Ovid: Metamorphoses Book XIV

Description

In Book XIV of the Metamorphoses Ovid takes his epic for the first time into Italy and continues from book XIII his close intertextual engagement with Virgil's Aeneid. His tendentious treatment of his model subordinates Virgil's epic plot to fantastic tales of metamorphosis, including the erotic Italian tales of Circe Glaucus, and Scylla, and Picus, and Canens. Other Roman myths include Pomona and Vertumnus, as well as events from Romulus' reign. The deifications of Aeneas and Romulus anticipate the poem's closing episodes of imperial apotheosis. This commentary provides guidance to advanced undergraduate and graduate students for understanding Ovid's language, style, artistry, and allusive techniques. The introduction discusses the major structures, themes, and stylistic features of book XIV, its place within the poem as a whole, and Ovid's interpretive imitation of Virgil's Aeneid.

K. Sara Myers is Associate Professor of Classics, University of Virginia. Her previous books are Ovid's Causes: Cosmogony and Aetiology in the Metamorphoses (1994) and Vertis in usum: Studies in honor of E. Courtney (co-edited with J. Miller and C. Damon, 2002).

'The necessarily limited scope of Cambridge's green and yellow' commentary series means that information is throughout concisely conveyed, yet rarely at the expense of full argumentation or at the risk of confusing the reader. Indeed, Myers' commentary keeps its readers' interests in mind to an admirable degree.' Journal of Classical Philology