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Techniques of Rape: Variety of Wit in Ovid's Metamorphoses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Barbara E. Stirrup
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Extract

Variety is a keynote of Ovid's Metamorphoses: variety of myth is complemented by variety of structure and style to create a symphony of sophisticated versatility. From this arise complex techniques of wit and it is the purpose of this paper to investigate these within myths which are basically similar. It is our purpose to examine comparatively three myths in order to elucidate the particular form of wit which predominates in each.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 24 , Issue 2 , October 1977 , pp. 170 - 184
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1977

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References

NOTES

1. Mille modis may facetiously recall the implications of Lysiteles' advice not to fall in love: mille modis, Amor, ignorandust. Plautus, , Trin. 2.1.37.Google Scholar

2. Frécaut, G. M., L'Esprit et l'humour chez Ovide (Grenoble, 1972), p. 252Google Scholar, suggests that Alpheus takes Arethusa's innocent antics in the water as an invitation; but surely Alpheus' response is more immediate, a sexual reaction.

3. This wittily recalls the epic motif, cf. Virgil, , Aen. 1.411–14.Google Scholar

4. Frigidus, used of the cold sweat of fear, anticipates the cold water of the spring; caeruleus, used once only in Ovid of sudor (Met. 9.173)Google Scholar, often applies to water (e.g. Met. 4.578, 8.229, 13.838, 15.699).Google Scholar

5. For the sexual connotation of miscere cf. Met. 13.866Google Scholar, Cicero, , Div. 1.29.60.Google Scholar

6. Galinsky, G. K., Ovid's Metamorphoses (Oxford, 1975), p. 162Google Scholar, stresses the importance of the contrast between the subhuman bull and Jupiter, but the point surely lies in the double joke of making fun of the king of the gods and parodying the love convention.

7. Concutio is used of thunder in Lucretius 2.1101, 6.358, 5.551; Ovid, , Met. 15.811.Google Scholar

8. Formosus is a literary echo of formosa iuvenca (Virgil, , Geor. 3.219)Google Scholar, who stirs the passions of the bulls.

9. Cf. Am. 1.4.7Google Scholar, 1.5.10, 2.4.39 etc.

10. Frécaut, , op. cit., pp. 152–3Google Scholar, suggests that Europa half-consents to her lover. But has she any alternative? He goes out to sea only gradually and she has no reason to doubt his role as a bull.

11. Kenney, E. J., in Ovid, ed. Binns, J. W. (London, 1973), p. 141Google Scholar, points to the classic pose ‘often represented in ancient art and a favourite with poets’. The description closely corresponds to the metope relief of Europa and the Bull, mid-sixth cent. B.c., Museo Nazionale, Palermo. This adds a dimension to Ovid's wit.

12. Arethusa runs from Stymphalos south to Orchomenos, north-west to Psophis, east by north-east to Cyllene, south to Maenalos, north-west to Erymanthos, west to Elis. Atlas Antiquus, Reimer, Dietrich (Berlin, 1896), Tab. 6.Google Scholar

13. Multiple-correspondence similes are precisely analysed by West, David in JRS 59 (1969), 40–9Google Scholar, and in Phiiologus 114 (1970), 262–75.Google Scholar

14. For praeda in a sexual sense: Met. 2.873, 13.200Google Scholar; Am. 1.2.19, 1.7.44, etc.Google Scholar

15. For sterilis in a sexual sense cf. Virgil, , Aen. 6.251Google Scholar, Lucretius, 4.1252Google Scholar, Ovid, A.A. 1.450Google Scholar. This picks up the simile demptis … aristis (492).Google Scholar

16. Cf. Virgil, , Aen. 3.260–1, 2.405–6.Google Scholar

17. Before the emperor's palace stood two laurels as guardian, Pliny, , H.N. 15.30.39Google Scholar, cf. Virgil, , Aen. 7.59–63.Google Scholar

18. It is perhaps noteworthy that Bernini, in his Apollo–Daphne statue, Villa Borghese, Rome, preserves the hair motif by depicting Daphne with uplifted arms and hair in a state of metamorphosis, in part similar to the hair of Apollo, in part already changed into leaves.