Ovid's Homer

Authority, Repetition, Reception

Barbara Boyd

First attempt to treat Ovid's Homeric intertextuality as a significant and systematic phenomenon
Considers pressing questions of repetition (When is it plagiarism? When is it creative exchange?)

Ovid's Homer

Authority, Repetition, Reception

Barbara Boyd

Description

Ovid's Homer examines the Latin poet's engagement with the Homeric poems throughout his career. Boyd offers detailed analysis of Ovid's reading and reinterpretation of a range of Homeric episodes and characters from both epics, and demonstrates the pervasive presence of Homer in Ovid's work. The resulting intertextuality, articulated as a poetics of paternity or a poetics of desire, is particularly marked in scenes that have a history of scholiastic interest or critical intervention; Ovid repeatedly asserts his mastery as Homeric reader and critic through his creative response to alternative readings, and in the process renews Homeric narrative for a sophisticated Roman readership. Boyd offers new insight into the dynamics of a literary tradition, illuminating a previously underappreciated aspect of Ovidian intertextuality.

Ovid's Homer

Authority, Repetition, Reception

Barbara Boyd

Ovid's Homer: Authority, Repetition, and Reception
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE x
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS x
TEXTS AND ABBREVIATIONS x
INTRODUCTION 1
Chapter 1 - Starting From Homer 15
Chapter 2 - Seeing Double: Ovid's Diomedes 58
Chapter 3 - Fathers And Sons, Part One: A Success(ion) Story 104
Chapter 4 - Fathers And Sons, Part Two: Paternity As Paradigm 150
Chapter 5 - Paternity Tests 207
Chapter 6 - Poetic Daughters 234
Chapter 7 - Homer In Love 254
Chapter 8 - Homeric Desires 300
CHAPTER 9 - Homer's Gods in Rome 334
bibliography 368
INDEX LOCORUM x
GENERAL INDEX x

Ovid's Homer

Authority, Repetition, Reception

Barbara Boyd

Author Information

Barbara Boyd, Henry Winkley Professor of Latin and Greek, Bowdoin College

Barbara Weiden Boyd is Henry Winkley Professor of Latin and Greek at Bowdoin College. She has authored and edited several books, including Brill's Companion to Ovid (2002).

Ovid's Homer

Authority, Repetition, Reception

Barbara Boyd

Reviews and Awards

"This valuable new book explores Ovid's career-long engagement with Homer's poetry in a series of learned and sensitive close readings from the whole range of Ovid's poetic output ... This review cannot do justice to the many insightful interpretive readings of the individual passages which form the chapters of this book ... The accessibility of the book is greatly assisted by translations of all Latin and Greek passages and summaries of the relevant Homeric episodes." - Sara Myers, Latomus

"[The book] is a pleasure to read, written in a clear, well-chosen and unpretentious language. It displays Boyd's secure command of Greek and Latin literature and of a vast amount of scholarship. It is a volume of impressive depth, stimulating insight, fine interpretive skills and persuasive argument, presented in an admirably lucid manner. Boyd is to be warmly congratulated for this solid contribution to the study of Ovid (and Homer). All serious students of Ovid's poetry are strongly encouraged to read and engage with this book." - Andreas N. Michalopoulos, Exemplaria classica

"Advanced undergraduates in Classics as well as professional scholars without Greek or Latin will be able to read this book with profit. Without question, however, scholars of Latin poetry are the primary audience, and those interested in the reception of Homer will find much of interest." - Samuel J. Huskey, Classical World

"This is an absorbing and a testing read, but often exhilarating ... For those who love Ovid (or indeed Homer) this is definitely recommended." - Colin McDonald, Classics for All

"The subtlety and complexity of Boyd's arguments must be read in their entirety for complete appreciation of this important work. The monograph is erudite, yet eminently readable." - Classical Journal-Online