The Power of Image-Makers: Representation and Revenge in OvidMetamorphoses6 andTristia4

Abstract

This essay focuses on the competing representational projects of poet and emperor as represented (or polemically misrepresented) in Ovid's poetry. I begin by developing two readings of the famous weaving contest of Metamorphoses 6, the first emphasizing Arachne's will to truth (her exposéé of Olympian injustice), the second her will to power (her appropriation of Olympian potency). With these models in mind, I explore the vicissitudes of Ovid's rivalrous identification with Augustus in the Tristia, ending with some unhappier implications of this identification, and with some reflections on the question of the reality of Ovid's exile.

A Brutal Hack: Tyranny, Rape, and the Barbarism of Bad Poetry in Ovid's Pyreneus Episode

“…The Minyeides combine theomachy (refusal to honour Dionysus) with art (weaving and narrative) but the relationship between the two elements is less direct. On divine contests in general and specific instances: Leach (1974), Lateiner (1984), Johnson and Malamud (1988), Clauss (1989), Harries (1990), Hardy (1995), Rosati (1999), Johnson (2008), Oliensis (2004), James (2004), Feldherr (2010) Polymestor, and above all Tereus. 8 The idea of the tyrant pervades much of Greek and Roman thought and literature, so that parallels abound for Pyreneus' political status and for the complex of ethical, psychological, and sexual characteristics associated with it.…”

“…The Minyeides combine theomachy (refusal to honour Dionysus) with art (weaving and narrative) but the relationship between the two elements is less direct. On divine contests in general and specific instances: Leach (1974), Lateiner (1984), Johnson and Malamud (1988), Clauss (1989), Harries (1990), Hardy (1995), Rosati (1999), Johnson (2008), Oliensis (2004), James (2004), Feldherr (2010) 60–122, Strohschneider (2011), O'Bryhim (2014), Beer (2018).…”

TIRESIAS, OVID, GENDER AND TROUBLE: GENERIC CONVERSIONS FROMARSINTOTRISTIA

“…61 For Ovid's use of Bacchus in the exile poetry as his patron deity in contrast to Augustan Apollo, see Tsaknaki (2014). 62 I follow Oliensis (2004) in reading Ovid's emulation of and rivalry with Augustus as not only a stock theme of the exile poetry, but a also pervading concern of the Metamorphoses. See Miller (2009), 332-73, on (Augustan) Apollo in the Metamorphoses and his interactions with Jupiter, not without an invitation to caution in applying too strict ideological readings to Ovid's pantheon.…”

“…68 Cf. Boyle's definition of the Fasti as 'an epic kind of elegy, and an elegiac kind of epic…', Boyle (1997), 20.69 FromKovacs (1987) onwards.70 FromHinds (1985) onwards; cf.Barchiesi (2001), 26-7.71 Johnson's approach(2008), 121-22, although she does not rule out the possibility of an actual revision of the episodes of artistic competition in the Metamorphoses Oliensis (2004). provides a useful blend of the two approaches.…”

“…71.Johnson's approach (2008), 121f., although she does not rule out the possibility of an actual revision of the episodes of artistic competition in the Metamorphoses . Oliensis (2004) provides a useful blend of the two approaches.…”