Blood beneath the Laurels: Pyrrhus, Apollo, and the Ethics of Augustan Victory

Acrostics and Telestichs in Augustan Poetry: Ovid's Edgy and Subversive Sideswipes

“…Furthermore, the love theme may seem less important here if the laurel episode at which Ovid introduces his correct signature acrostic is seen as critical of Augustus. Pandey (2018) well argues that Apollo's rape of Daphne is a particularly brutal allegory of Augustan victory, deliberately echoing Pyrrhus’ murder of Priam in Aen. 2.533–58 not only in Daphne's lack of consent but in the tendency of the gods (and of Augustus) to portray their acts of violence and ambition as consensual, as shown by the laurel tree only seeming to nod ( adnuit utque caput uisa est agitasse cacumen , Met.…”