I too confess I fear--I've felt--Jove's weapon;
When thunder rolls, I think it's meant for me.
--Tristia I. i. 79-82
L. There are fifteen books of transformations,
The poem rescued from my funeral urn;
Among those figures changed I bid you tell them
They now can reckon my own fortune's turn,
That change, so sudden, from its former aspect,
So lamentable now, though once so gay.
--Tristia I. i. 117-22
M. Now stands my task accomplished, such a work
As not the wrath of Jove, nor fire nor sword
Nor the devouring ages can destroy.
Let, when it will, that day, that has no claim
But to my mortal body, end the span
Of my uncertain years. Yet I’ll be borne,
The finer part of me, above the stars,
Immortal, and my name shall never die.
Wherever through the lands beneath her sway
The might of Rome extends, my words shall be
Upon the lips of men. If truth at all
Is established by poetic prophecy,
My fame shall live through all eternity.
--Meta. XV. 871-9
WORKS CITED:
*Galinsky, G. Karl. Ovid's Metamorphoses. Berkeley: U of California P, 1975.
*Mack, Sara. Ovid. New Haven: Yale UP, 1988.
*Otis, Brooks. Ovid as Epic Poet. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1966.
*Ovid. The Erotic Poems. Trans. Peter Green. New York: Penguin, 1982.
*-----. Sorrows of an Exile: Tristia. Trans. A. D. Melville. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1995.
*Price, S. R. F. Rituals and Power: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1984.
*Thibault, J. C. The Mystery of Ovid's Exile. Berkeley: U. of California P, 1964.
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