Tragedy in Ovid Book Excerpts PDF

T R A G E D Y I N OV I D
Ovid is today best known for his grand epic, Metamorphoses, and
elegiac works like the Ars amatoria and Heroides. Yet he also wrote a
Medea, now unfortunately lost. This play kindled in him a lifelong
interest in the genre of tragedy, which informed his later poetry and
enabled him to continue his career as a tragedian – if only on the
page instead of the stage. This book surveys tragic characters, motifs,
and modalities in the Heroides and the Metamorphoses. In writing
love letters, Ovid’s heroines and heroes display their suffering in
an epistolary theater. In telling transformation stories, Ovid offers
an exploded view of the traditional theater, although his characters
never stray too far from their dramatic origins. Both works consti-
tute an intratextual network of tragic stories that anticipate the the-
atrical excesses of Seneca and reflect the all-encompassing spirit of
Roman imperium.
DAN CURLEY is Associate Professor of Classics at Skidmore College.

T R A G E D Y I N OV I D
Theater, Metatheater, and the
Transformation of a Genre
DAN CURLEY
Skidmore College
University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom
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Curley, Dan, 1966–
Tragedy in Ovid : theater, metatheater, and the transformation of a genre /
Dan Curley, Skidmore College.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-107-00953-0 (hardback)
1. Ovid, 43 B.C.–17 A.D. or 18 A.D. – Criticism and interpretation.
2. Tragedy – History and criticism. I. Title.
PA6537.C87 2013
871′.01–dc23 2013009509
ISBN 978-1-107-00953-0 Hardback

Additional resources for this publication at www.cambridge.org/curley
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or
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Contents
Preface page vii

List of abbreviations xi
1 Mutatas dicere formas. The transformation

of tragedy 1
1 Theater and metatheater 2
2 Sources and genres 7
3 Tension and synergy 11
4 Decoding tragedy 14
2 Nunc habeam per te Romana Tragoedia nomen.

Ovid’s Medea and Roman tragedy 19
1 Repetition and innovation 21
2 Careerism and gentrification 30
3 The Medea of Ovid 37
4 Textualization and transformation 49
3 Lacrimas finge videre meas. Epistolary theater 59

1 Writing within margins 62
2 The pathos of love 68
3 Myth 75
4 Irony 79
5 Heroides “22” and the theater of epic 84
4 Locus exstat et ex re nomen habet. Space, time,

and spectacle 95
1 Places in view 96
2 Hecabe: off-center stage 101
3 Hercules: tragedy displaced 115
4 Medea: the limits of tragedy 121
5 Tollens ad sidera palmas exclamat. Staging rhetoric 134

1 Talking to oneself 136
2 Medea: a heroine’s debut 141
v
vi Contents
3 Hecabe: a mother’s lament 153
4 Hercules: a heroic body of work 161
6 Medeae Medea forem. Tragic intratextuality 177

1 Intratextual footnotes 179
2 Iphigenia and Polyxena: (re)playing the victim 185
3 Medea and Deianira: pernicious text(ile)s 200
4 Deianira(s) and Hercules: expanding the intratext 206
7 Carmen et error. Tragedy’s end 217

1 Ovid as a tragic poet 218
2 Staging imperium: Vergil, Ovid, and Seneca 221
3 Exodos 233
Bibliography 236
Index of passages discussed 251
General index 263
Preface
This book, a study of tragic theatricality in Ovid’s Heroides and

Metamorphoses, has its origins in my doctoral dissertation (University of
Washington, 1999). Although the intervening period of rereading, rethink-
ing, and revising has been long, the result is the book I wanted to write.
Whether the end is justified is naturally for the reader to decide.
Ovidian studies have changed during this time, and for the better.
When I began work on this topic in the mid-1990s, the reclamation of
Ovid as a major Augustan poet was already well under way. This effort
continued into the new millennium with major companion volumes
from Cambridge, Brill, and Blackwell, the long-awaited Oxford Classical
Texts edition of the Metamorphoses (Tarrant 2004), and that poem’s new,
six-volume commentary overseen by Alessandro Barchiesi (2005–). Yet for
all the shoring up of Ovid’s reputation, there remains room for a compre-
hensive treatment of his engagement with the genre of tragedy. The same
scholarly industry that heralds or affirms an author as a classic also signals
that it is time to move on. In the case of Ovid, it would be a shame to
heed that call without a fuller appreciation of his aspirations to be a tragic
poet, in addition to being a consummate poet of elegy and epic.
The seven chapters of Tragedy in Ovid cover different aspects of the
genre, whether actual plays or poetry indebted to tragedy. Chapter 1 estab-
lishes the critical bearings for reading “the tragic.” Chapter 2 focuses on
the lost Medea, Ovid’s first attempt to be a tragedian, in light of Roman
dramaturgical tradition and practice. Chapter 3 posits the Heroides as the
poet’s next best alternative to writing tragedy and identifies key aspects of
the genre on display both there and in the Metamorphoses, the main sub-
ject of the next three chapters. Chapter 4 discusses manipulation of space
and time in the epic with an eye toward the tragic stage; Chapter 5, the
epic’s tragic monologues; Chapter 6, its comprehensive network of tragic
heroes and heroines, which also incorporates the Heroides. Chapter 7 offers
some conclusions on Ovid as a tragic poet of the imperial age, particularly
vii
viii Preface
his intermediary stance between Vergil and Seneca. Each chapter may be
read on its own, but the book overall is cumulative, much like the poet’s
approach to tragedy over the course of his career.
A few words on references, editions, quotations, and translations. All
references to commentaries, unless otherwise noted, are ad locum (or
loca). That is, they cite an editor’s comments on the passage or passages
in question without numerical indicators. If, however, the comments
appear elsewhere – e.g., in notes on a different passage or prefacing a
new section of the text – their location is usually given in parentheses:
thus “Anderson 1972 (after Met. 7.349)” references remarks found after
his note on line 349 of Met. 7. The only instances in which I cite a com-
mentary by page number are when referring to the editor’s introduction
or to an appendix.
In this study I regularly cite the following editions. Ovid: Metamorphoses,
Tarrant 2004; Heroides, Showerman and Goold 1977; Amores, McKeown
1987; Tristia, Luck 1967. Greek tragedies: Agamemnon, Denniston–Page
1957; Hecabe, Collard 1991; Hippolytus, W. S. Barrett 1964; Iphigenia at
Aulis, Murray 1913; Medea, Page 1938; Trachiniae, Davies 1991. Roman tra-
gedies: Sen. Medea, Costa 1973; Thyestes, Tarrant 1985; fragments of the
Roman tragedians, including Ovid, Klotz 1953 (SRF, vol. I). Quotations
from the text of these editions are so ubiquitous that I do not mention the
editors by name, as I do when quoting other texts and authors. Naturally,
I have made use of other editions, and textual departures from those listed
above are noted as necessary.
In quotations I employ a system of underlining, developed by Clauss
1993, which facilitates the comparison of two or more allusive passages.
Single underlining in one passage denotes a word or words that appear
verbatim in a second passage, the citation of which follows. Double
underlining denotes a word or words appearing verbatim in a third pas-
sage, which is cited after the second passage. Dashed underlining denotes
a word or words that differ, however significantly or slightly, from passage
to passage.
All Greek and Latin is translated or closely paraphrased; the renderings,
which strive to balance the literal and the figurative, are usually mine.
Subsequent quotations of a previously quoted Greek or Latin passage are
typically given without translation. In such cases I direct the reader to the
first, translated quotation.
I have many debts of gratitude to acknowledge. I begin by thanking
above all Stephen Hinds, the director of the original dissertation and
astute reader of subsequent revisions, whose support and mentoring over
Preface ix
the years have been indispensable and unwavering. I also thank Catherine
Connors and Michael Halleran, whose comments on the original disser-
tation guided its revision, and Alison Keith and Denis Feeney for their
insights as the book developed.
Thanks to Michael Sharp, Senior Editor at Cambridge University
Press, and to Gillian Dadd, Assistant Editor. Thanks also to my anonym-
ous readers, particularly “A,” whose criticism was both constructive and
useful at every juncture. I am grateful to Rob Wilkinson and Annie
Jackson at Out of House Publishing Solutions (on behalf of Cambridge
University Press) for editorial guidance and assistance during the pro-
duction phase. To say that any errors or omissions are ultimately my
own responsibility is a timeless topos, but no less true or necessary.
I want to thank my partners in Classics at Skidmore College – Michael
Arnush, Ruby Grande, Leslie Mechem, Jackie Murray, David Porter, and
Jessica Westerhold – for their advice, assistance, and encouragement. I am
also grateful to the Office of the Dean of the Faculty for awarding two
sabbatical leaves (2004–2005, fall 2012) to work on the book and for sup-
porting travel to conferences and ancient theatrical sites. Profuse thanks
to the Interlibrary Loan Department at Lucy Scribner Library for meet-
ing my requests time and again; teacher-scholars at small colleges know
that my gratitude here is fully warranted. Thank you to Amari Boyd, my
research assistant, for help in organizing secondary sources and proofing
the final typescript.
It is a pleasure to thank the Loeb Classical Library Foundation for its
generous financial support, which allowed me to devote a full year of leave
to this project. Thank you to Special Collections, University of Vermont,
especially Jeffrey Marshall, Director of Research Collections, and Sharon
Thayer, Collections Specialist, for supplying the cover image of Medea
(by Abraham Aubry, after Johann Wilhelm Baur). In addition, Mr.
Marshall hospitably granted me access to several illustrated volumes of the
Metamorphoses, which helped to drive home for me the visuality of Ovid’s
poetry. I am very grateful to Giulia Bartrum, Curator of German Prints
and Drawings at the British Museum, for assistance in confirming the
dates of two different Baur–Aubry editions.
I have had opportunities to present on Ovid and tragedy in professional
venues since completing the dissertation. I learned much from audiences
and co-presenters at the University of Nottingham (2000), Skidmore
(2000), the Langford Latin Seminar (2001), the American Philological
Association (2001), the Classical Association of the Atlantic States (spring
2001), the Pacific Rim Roman Literature Seminar (2001 and 2004), the
x Preface
Classical Association of the Empire State (2009), and the University of
Vermont (2010).
It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge my Skidmore seminars
on the Metamorphoses, in which I shared some of my ideas with groups
of interested and talented undergraduates. Let me single out two students
by name, Andy Cabell (fall 2005) and Claire Saxe (fall 2010), whose own
projects on Ovid buoyed my faith in this project.
Over the years friends and acquaintances have shaped my perspec-
tives in ways great and small, although hopefully not too small for them
to remember: Antonios Augoustakis, Michael Clapper, Anne Duncan,
Kendra Eshleman, David Fitzpatrick, John Franklin, Laurel Fulkerson,
Jenny March, Lily Panoussi, Alan Sommerstein, and Andrew Zissos.
Thank you one and all.
Finally, although the book has been transformed many times over, one
thing remains constant and true: my devotion to my wife, Krista Anders,
and to our daughter, Kaitlin, who has grown up alongside the project.
Without their love, patience, and support it would never have been com-
pleted. It is to them I dedicate the book now, pignus amoris non mutandi.
Abbreviations
CAF Kock, T. (ed.) (1880–8) Comicorum Atticorum Fragmenta,

3 vols. Leipzig.
EGF Davies, M. (ed.) (1988) Epicorum Graecorum Fragmenta.
Göttingen.
LIMC (1981–) Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae. Zurich.
LSJ Liddell, H. G., R. Scott, H. S. Jones, and R. McKenzie (eds.)
(1996) A Greek–English Lexicon. Oxford.
NTDAR Richardson, L. (1992) A New Topographical Dictionary of
Ancient Rome. Baltimore, Md.
OCD 2 Hammond, N. G. L. and H. H. Scullard (eds.) (1970) The
Oxford Classical Dictionary. 2nd edn. Oxford.
OED Simpson, J. A. and E. S. C. Weiner (eds.) (1989) The Oxford
English Dictionary. Oxford.
OLD Glare, P. G. W. (ed.) (1982) Oxford Latin Dictionary. Oxford.
SRF Klotz, A. (ed.) (1953) Scaenicorum Romanorum Fragmenta. 2
vols. Vol. I. Tragicorum Fragmenta. Munich.
TGF 2 Nauck, A. (ed.) (1964) Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta. 2nd
edn. Hildesheim.
TrGF Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta. Göttingen.
Snell, B. (ed.) (1971) Vol. I. Poetae Minores.
Kannicht, R. and B. Snell (eds.) (1981) Vol. II. Adespota.
Radt, S. (ed.) (1985) Vol. III. Aeschylus.
Radt, S. (ed.) (1999) Vol. IV. Sophocles. 2nd edn.
Kannicht, R. (ed.) (2004) Vols. V. and V.. Euripides.
xi
chapter one
Mutatas dicere formas

e transformation of tragedy
At the climax of Seneca’s Medea, the protagonist-heroine does something

surprising – not for a Medea, perhaps, but surprising in comparison with
her Euripidean counterpart, whom the Senecan audience would have
remembered. Euripides’ Medea appears atop the skēnē, her sons already
slain within, their corpses stowed aboard the chariot of Helios (1317–22).
Seneca’s Medea, however, kills one child in front of her house, bears the
corpse to the roof, kills the other child, and finally hurls the bodies to the
stage, from where Jason has been watching (967–1027).1
e actions of both Medeas, so starkly different in their presentation of
violence, illustrate how far the genre of tragedy had come over the course
of nearly 500 years. Nevertheless, the road from Euripides to Seneca is
an extremely lacunary one: from the death of the former to the floruit of
the latter, no Greek or Latin tragedies have survived intact (with the lone
and notable exception of the Rhesus e extant fragments and testimonia
are of course invaluable, but they cannot by themselves bridge the gap
between fifth-century BCE Athens and first-century CE Rome.
Enter Publius Ovidius Naso. An admirer and author of tragedy, Ovid
occupies a vital, if underappreciated, place in the history of the genre.
Tragedy in Ovid offers an assessment of the poet’s contributions to tragedy
in the context of prior dramaturgical tradition, his own times and career,
consider Ovid a specialist in elegy or epic might well ask why he should be
considered a tragedian, let alone an influential one, with only a single play
to his name. In a sense, this question is the inverse of one that critics have
asked about the career of Shakespeare, namely whether he should be con-
sidered a poet in addition to a dramatist. Nevertheless, the “Shakespearean
question” implies a dichotomy between the literary and the professional –
between the laureate and the “jobbing playwright” – that would have been
1
On the logistics of staging this scene see Hine 2000, 41–2.
1
2 The transformation of tragedy
rather alien to poets of Ovid’s era, who were accustomed to compose in
different genres.2 To call Ovid a tragedian is both to call him a poet and to
highlight an aspect of his poetic career often overlooked in the predomin-
ant elegist–epicist–elegist arc. In view of this, my first chapter introduces
strategies for reading Ovid as a tragic poet.3
1 Theater and metatheater

Ovid, elegist and epicist, is a relatively recent invention. Patrick Cheney
rightly notes that Renaissance scholars of the twentieth century have privi-
leged this invention over that of Ovid, tragedian.4 Yet Ovid the tragic poet
has fared only marginally better among nineteenth- and twentieth-century
classicists, primarily for lack of evidence. His tragedy, Medea (c. 13 BCE),
and its meager remains are standard features of the Ovidian biography,
and discussions of the lost play occupy a small but enduring niche in
classical scholarship. All the same, the bulk of attention has been paid,
understandably, to the poet’s surviving epic and elegies. Lack of evidence,
however, did not deter Renaissance-era scholars and authors from invent-
ing an Ovid fully invested in dramaturgy. The fact that the Medea had
once existed was enough to establish a stable elegist–tragedian–epicist arc
for Ovid’s career, which became a model for the careers of Shakespeare
and Marlowe.5 Furthermore, the reputation of the play, already favorable
in antiquity, garnered further acclaim and amplified its author’s own repu-
tation. Thomas Heywood’s Apology for Actors (1612) draws much more on
Ovid in explaining the ancient theater than on Horace or Seneca.6 That
Ovid should have greater authority as a dramatist than Seneca is especially
striking: not only was the former’s Medea considered (no doubt correctly)
a model for the latter’s, the Senecan tragedy was actually deemed by some
to be the Ovidian original.7
2
Jobbing playwright: the term of Cheney 2010, 160, describing the professional Shakespeare often
contrasted with the literary Shakespeare. Cheney 2004 is concerned to show the dichotomy as exag-
gerated, if not false. Farrell 2002 illustrates the diversity of genres in Roman poetic careers, which he
distinguishes from Roman political careers; see Chapter 2, pp. 30–1.
3
I would like to take this opportunity now, more than in any other chapter, to thank Reader “A” for
his or her comments. Particularly helpful were comments on Ovid’s approach to genre, which saved
me much prevarication and circumlocution.
4
Cheney 2004, 56. Cheney’s first two chapters have influenced both this paragraph and the preceding
one.
5
Ovid and Marlowe: Cheney 1997.
6
Cheney 2004, 29.
7
Cheney 2004, 56, citing the introductory “Life of Ovid” in George Sandys’ monumental translation
of the Metamorphoses (1626).
Theater and metatheater 3
Modern readers continue to mine Ovid’s poetry for insights into the
Medea, tragedy, and Augustan theatrical culture.8 Nevertheless, an impor-
tant development in the tragic reception of Ovid has been to appreciate
the theatrical qualities of the poems themselves. This development is as
much a dramatic enterprise as a scholarly one, originating with Seneca’s
reception of Ovid’s poetry and continuing on to Shakespeare and into
the present.9 In 1687 a viewbook of 150 scenes from the Metamorphoses,
illustrated by Johann Wilhelm Baur, was published in Nuremberg under
the title Bellissimum Ovidii Theatrum (Ovid’s Most Delightful Theater).10
Theatrum derives from the Greek theatron (viewing place), in which trag-
edies and other dramatic works were put on public display. Its usage in the
title of the Baur edition, although typical of illustrated books from this
period,11 speaks directly to the theatricality of the Metamorphoses – as if to
appreciate Ovid’s transformations is to view them as episodes on a stage.
Dramatists of the twentieth century have put this principle into action.
No one who has seen a production of Ted Hughes’s Tales from Ovid (1997)
or Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses (1996–8) can doubt the inherent
theatricality and performability of Ovid’s unorthodox epic.12
Recognizing the theatricality of the Metamorphoses (before 8 CE) involves
reading the poem as a series of spectacles, especially where supernatural
change and violence are concerned. The notion of the reader as spectator
is somewhat contradictory, since the Metamorphoses is technically a work
of words, intended for the page instead of the stage. Nevertheless, the nar-
ration entails an unmistakable visuality that verges on the theatrical, such
that actions become staged for the reader. Moreover, the poem appeals
8
E.g., Wiseman 2002; also Jouteur (ed.) 2009: “Mais qu’Ovide ait été spectateur de mimes, qu’il ait
assisté à des représentations des pièces du répertoire classique, et qu’il les connaisse parfaitement, le
présent volume en apporte la confirmation irréfutable” (16).
9
On Ovid and Seneca see Chapter 7, section 2. The topic of Ovid’s influence on Shakespeare’s dra-
matic and non-dramatic works is too large to address here. In addition to the studies already noted,
at minimum Bate 1993 and, more generally, Martindale and Taylor 2004 deserve mention.
10
The title page of the 1687 edition and the illustrations (the engravings of Abraham Aubry based
on Baur’s original etchings: Henkel 1929, 131) may be viewed online at www.uvm.edu/~hag/
ovid (accessed November 28, 2012). The cover illustration of this book is from Plate 65 (Special
Collections, University of Vermont).
11
E.g., Ortelius’ Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (1570); Besson’s Theatrum Instrumentorum et Machinarum
(1571–2); Valvasor’s Theatrum Mortis Humanae Tripartitum (1682).
12
Some noteworthy productions: The Royal Shakespeare Company staged a version of Hughes’s
Tales from Ovid in London during its summer 2000 season; Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses ran
off-Broadway from September to December 2001, and on Broadway from March 2002 to February
2003. Both Hughes’s and Zimmerman’s works continue in repertory. The performability of Ovid’s
epic is of scholarly interest, e.g., Cahoon 1998; S. A. Brown 1999, ch. 12; Gildenhard and Zissos
2007, 4–5.
to the auditory as well as the visual. Stephen Wheeler makes a compel-
ling case for the Metamorphoses as a continuous viva voce performance at
its outermost level.13 Within this overarching oral structure are numerous
dialogues and internal speeches, most notably the monologues of char-
acters in turmoil. The poem’s visual and aural tendencies trope the act of
reading as acts of seeing and hearing, the traditional sensory pathways for
experiencing drama.14
This book privileges the Metamorphoses not only as a theatrical work,
but also as a tragic one. “Tragic” does not merely invoke the modern ver-
nacular sense of sad, unfortunate, or pitiful15 – although some of Ovid’s
tales have these characteristics. Rather, the term refers first and foremost
to tragedy as a poetic genre, which is fundamental to the interpretation
and appreciation of the poem. Like epic, tragedy was a poetic enterprise
appropriate to the Augustan principate, whose empire prompted reflec-
tion in grand genres. Unlike epic, however, tragedy was in need of profes-
sional poets. Rome under Augustus had no Pacuvius or Accius producing
play after play. Apparently Ovid had intended to fill this void after writing
the Amores, but he returned to elegy after writing the Medea. The poet
nevertheless continued to harbor interest in tragedy, and when he finally
turned to epic and the Metamorphoses, he used many stories from Greek
and Roman tragedy and told them in ways that pay homage to the genre.
Vergil, whose own epic was deeply rooted in tragedy, was an important
antecedent for Ovid in this regard. But Ovid’s deployment of the genre
outstrips the Aeneid in both scale and scope, such that the Metamorphoses
at times reads like a single-handed revival of Greco-Roman tragedy.16
Beyond its inherent visual and verbal staginess, the Metamorphoses
deploys tragedy as an organizing principle. The genre itself, quite apart
from any one play or author, furnishes layers of meaning unavailable in
other generic perspectives. In particular, an awareness of how tragedies
function – how, for example, they demarcate offstage and onstage action or
foster comparison of character archetypes – creates new opportunities for
reading the Metamorphoses within and across narratives. Reading tragically
can even explain certain incongruities in the text, which now find reso-
lution without conjuring a careless or cavalier poet. The transformation of
13
Wheeler 1999.
14
That the poetry of Ovid’s era was dramatic by virtue of being read aloud for elite audiences is foun-
dational for Jouteur (ed.) 2009: see especially p. 5 of the volume’s preface.
15
On this usage see Most 2000, 20.
16
Compare Barchiesi 2005, cxlv: “Nel momento in cui il teatro romano affronta una complessa tran-
sizione, l’epos di Ovidio si offre come sbocco a tutta la tradizione della tragedia greca e latina.”
Theater and metatheater 5
tragedy into epic, therefore, involves a hierarchy of models, from individ-
ual plays to their unwritten rules, all of which we might collectively label
“the tragic.”
Tragedy also provides an organizing principle for Ovid’s career, since
his work in the genre was not limited to his play or to his epic. No study
of Ovid as a tragedian would be complete without due consideration of
the Heroides. Begun not long after the Medea, the “single” epistles (1–15, c.
10 BCE or later) pursued tragedy under the aegis of elegy and garnered a
sequel in the “double” epistles (16–21, c. 1 CE). This pursuit consisted not
only of borrowing characters from the tragic stage, but also of developing
the epistolary mode, which resembles tragedy in constructing a space for
heroines and heroes to display their suffering. The Heroides paved the way
for the Metamorphoses, initiating generic and intertextual negotiations to
be continued within the more expansive epic.
The transformation of tragedy into other genres is metatheatri-
cal as well as theatrical. The term metatheater refers to the effect created
when a drama calls attention to its own theatricality, whether through
a play-within-a-play, through characters who realize they are dramatic
characters, or through other related devices.17 I use the term in this sense
throughout the book, particularly when discussing Ovid’s theater of epic
or his theater of elegy.18 Yet metatheater is also meant as shorthand for the
poet’s overall approach to transforming tragedy: the prefix meta- is to be
construed both in its radical sense (“change”19) and as an allusion to the
Metamorphoses, where much of the transformation occurs. This shorthand
application of the term overlaps with its primary meaning in one respect.
The success of any metatheatrical gesture rests with the audience, without
whose participation the so-called “fourth wall” cannot be broken. Ovid’s
transformations require similar participation from the reader.
Even in the last decade of the twentieth century, it was still something
of an oxymoron to use the words “Ovid” and “tragedy” in the same sen-
tence, with three exceptions: his lost play; his relegation to the Black Sea in
8 CE; and his adaptations of Greek and Roman dramas – although studies
of these tended to pit their ostensibly un-tragic tenor against their tragic
models. The mid 1990s and beyond, however, saw increasing interest in
commingling “Ovid” and “tragedy” more productively, especially in stud-
ies of the Metamorphoses. Alison Keith, for example, focuses on how the
17
OED s.v. metatheater.
18
Theater of epic: not to be conflated with Brechtian “epic theater,” though Laird 2003 reads the
Aeneid as a precursor to this movement.
19
LSJ s.v. μετά G.VIII.
Pentheus narrative (book 3) engages with the Bacchae of Euripides and the
lost Pentheus of Pacuvius.20 Ovid, even as he derives his plot from these
Dionysiac plays, also borrows their attendant themes and motifs, which
he puts to work in the subsequent Pyramus and Thisbe episode (book 4), a
story never dramatized on any stage. Ingo Gildenhard and Andrew Zissos
likewise examine how tragic themes and motifs cohere in the disembod-
ied figure of Oedipus and are reincorporated throughout book 3, particu-
larly in the “narcissism” of Narcissus.21 In a separate study Gildenhard and
Zissos demonstrate that the dismemberment of tragic characters, espe-
cially ephebes such as Actaeon (Met. 3) and Hippolytus (15), is articulated
in self-consciously theatrical ways.22 Most expansively, Isabelle Jouteur has
edited a volume devoted to theatricality – tragic, comic, and otherwise –
across the Ovidian corpus.23
These works challenge Ovid’s readers to interrogate the idea of genre.
What does it mean for an epic poem to exhibit both tragic material and,
more important, tragic modalities? The same question applies to Ovid’s
elegiac letters, which also draw upon the material and modes of the stage.
The new formalist “movement” in Latin literary studies, current from
the 1980s and beyond, actively seeks answers to questions such as these.24
Sara H. Lindheim broadly defines new formalism as having “twin con-
cerns with questions of genre and intertextuality,” which are for Ovid “a
corrective and far more productive method of reading.”25 Gildenhard and
Zissos offer a more elaborate definition of new formalist concerns in rela-
tion to Ovid: “[T]he search for meaning in form, close attention to [his]
sophisticated handling of generic demarcations, and a heightened inter-
est in how he accessed, assimilated, and altered the poetic modalities and
semantic patterns of his literary sources.”26 Note the emphasis placed on
interpretation, which suggests that the “genre question” is less about arriv-
ing at an ultimate definition of a work’s kind, and more about engaging in
20
Keith 2002.
21
Gildenhard and Zissos 2000.
22
Gildenhard and Zissos 1999. See also Gildenhard and Zissos 2007, an analysis of the Tereus–
Procne–Philomela episode of Met. 6.
23
Jouteur (ed.) 2009.
24
For the Metamorphoses the foundational new formalist analysis is Hinds 1987b, which focuses on
negotiations of elegy. For the Heroides see Barchiesi 1993, although Kennedy 1984 is an early entry
in this putative movement.
25
Lindheim 2003.
26
Gildenhard and Zissos 1999, 163 n. 4, brackets mine. Further reflections on the new formalist
agenda in Gildenhard and Zissos 2007, 13: the “movement … revolutionized conceptions of Ovid’s
literary artistry by exploring his sophisticated handling of, above all, genre, allusion, and narrative
technique.”
Sources and genres 7
the process of defining. New formalism is demonstrably a reader-oriented
strategy. The author, or at least the concept of an “intention-bearing
authorial voice,”27 is not dead, nor are his (or her) intentions irrelevant.
But the search for meaning, though begun by the author, ends with the
reader.
By the standards of new formalism, career criticism, and even source
criticism, the study of Ovid and tragedy requires further attention. The
contributions of Gildenhard and Zissos, Keith, and others provide insight-
ful individual studies, but a full and systematic examination is in order.
Tragedy in Ovid attempts to address this need, and it borrows many tools
from the critical kits mentioned above. Nevertheless, as the Cambridge
Companion to Ovid has shown, interest in literary discourse – allusion,
genre-formation, and intertextuality – can and should take stock of cul-
tural discourse in its many forms: social, political, ideological, historical,
and material.28 Philip Hardie, the Companion’s editor, points in his intro-
duction to the erosion of the “sharp division between text and history” by
new historicist and cultural materialist criticism, and sets the tone both
for the volume and for future Ovidians by declaring that the poet “cannot
escape from the discursive universe out of which emerges the ‘reality’ of
the Augustan order.”29 I have tried to keep this reality in view, even during
the closest of tragic readings.
2 Sources and genres

To judge solely on the basis of both extant and well-known fragmen-
tary tragedies, Ovid’s poetry is indebted to the material of the genre.
The Heroides present the letters of women famous from the tragic stage:
Phaedra (Her. 4), Deianira (9), and Medea (12), to name only three. The
Metamorphoses, in turn, features a panoply of tragic heroes and hero-
ines, sometimes devoting almost entire books to their exploits: Phaëthon
27
Hinds 1998, 49.
28
Thus Lindheim 2003, 136, though the tentative list of cultural discourses is mine. In fairness to
Gildenhard and Zissos, their 1999 essay by no means attempts to read Ovid in a literary vacuum;
see, e.g., 181: “Ovid contrasts the cultural ideologies of Greece and Rome that traverse the tragic
body in pain.” Also Gildenhard and Zissos 2007, 14: “[A]n episode can be laced with program-
matic, intertextual, or generic gestures and still offer a meditation on human experience.” The work
of Keith is likewise broadly engaged: her book, Engendering Rome (2000), places the construction
of Roman epic in dialogue with (to borrow, for the purposes of making this point, the assessment
of Hinds 2000, 235) “the construction of elite male education and homosocial discourse.” Feldherr
2010 offers a most conscientious reading of the Metamorphoses in terms of literary and cultural dis-
cursiveness, with due emphasis on spectacle in its many forms – including, at times, the tragic.
29
Hardie (ed.) 2002, 9.
(book 2); the Theban History (3–4, including Actaeon and Pentheus);
Niobe and Tereus–Procne–Philomela (6); Medea (7); Meleager (8);
Deianira–Hercules (9); Iphigenia (12); the Contest of the Arms, Ajax, the
Trojan Women, Polyxena, Hecabe (13); Phaedra–Hippolytus (15). And this
is just scratching the surface.
Whoever would make a comprehensive study of Ovid and tragedy has two
choices: to address all texts with tragic subject matter, or to select from them
in a more illustrative manner. Faced with the daunting task of the former,
critics have opted for the latter. Strategies for selection vary, but a typical one
for the Metamorphoses is to choose thematic clusters – hence the ample cover-
age of the Theban narratives in the scholarship, for example.30 My strategy
is to focus on four characters and the texts in which they appear: Hecabe,
Medea, Deianira, and Hercules. Although others, such as Phaedra, Polyxena,
and Laodamia, will enter the picture, these four will generate most of my
case studies. The selection is narrow enough to foster cohesion, yet broad
enough to span the poet’s career: Hecabe appears in the Metamorphoses alone,
but both Deianira and Medea appear there as well as in the Heroides, and
Medea was also the subject of the lost tragedy;31 Hercules also appears in the
epic and, as Deianira’s husband, is the ideal reader of her epistle. Recurring
characters will demonstrate how Ovid continued to play the tragedian long
after the Medea, even within different works and genres.
Another criterion for selecting these characters is that all of them
appear in at least one surviving Greek tragedy: Medea in Euripides’
Medea; Hecabe, Euripides’ Hecabe; Deianira and Hercules (or Heracles),
Sophocles’ Women of Trachis. Whereas studies of Ovidian tragic characters
from fragmentary plays must necessarily be conditional and speculative,
my study (however speculative in other areas) at least has the luxury of
making comparisons with extant sources. Naturally, I do not imply that
the plays listed above are the only extant models, tragic or otherwise. Nor
do I mean to neglect lost plays, particularly on the Roman side, where
we would expect to find considerable influence on Ovid. I do, however,
assert the canonicity of the Medea, the Hecabe, and the Women of Trachis
in Ovid’s poems. The Athenian stage was an incubator for lasting trans-
formations of myth, and the tragedies under discussion are outstanding
examples of poetic innovation. The Women of Trachis is both the only
known play to treat Heracles’ death and, it seems, the earliest instance of
Deianira’s misguided desire.32 The Hecabe originally combined the deaths
30
Hardie 1990. Gildenhard and Zissos 2000. Keith 2002. Janan 2009.
31
Arcellaschi 1990, 231–47, discusses “le personnage gigantesque” of Medea in Ovid’s works and life.
32
March 1987, 48–77; see Chapter 6, pp. 203–6.
Sources and genres 9
of Polydorus and Polyxena,33 while the Medea, if not the first tragedy to
cast the heroine as the murderer of her children, was doubtless the best
known.34 Though Ovid invokes other texts in adapting these plays, the
prospect of his transforming the transformers is intuitively right.
The most self-conscious poet of his generation, Ovid constantly encour-
ages his readers to weigh his work against the literary tradition. This is
especially true for the Metamorphoses, which is concerned as much with
transformation stories as with the transformation of stories. A metamor-
phosis, especially the “metamorphosis of literature,”35 involves a compari-
son of the past and the present. If something or someone passes from one
state to another, the current state cannot be appreciated without reference
to the old. This principle informs every transformation in the poem, espe-
cially that of the tyrant Lycaon, the first human character to be given new
shape:
territus ipse fugit nactusque silentia ruris
exululat frustraque loqui conatur. ab ipso
colligit os rabiem solitaeque cupidine caedis
vertitur in pecudes et nunc quoque sanguine gaudet. 235
in villos abeunt vestes, in crura lacerti:
fit lupus et veteris servat vestigia formae.
canities eadem est, eadem violentia vultus,
idem oculi lucent, eadem feritatis imago est.
He runs away in terror and when he reaches the quiet of the country he
howls, his efforts to speak all in vain. His mouth foaming, he turns his
usual lust for killing against the flocks, and delights again in spilling blood.
His clothes vanish in place of fur, his arms in place of legs. He becomes a
wolf, and yet bears traces of his prior form. There is the same gray hair, the
same violent looks, the same glimmering eyes, the same savage appearance.
(Met. 1.232–9)
Critics have rightly warned against deriving universal theories of meta-
morphosis from a “deceptive paradigm” like Lycaon.36 Nevertheless, a
33
Collard 1991, 32–4; see Chapter 4, p. 102.
34
On Euripides’ putative debt to Neophron regarding the murder of Medea’s children see Michelini
1989 – although Boedeker 1997 argues for the canonical status of Euripides’ heroine regardless of
the infanticide’s origins.
35
Kirby 1989, 237: “Ovid … truly conjures with the very forms of literature themselves, turning them
inside-out and back-to-front … The Metamorphoses represents nothing less than the metamorpho-
sis of literature.”
36
Deceptive paradigm: from the title of Anderson 1989. Both Anderson and Feldherr 2002, 171–2,
demonstrate that Lycaon’s transformation is far less tidy than it would seem. Feldherr 2010, in a
thorough rehearsal of contemporary scholarship on Ovidian metamorphosis (26–37), asserts that
quantifiable transformation occurs at the very least: clothes turn into fur,
arms into legs, man into wolf. Yet the wolf retains traces of his former self
(veteris servat vestigia formae, 237), such as his grizzled mane and gleam-
ing eyes. Nor are these traces limited to his physical form. Although he
victimizes sheep instead of people, he has retained his bloodthirsty nature
(nunc quoque sanguine gaudet, 235).
This passage implies much about literary Ovid’s program, even a
program of transforming tragedy. Taking Lycaon’s metamorphosis as
analogous to the adaptation of a play, we have at least two avenues of
appreciation and interpretation at our disposal. One is to interrogate the
details. Of what do Lycaon’s eyes remind us? Was his appearance always
so savage? Such inquiries are similar to ones we might make when reading
Ovid’s tragic texts. Why does Deianira send Hercules a poisoned robe?
Did Euripides’ Medea ever write a letter to Jason? Questions like these are
the essence of source criticism or Quellenforschung. In terms of tragedy,
this approach manifests itself in cataloguing model plays and detecting
references to them in any given text. All well and good, though the net
effect is often to reduce Ovid to a set of influences. Just as a transform-
ation from man into wolf invites further consideration, Quellenforschung is
not the end of reading tragically, but rather the point from which reading
must proceed.
A second avenue of interpretation leverages details toward interrogat-
ing purpose. Why do Lycaon’s eyes gleam in wolf form? Why is Polyxena’s
death so visceral? These are questions of a different order, reflecting con-
cerns not only with Ovid’s program, but also with the very forms of his
poetry. The notion of an element continuing from form to form or genre
to genre is much more dynamic and unsettled than it might seem. In the
case of Lycaon’s eyes, perhaps their gleam is distinctly human, a holdover
from his original shape. Yet the metamorphosis might also have clarified
that they were lupine from the start.37 Similarly, Polyxena’s sacrifice, when
“staged” within epic, provides a semblance of tragic theatricality appro-
priate to her original genre. Furthermore, her death in Euripides’ Hecabe
occurs offstage, reported after the fact by a messenger. Because messenger
speeches uphold the traditions of epic narrative and because Ovid, too, is
narrating, Polyxena’s demise is much as it always was. Lycaon suggests by
the process is fundamentally ambiguous: “[T]he poem offers no clear prescription for understand-
ing the phenomenon of metamorphosis” (35).
37
On metamorphosis as clarification and continuation in general see Solodow 1988, 174–88. Feldherr
2002 subscribes to such a reading of Lycaon: his “metamorphosis is above all a clarification of who
he really is” (170).
Index of passages discussed
All tragic fragments are from TrGF or SRF unless otherwise noted
A C C I U S , LU C I U S ANTIPHANES
Antigona fr. 138–41 27 Poiesis fr. 191.4–8 179
Medea sive Argonautae fr. 391–4 25
Tereus fr. 636–9 28–9 A P O L L O D O RU S
fr. 637 71 Bibl. 2.5.9 215 n. 70
2.7.7 202 n. 52
A E S C H Y LU S APOLLONIUS RHODIUS
Ag. 202–4 198 Ar. 3.464–70 142
206–7 191 3.636–44 142
206–11 187–8 3.653–4 146
218 188, 191 3.674–738 142
228 188, 191 3.770–2 148
228–46 188–9 3.771–801 142
229–30 198 3.778–82 148
232 189, 194 3.975–1145 142
238 189
239 190, 196 A R I S TO P H A N E S
240 188, 196 Ran. 1043 72
241 190
243–6 191 A R I S TOT L E
1380–92 72 Eth. Nic. 7.1–10 144
Cho. 743 74 n. 41 7.3.8 145 n. 42
Eum. 232–43 139 n. 19 Poet. 5–6.1449b 62
397–406 139 n. 18 5.1449b 12, 56
Pers. prologue 139 n. 20 6.1449b 53 n. 155, 75
445 74 n. 41 6.1450a 12
1014 74 n. 41 11.1452a 53
PV prologue 139 n. 20 11.1452b 68
88–113 139 n. 21 13.1452b 34 n. 81, 53 n. 155
114–27 139 n. 22 13.1453a 53 n. 158
158 74 n. 41 18.1456a 140
Sept. prologue 139 n. 20 26.1462a 51
808 74 n. 41
Supp. prologue 139 n. 20 AT H E N A E U S  G A I U S O C TAV I U S 
8.347e 12, 218
A N D RO N I C U S , LU C I U S AU G U S T U S
LIVIUS Ajax 33, 33 n. 76
Od. incipit 22 n. 15 Res gestae 100 n. 17
251
252 Index of passages discussed
BACCHYLIDES Hec. 8 104
5.168 206 n. 59 28 106
5.170 206 n. 59 55–9 25
59 107
CASSIUS DIO 59–97 139 n. 22
51.21.5–8 36 n. 89 154–74 108
159–64 156–7
C AT U L LU S , G A I U S VA L E R I U S 167–8 156–7
64.63–5 127 177–437 109
64.130 207 n. 62 218–333 108
64.132–201 54 218–401 154
64.154–6 151 233 74 n. 41
64.177–85 147 342–50 194
357–64 159–60
C I C E RO , M A RC U S T U L L I U S 357–68 110
Acad. 1.10 22 n. 14 361 160, 160 n. 75
Brut. 71 26 n. 32 372–4 194
72 27 n. 40 375–8 191
167 32 n. 69 378 191
De or. 3.217 148 n. 54 402–37 108
3.217–19 26 n. 32, 51 415–40 112
Fam. 7.1 33 432–7 108
7.1.2 33 n. 78, 34, 36 n. 89 435–7 195
8.2.1 35 n. 82 484–582 108
Fin. 1.4 22 n. 14 518–20 198
Rep. 3.14 27 n. 37 533 198
Tusc. 3.44–5 51 535 194
536 194
CYPRIA 546–54 189–90
fr. 17 (Davies) 199 n. 48 547 189
548 196
ENNIUS, QUINTUS 548–9 192, 196
Ann. fr. 2–11 (Skutsch) 31 n. 60 549 189
fr. 209 (Skutsch) 24 n. 18 550–2 110
Iph. fr. 202 192 n. 29 554 189
M. exul fr. 103 Jocelyn 23–4 558–61 190
fr. 103.209 Jocelyn 24 558–65 189–90
fr. 103.212–13 Jocelyn 23 559 190
fr. 103.213 Jocelyn 24 560 190
fr. 103.214 Jocelyn 24 n. 16 560–1 110, 190, 196
fr. 104.217–18 Jocelyn 148 566 111, 198
567 111
EURIPIDES 568–70 102, 197
Alc. 244–392 88 n. 80 571–80 198
747–72 139 n. 19 585 155
837–60 139 589–92 154
Andr. prologue 139 n. 21 604–6 110–11
103–16 139 n. 22 604–8 196
514 74 n. 41 609 113
534 74 n. 41 620–2 155
1200 74 n. 41 629–64 107
Bacch. 215–47 139 n. 18 726–904 154
1282 74 n. 41 864–75 25
Hec. 1–58 106, 107 905–52 107
1 106 963 105 n. 30
EURIPIDES IT 549 74 n. 41
Hec. 1024–43 107 Med. 1–8 23–4
1035 74 n. 41 4 24
1035–108 25 11 128
1075 74 n. 41 214–15 123
1109–251 154 378 43, 208
1255 74 n. 41 379 205
1259–65 114 483 122
1271–3 115 502–3 148–9, 205
Hel. 164–78 139 n. 22 502–5 147, 204
386–434 139 511 74 n. 41
483–514 139 n. 19 527–8 122 n. 57
833 74 n. 41 663–759 132
1621 74 n. 41 774–97 202
Heracl. prologue 139 n. 20 789 127
HF prologue 139 n. 20 956 202
348–450 164 n. 79 1021–80 42, 139
1131 74 n. 41 1078–9 144–5, 145 n. 41
1340–6 166 n. 85 1186–94 43
1363 74 n. 41 1212–7 203
Hipp. (Stephanias, HS) 380–1 145 1314–414 122
383–7 14, 92 1317–22 1
385–6 146 1321–2 124
387 15 1358–60 151–2
677–9 68–9 1359 151 n. 61
817 74 n. 41 1386–8 131
875 74 n. 41 1400 74 n. 41
1090 74 n. 41 Or. 768 74 n. 41
1350 74 n. 41 1048 74 n. 41
IA prologue 139 n. 20 1073 74 n. 41
128–32 196 Phoen. 1335 74 n. 41
404 74 n. 41 1337 74 n. 41
506 74 n. 41 1346 74 n. 41
662 190 1599 74 n. 41
880 74 n. 41 Rhes. prologue 139 n. 20
1216–22 191, 193 n. 31 565–673 139 n. 19
1220 191 Supp. 87–92 139 n. 18
1221–2 191 570 74 n. 41
1250–2 191, 193 n. 31 774 74 n. 41
1257–8 191, 193 n. 31 Tro. 98–152 139
1258 191 490–4 160–1
1270 193 n. 31 493 161
1338 197 675–6 161 n. 76
1341 197 677–8 160–1
1345–68 191 678 161
1375–9 191–2, 193 n. 31
1391 193 n. 31 G E L L I U S , AU LU S
1549–50 198 3.3.15 28 n. 45
1552–5 192
1554 193 HOMER
1555 194 Il. 6.456–61 159
1559 196 6.460 160
1559–60 192–3 9.144–7 199 n. 48
1589 194 16.33–5 151
Ion. 82–183 139 n. 22 21.60–1 169 n. 90
HOMER Am. 2.18.13–14 47
Il. 22.98–130 140 2.18.14 48, 59
22.344 196 2.18.15 49, 59, 60
Od. 10.7 90 2.18.15–18 47–8, 49
2.18.16 59
H O R A C E  Q U I N T U S H O R AT I U S F L A C C U S  2.18.18 52, 59
AP 179–88 232 2.18.19 59, 59 n. 2
185 232 2.18.19–20 59
186 232 n. 36 2.18.19–26 48
Carm. 2.1.10 36 n. 94 2.18.21 60
2.1.11–12 36 2.18.21–6 59–60
Epist. 2.1.187–8 34 2.18.22 60
2.1.187–93 33–4 2.18.23 60
2.1.88 100 2.18.24 60
2.1.191 34 2.18.25 60
2.1.193 33 n. 78 2.18.26 60
3.1.11–14 48–9
H YG I N U S 3.1.23 46
109 24 3.1.23–4 38, 46
3.1.24 38, 57
J E RO M E  E U S E B I U S H I E RO N Y M O U S  3.1.29 38
Chron. 201a 28 n. 45 3.1.29–30 38
3.1.67 38
JULIUS CAESAR, GAIUS 3.1.68 40
Oedipus 33, 33 n. 76 3.6.45–82 75
3.15.2 39 n. 102
LIVY TITUS LIVIUS 3.15.7 57
7.2.8–9 26 n. 29 3.15.17 46
34.44.5 28 n. 48 3.15.17–18 46
3.15.17–20 19, 38–9
LU C R E T I U S  T I T U S LU C R E T I U S C A RU S  3.15.18 39
DRN 1.85 199 n. 48 Ars am. 2.741 37
1.87–92 199–200 3.345 61 n. 5
1.89 199 3.346 62
1.90 199 Her. 1.59–62 81, 88
1.91 199 1.62 63 n. 12
2.45 78
M A RT I A L  M A RC U S VA L E R I U S M A RT I A L I S  2.45–8 73–4
Spect. 21 101 2.93–8 66–7
5.5.8 52 2.103 150 n. 57
7.63.5 52 3.3 77
3.15–16 73–4
NAEVIUS, GNAEUS 3.59 74 n. 41
?Clastidium 28, 28 n. 44 3.61 74 n. 41
3.82 74 n. 41
OV I D  P U B L I U S OV I D I U S N A S O  3.141–2 78
Am. 1.1.1 37 4.1–2 90–1, 91 n. 86
1.1.1–4 47 4.2 91
1.1.3–4 60 4.9–10 14–15, 92, 146
1.1.25 74 4.19–20 78
1.15.19–22 29 4.105–8 79–80
2.1.11–17 47 4.155 69
2.1.15 49 4.161–2 74 n. 41
2.18.1–12 47 4.175 77
2.18.2 49 4.175–6 68–9
2.18.13 48 4.176 63, 63 n. 17, 90
OV I D Her. 9.164 83, 212
Her. 5.33 74 n. 41 10.13–50 64
5.123 74 n. 41 10.59–64 149–50
5.149 74 n. 41 10.131–2 152
5.149–50 78 11.2 78
6.19 127 n. 68 11.3 63 n. 12, 87
6.75–8 150 n. 57 11.3–4 64
6.149–51 181 11.4 63 n. 12
6.151 228, 233 11.27–30 78
7.7 74 n. 41 12.16 151
7.37–8 152 12.35 151
7.42 151 12.35–6 150–1
7.44 151 12.75–6 41–2, 42 n. 111
7.45 151 12.91 151
7.98 74 n. 41 12.121–6 152
7.113–18 66–7 12.164–6 78
7.184–6 65 12.173 151
7.190 78 12.212 11–12, 38 n. 100, 81–3, 82 n. 64,
8.61–4 73–4 83 n. 66, 84, 181, 226–7
8.88 74 n. 41 13.21–8 78
8.111–12 78 13.65 84, 197
9.1–6 211–12 13.65–6 83
9.2 210 13.85–92 83
9.55–72 213–15 13.93 84
9.55–100 214 13.93–100 83–4
9.58 214 13.94 84
9.61–2 214 13.95 84
9.63–4 215 13.97 84
9.67–8 214 13.98 84
9.69–70 214 13.99 84
9.69–72 214 13.105–10 83
9.71–2 214 13.143–4 221
9.77 215 14.3–4 64
9.79 215 14.52 150
9.81 215 14.63–6 149–50
9.81–100 215 15.41–6 66–7
9.85–6 214 15.52 150 n. 57
9.89–90 214 15.97 77
9.91 214 15.183–4 78 n. 50
9.91–2 214 15.185 74 n. 41
9.91–4 214 15.204 74 n. 41
9.97–8 214 16.39–40 78
9.99–100 214 16.83–6 66–7
9.101–2 215 16.235 150 n. 57
9.121 210 16.235–8 73–4
9.141 82 n. 60–1 16.237 78
9.141–2 81–3 16.369–72 79–80
9.142 82 17.182 74 n. 41
9.143 65 17.200 65
9.143–4 65, 82, 212–13 17.205 150 n. 57
9.144 212 18.19–22 64
9.145 212 18.20 63 n. 12
9.146 83, 212 18.25–36 64
9.152 83, 212 18.180 77
9.158 83, 212 19.65 74 n. 41
9.163 82 19.121 74 n. 41
OV I D Met. 6.590–3 184–5
Her. 19.151–4 79–80 6.618–19 226–7
19.154 80 n. 53 6.631–5 137 n. 7
19.187 74 n. 41 6.636–7 183
20.133 74 n. 41 6.636–41 117 n. 51
20.135 74 n. 41 6.687–701 136
20.229–32 78 7.1–6 122
20.239–40 78 n. 50 7.1–158 121
21.13–16 73–4, 78 7.5 122
21.16 74 n. 40 7.7–12 143
21.17–28 63, 65 7.9 143
21.103–6 66–7 7.10 143
21.169 74 n. 41 7.11–13 143
21.231–6 65 7.11–71 136, 141–53, 219
21.244 63 n. 12 7.12 143
21.245 63 n. 12 7.12–13 143
Medea fr. 1 41–2, 42 n. 111 7.14 143
fr. 2 42, 42 n. 112, 73, 140 n. 23 7.14–15 143
?fr. 3 43 n. 117 7.19 144, 145
Met. 1.3–4 97 7.19–20 143 n. 35
1.4 29 7.19–22 143–5
1.147 132 7.20 144, 145
1.199–243 224 7.20–1 144, 145 n. 41
1.232–9 11 7.21 122
1.235 10 7.32–3 151–3
1.237 10, 114 7.38 148
3.11.26–7 100 7.38–41 147–50, 159
3.155 98 7.42–5 150–1
3.155–60 98–9 7.62–5 151–3
3.155–252 235 7.69 145
3.157 98 7.69–71 145–7
3.174–6 99 7.71 145
3.242–4 100 7.72 145
3.442–73 136 7.72–3 93, 145–7, 159, 176, 177
3.465 141 n. 29 7.73 146
3.701–3 184–5 7.121–48 121
3.708–13 99 7.156–8 122
3.709 100, 101 7.157 122
4.1–6 142 7.158 122
4.6 142 7.159–293 121
4.108–15 137 n. 7 7.164–5 122
4.118 137 n. 7 7.172 122
4.148–61 137 n. 7, 141, 153 n. 65 7.182 126
6.455–60 29 7.182–5 122–3
6.455–85 71 7.192–219 142 n. 32
6.490 183 n. 14 7.199–209 123–4
6.521 136 7.218–19 124
6.522–5 117 n. 51 7.220–37 119
6.531–48 134–6 7.222 126
6.533 173 n. 95 7.222–33 124–6
6.537 71 7.232–3 125
6.547–8 136 7.234–5 126
6.555–7 117 n. 51 7.238 126
6.582 72 7.238–41 126
6.583–6 182–3 7.239–40 126
OV I D Met. 9.136–7 118
Met. 7.240–1 126 9.136–40 211–12
7.254 126 n. 66 9.141–3 210, 212
7.255–8 126–7 9.143–6 203–4
7.257 127 9.143–51 137 n. 7, 212
7.258 127 9.144 204
7.266 125 9.145 204, 210
7.271 125 9.146 204
7.275 125 9.147 205
7.294–6 127 9.147–8 149, 203–4
7.297 127 9.149 206
7.297–300 127 9.149–51 205–6
7.297–349 121 9.152–3 202 n. 52
7.300 132 9.152–4 200–2
7.316 127 9.153 201
7.339–49 128 9.153–4 205
7.350–1 128 9.155 203
7.350–90 119 9.157 202
7.351–72 128–31 9.157–62 118
7.351–90 219, 232 9.159–272 116, 219
7.358 129 9.160 118, 194
7.362 114 n. 45 9.164 118
7.365 129 9.164–5 118
7.382–90 128–31 9.165 118
7.391 131 9.166–9 202–3
7.391–3 131 9.166–74 117, 170
7.391–7 121, 183–4, 202, 208–9 9.167 202
7.392–3 184 9.172 117
7.394 202, 203 9.175 173, 176
7.394–7 12–13, 43, 131–2 9.175–8 174–5
7.395 43, 131, 208 9.176 162, 175, 215
7.397 132 9.176–81 162
7.398–424 132 9.176–204 137, 161–75, 213–15
7.399–400 132 9.177 175, 215
7.400–1 132 9.178 175
7.402 132 9.182 171
7.403 132 9.182–3 164
7.404–24 132 9.182–4 171, 214
7.424 133 9.182–98 162–6, 172
8.44–80 137 9.183 171
8.74–5 93 9.184–5 164, 172, 214
8.108–42 137, 209 n. 66 9.185 164, 172
8.113–17 149 9.186 164, 170, 171, 214, 215
8.120–5 152 9.187 164, 171, 214
8.174–7 206–7, 209 9.187–8 165, 166, 172 n. 98
8.176 207, 209 n. 66, 210 9.188 164, 171, 214
8.481–511 137 9.188–9 164, 171, 214
8.486–92 149 9.189 172 n. 93, 215
9.1–88 116, 116 n. 48 9.190 164, 171, 214
9.98–133 116 9.191 164, 172 n. 93
9.127–30 225–6 9.191–2 164
9.129–33 201–2 9.192–3 164, 171–2
9.131–2 202 9.193 172
9.132 201 9.193–5 172
9.133 202 9.194 172
OV I D Met. 10.371–2 93
Met. 9.194–6 164 11.743–4 71 n. 35
9.195 172 12.4–6 186
9.197 164, 170, 171, 214, 215 12.29–34 186–7, 193
9.198 164, 170, 171, 215 12.31 195, 198
9.198–9 166 12.32–4 187
9.198–204 162 12.34 187
9.200 165 12.39–63 211 n. 68
9.201 170 13.13.569–70 115
9.201–2 170, 174 13.188 186 n. 21
9.202 170 13.193–4 186 n. 21
9.203–4 162, 166 13.387–90 137 n. 7
9.207 117 13.404–7 114 n. 45
9.207–10 117, 174 13.405 114 n. 45
9.208 117 13.406 114 n. 45
9.209 117 13.408–21 102–4
9.210 117 13.409–10 103
9.211 119 13.410–11 103, 104
9.211–30 119–20 13.415 103, 104
9.218 119 13.421 104
9.226 119 13.422 103, 112, 153
9.230 119 13.422–8 103–4, 114
9.262–70 120–1 13.423–8 104 n. 26
9.264 121 13.424 104
9.265 121 13.426 104
9.266–7 121 13.427 104
9.273 133 13.429 104
9.450–665 84–94, 221 13.429–30 104
9.455–7 86 13.429–38 158
9.457–60 86 13.430 105, 120
9.474 89 13.430–8 105–7
9.474–516 89, 92, 137 13.431 107
9.507–8 90 13.431–2 106
9.514–6 92 13.438 107
9.522 87 13.449–80 177, 219
9.522–5 87 13.450 108
9.528 87, 91 13.451 111
9.530–1 90–1 13.451–7 108–9
9.530–63 86 13.452 108
9.531 91, 91 n. 86, 92 13.453 109, 159, 195, 228
9.536–7 86 13.453–4 194–5
9.539–45 86 13.454 109, 195, 197
9.563 86 13.455–6 195–6
9.572–5 87–8 13.456 109, 195, 196 n. 41
9.575 91 13.457–60 109–10
9.577–9 89 13.459 110
9.585–629 89, 137 13.460 110, 196
9.601–4 89–90 13.462 155
9.613–5 152 n. 63 13.462–4 110
9.637 86 13.466–7 110–11, 196–7
9.638–51 86 13.467 197
9.659–64 88 13.467–9 197
9.659–65 86 13.468 197
9.726–63 137 13.470 196
10.196–208 137 n. 7 13.474–5 111, 197–9
10.320–55 137 13.475 111, 198
OV I D Tr. 2.105–6 235
Met. 13.476 173 2.207 233–4
13.476–8 111 2.381 45
13.479–80 102, 197 2.381–4 69–73
13.481 104 n. 27 2.383–4 70
13.488 112 2.387 70
13.488–92 112, 155 2.389 71
13.493 155 2.389–90 69–73
13.493–532 112 2.393 149 n. 56
13.494 155, 156 n. 72 2.395–6 69–73
13.494–532 137, 153–61, 219 2.396 71
13.495 155 2.399 70
13.510–13 159–61, 176 2.401–4 69–73
13.512–13 160 2.402 71
13.513 160 2.403 70
13.516–18 156 2.403–4 70
13.516–20 156–7 2.405 70
13.517 157, 158 2.407–8 69–73
13.518 157 2.515–20 61 n. 5
13.519–21 155–6 2.519 41 n. 108
13.521–2 156 2.521–7 123 n. 58
13.523 157 2.547 45 n. 129
13.523–6 157–8 2.549–52 45
13.527–30 158 2.553 45, 45 n. 127
13.531 158 2.553–4 45, 49
13.531–2 113 2.554 45, 46
13.532 158 2.555–60 45
13.533 113 4.10.1 46
13.533–4 113 4.10.51 221
13.533–55 113 5.7.25 41, 41 n. 108
13.534 104 n. 27 5.7.25–8 40–1, 61 n. 5
13.538 104 n. 27 5.7.27 40
13.538–40 182–3 5.7.28 40
13.546 113, 182–3
13.547–8 183 PA C U V I U S , M A RC U S
13.554 183 n. 14 Iliona fr. 196 27
13.561 115 fr. 196–201 25
13.561–4 115 fr. 206–7 25, 28
13.562 115 fr. 208–9 25
13.564 115 fr. 215 25
13.567 114 Periboea fr. 284 26 n. 35
13.567–9 114 fr. 284–6 26–7, 140
13.568 114
13.569 114, 115 P L AU T U S , T I T U S M A C C I U S
13.789–869 137 n. 7 Mil. 211 28 n. 45
14.718–32 137
14.75–81 207–8, 209 PLINY THE ELDER GAIUS PLINIUS
14.79 208, 210 SECUNDUS MAIOR
15.75–478 137 n. 7 HN 8.65 39 n. 104
15.497–505 93 36.117 35 n. 82
15.858–60 224–5
15.868–70 224–5 POMPILIUS
15.870 225 epitaph (SRF I ) 31
15.878 94, 211 n. 68
Tr. 2.7–9 233 P RO P E RT I U S , S E X T U S
2.103–4 234 2.1 76 n. 45
P RO P E RT I U S Thy. 269–70 229
2.10 76 n. 45 270 227
3.9.47–56 76 n. 45 623–788 225
4.1.64 76 740–3 225–6
4.3.1–6 77 920–69 229
4.3.4–5 77
4.3.6 78 S E RV I U S  M AU RU S S E RV I U S H O N O R AT U S 
4.3.43–4 77 n. 48 Aen. 4.473 27 n. 36
4.3.59–62 79
4.3.60 80 n. 53 SOPHOCLES
4.3.71–2 78 Aj. 340 74 n. 41
4.4.68 78 n. 49 815–16 64
815–65 139
PUPIUS 981 74 n. 41
lampoon (SRF I ) 31 983 74 n. 41
Ant. 1205 72
Q U I N T I L I A N  M A RC U S FA B I U S 1211 74 n. 41
QUINTILIANUS 1219–43 72
Inst. 1.pr.6 44 n. 123 1295 74 n. 41
1.pr.14 44 n. 123 1299 74 n. 41
1.8.8 44 n. 123 El. 86–120 139 n. 22
8.5.6 41–2 807 74 n. 41
10.1.88 44 n. 123 1209 74 n. 41
10.1.97 44 n. 122 OC 753 74 n. 41
10.1.98 44–5, 49 847 74 n. 41
876 74 n. 41
S E N E C A T H E E L D E R  LU C I U S A N N A E U S 963 74 n. 41
SENECA MAIOR 1338 74 n. 41
Controv. 2.2 29 n. 55 1401 74 n. 41
2.2.12 44 n. 124 1438 74 n. 41
4.pr.2 36 OT 744 74 n. 41
Suas. 3.7 42 774–813 66
1237–85 66
S E N E C A T H E YO U N G E R  LU C I U S A N N A E U S 1265–70 72
SENECA IUNIOR Phil. 311 74 n. 41
De ira 1.1.4 43 n. 117 416 74 n. 41
Med. 49 227 n. 22 622 74 n. 41
50 227 n. 22 744 74 n. 41
171 228, 228 n. 25 789 74 n. 41
369–79 230–2 934 74 n. 41
885–6 43 n. 120 1187 74 n. 41
907–10 228–9 Polyxena fr. 523 106 n. 35
910 228, 231 Tereus fr. 581.5–10 136 n. 5
914 229 n. 27 fr. 589.1–2 136 n. 5
914–15 228–9 fr. 595 73, 136 n. 5
937–9 42 Trach. prologue 139 n. 20, 139 n. 21
967–1027 1, 229 59–62 204
1019 228 445–6 204
1021 229 447–8 204
Thy. 178–80 227 462–3 204
179 228 463–6 204
180 228 497–530 116
267–8 227 538 204
267–70 226–7 552–3 204
269 227 555–81 116, 226
SOPHOCLES Trach. 1080 116
Trach. 556 201 1081 74 n. 41
567 201 n. 50 1085–6 162
572–7 200–1 1089–90 170
578–9 201 1089–91 168–70
580 201 1089–100 162–4, 165, 213
582–3 204 1089–102 162
583 206 1090 170
584 204 1091 165, 169
586–7 204 n. 55 1092–4 164
603 201 1092–5 165
632 95 1094 164, 165
632–961 95 1095–6 164
633–62 95 1097 164
663–733 95 1097–9 164
685–6 201 1097–100 165
734–820 95 1099–100 164, 214
749–812 117, 167 1101 169
752–4 118 1101–2 168–70
767 167 1103 169
767–8 202 1103–11 162
768 167 1143 74 n. 41
769 167 1264 116
772–82 119 1278 121
801–6 120
805–6 95 S U E TO N I U S  G A I U S S U E TO N I U S
812–961 95 T R A N Q U I L LU S 
899–946 96 Aug. 43 100 n. 17
930 174 n. 98 85.2 33 n. 76
964 167 Iul. 56.7 33 n. 76
997 74 n. 41
1013 74 n. 41 TA C I T U S , C O R N E L I U S
1015 167 Dial. 12.6 43–4, 44 n. 121, 49
1046–7 167
1046–61 162 T E R E N C E  P. T E R E N T I U S A F E R 
1046–111 162 An. 18–19 24 n. 19
1048–9 162
1049–57 170 T I M OT H E U S
1051 168 Scylla fr. adesp. 9 (TGF 2) 149 n. 56
1051–7 167–8 fr. I I .8m 149 n. 56
1053 168
1053–4 168, 170, 173 VA L E R I U S M A X I M U S
1053–7 172 n. 93 2.4.3 28 n. 48
1054 168, 170 3.7.11 32–3
1055 168
1055–6 168 VA R I U S RU F U S , LU C I U S
1056–7 170 Thy. fr. 1–2 35
1057 168
1062–3 174 n. 98 V E RG I L  P U B L I U S V E RG I L I U S M A RO 
1062–75 162 Aen. 1.93 173
1070–5 173–4 1.279 231, 231 n. 35
1075 174 1.337 55
1076–80 116 1.338 55
1076–89 162 1.338–46 55
1079 116 1.342 55
V E RG I L 7.41–5 56–7
Aen. 4.54 146 n. 49 7.42 57
4.54–5 146 7.45 38
4.173–97 211 n. 68 Ecl. 1.1 37
4.467–73 54 6.3 37, 56
4.534–47 147 8.10 36 n. 93
4.534–52 54 G. 3.18 39 n. 102
4.547 65 n. 20 4.566 37
6.86 56 n. 170
General index
Accius, Lucius, 4, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30, 31, Augustus, 33
32–3, 44, 45, 51, 85, 230 Metamorphoses, 8
Antigona, 27 akrasia, 144–6, 148, 180
Atreus, 35 Alcidamas, 129
Clytemnestra, 33 Alcmene, 70
Medea (Argonautae), 25, 27, 29 Alcyone
Tereus, 28–9, 71, 136, 227 granddaughter of Polypemon, 132
Acheloüs, 116 wife of Ceyx, 71
Achilles, 27, 105, 106, 107, 108, 151, 181, 185, 190, Alexandrian footnote, 184, 187
191, 193, 196, 197, 219, 228 Alexandrian Pleiad, 22 n. 11
Acontius, 67, 78 allusion, 7, 15, 42, 148, 155–6, 173, 182–3,
Actaeon, 6, 8, 98–9, 100, 235 189–90, 191, 192, 193, 197, 199, 203,
Actium, battle of, 35 204–5, 207, 208, 214, 225–7, 229,
Admetus, 70 see also intertextuality; intratextuality
Adrastus, 32 footnote
Aeëtes, 45, 93, 142, 143, 147, 148 Alexandrian, 184, 187
Aegeus, 132, 207 intratextual, 178, 184–5, 186, 193, 199, 202,
Aegisthus, 70 205, 206–10, 220
Aeneas and memory, 109, 158–9, 195, 228
Aeneid, 54, 55, 56, 173 Althaea, 137, 149, 227
Heroides, 60, 67, 152 amateurism, see gentrification
Metamorphoses, 207, 208 Amazons, 214
Aeolus, 81, 90 amor, 14–16, 69, 92–3, 146, 159, 220, see also eros
Aeschylus, 12, 17, 50, 72, 99, 200, 218 servus amoris, 214, 215
Agamemnon, 71, 72, 186, 187–90, 191, 194–5, Amor (Cupid), 48, 49, 59, 60
196, 198 amphitheatricality, 34–5, 99–101, 111, 112, 115,
Eumenides, 106 117, 127–8, 173, 174–5, 202–3, 205, 219,
Oresteia, 180, 181 see also violence
Persians, 106 venatio, 100–1
Aeson, 29, 121, 127 Amphitryon, 211
Agamemnon, 33, 35, 54, 63, 71, 72, 199 anagnorisis, 16, 68, 218
Agamemnon, 72, 180, 187–9, 191, 198 Anderson, W. S., 141, 166, 203
Hecabe, 107, 154 Andromache, 103, 159, 160–1, 176
Iphigenia at Aulis (IA), 190, 191, 192, 198 Andromeda, 70
Metamorphoses, 186 Andronicus, Lucius Livius, 21, 22, 24, 25–6, 27, 56
Agathon, 140 career, 30
agon, 21, 75, 112, 153–4 Tereus, 136
aidos, 14–17, 92, 146, see also modesty and desire Andronicus Salinator, 22
Ajax Anio, 75
Aeneid, 54, 56, 65 Antaeus, 163, 164, 171, 214
Ajax, 64, 65, 139 Antigone, 27, 71, 72
263
264 General index
Antiphanes, 179–80 Bistonians, 105, 120
Apollo, 129 Blias, 129
Apollonius Rhodius, 122, 218 bodies
Argonautica, 25, 138, 142, 146, 148 feminine, 111, 173, 213–15
aporia, 147, 158, 204, 212 masculine, 161–75, 213–15
apotheosis penetration, 173–4
Heracles/Hercules, 116, 120–1, 133, 133, 166, 219 Bolton, M. Catherine, 63
Virbius, 93 Bömer, Franz, 197
Apsyrtus, 25 Booth, Joan, 48
archetypes, see paradigms, character Boreas, 136
Arethusa (Propertian heroine), 76–9 Botres, 129
Argo, 23, 25, 27, 142, 231, 232 Boyle, A. J., 24, 26–7, 42
Argonauts, 24, 122, 142 Brecht, Bertolt, 5 n. 18
Ariadne Briseis, 73, 77, 78, 181
Catullus 64, 52, 54, 63, 127, 138, 147, 150, 151, Busiris, 163, 164, 171, 172, 214
206–7, 209 Byblis, 137, 146, 183
Heroides, 60, 64, 70, 88, 149, 150, 152, 206–7, etymology, 94
209, 210 Heroides “22,” 84–94, 221
Metamorphoses, 206–7, 209
Aristophanes, 72 Caesar Strabo, Gaius Julius, 32–3
Aristotle, 12, 14, 16, 56, 62, 62 n. 11, 68, 72, 75, Callimachus, 76
140, 144, 218 Camilla, 56
and the Aeneid, 53 Canace, 70, 181
textual approach to tragedy, 50–1 Aeolus (Euripides), 70, 81
Artemis, 192, 198, 214 Heroides, 60, 64, 70, 72, 78, 81, 87, 90
Astyanax, 103, 104 canticum, 25–6, 139, 140, see also monody
Athena, 139 Medea (Ovid), 42, 140 n. 23
Athens, 132, 133, 223 career, see also cursus
as civilized center, 105 Andronicus, 30
Atlas, 171 criticism, 7, 20, 20 n. 4
Atreus, 35, 71, 225, 226–7, 229 Ennius, 28, 30–1, 37
Attis, 52 etymology of term, 20 n. 3
Aubry, Abraham, 3 n. 10 Marlowe, 2
Augeas, stables of, 163, 164, 165, 171, 214 Ovid, 2, 4, 5, 8, 17–18, 19, 21, 30, 37–9, 45–6,
Augustus, 3, 4, 7, 33, 35, 39, 45, 49, 208, 216, 47, 48–50, 57–8, 59–60, 85, 175, 215, 217,
217, 235 218, 221, 222, 234
Ajax, 33 poetic, 20, 30, 31, 33
pax Augusta, 224–5, 233 political, 30, 33
Aulis, 83, 185, 186, 196 Shakespeare, 1, 2
aurality Varius Rufus, 35
Heroides, 89–90, 210 Vergil, 37–8, 37 n. 97, 50, 56–7
Metamorphoses, 3–4, 89–90, 136, 140, 175, Carthage, 55, 56, 207
219–20 Cassandra, 72, 103, 104
Roman tragedy, 36–7 Cassius of Parma, 35
author, 7, 52 catalogues
intention-bearing voice, 7 Amores, 59–60
Heroides, 213–15
Bacchus, 31, 70, 129, 207 Metamorphoses, 162, 163–6, 171–2, 213–15
Balbus, Lucius Cornelius, 39 Tristia, 69–73
Barchiesi, Alessandro, 11–12, 81–3, 206 Women of Trachis, 162, 164–5, 168, 169–70,
Barthes, Roland, 90 n. 83 171, 213, 214
Barton, Carlin, 175 Cato the Elder (Marcus Porcius Priscus Cato), 28
Bate, Jonathan, 138 Catullus, Gaius Valerius, 24, 54, 63, 75, 127,
Baur, Johann Wilhelm, 3 206–7, 218
biography, 52 as tragedian, 52, 52 n. 150, 57, 60, 94, 216
General index 265
Caunus, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91–2 Medea-Orithyia–Procris–Scylla, 177–8
Cenaeum, 118, 119, 168, 211 Medea-Procne, 183–4, 187, 208, 209
centaurs, 163, 164, 214 Medea-Scylla-Byblis-Myrrha(-Phaedra),
Cephisus, 129 146–7, 176
Cerambus, 129 Narcissus-Oedipus, 141, 178
Cerberus, 163, 164, 165, 172, 214 Pentheus-Procne, 184–5
Ceryneian hind, 163, 164, 165, 171, 214 Phaedra-(Medea-)Scylla-Byblis-Myrrha,
Ceyx, 71 92–3, 146, 178, 183
Chalciope, 142 tragic
character types, see paradigms, character Iphigenia-Polyxena, 187–93
Charybdis, 151, 152, 207 Conte, Gian Biagio, 15–16
Cheney, Patrick, 2 controversiae, 37
Chersonese, 102, 104–6 Corinna, 76
chora, 63 Corinth, 121, 124, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131–2, 133,
chorus, 25, 27, 104 n. 27, 187–9, 231 144, 146, 148, 183–4, 187, 202, 205, 209,
detachment from drama, 140, 229 219, 230, 232
exit from stage, 138–9, 139 n. 19, 219 corpus, 166, 171, 172, 213
Cicero, Marcus Tullius, 26, 32, 34 Corythus, 129
dedication of Pompey’s theater, 33 cothurnus, 45, 47, 48, 52, 55, 59
quotations of tragedy, 51 Creon, 11, 43, 46, 82, 203, 205, 208
Clytemnestra, 70, 71, 72, 85, 106, 180, 190, 192, Cretan bull, 163, 164, 171, 214
197, 206 Ctesylla, 129
code, 202, 205, 234, see also mode/modality cultural materialism, 7
didactic, 233 Cupid (Amor), 48, 49, 59, 60
elegiac, 11, 61–2, 69, 233 Curiatus Maternus, 43
interconnectivity, 16–17, 62 Curio, Gaius Scribonius, 34–5, 101
monologues, 138 Currie, H. MacL., 41, 43
mythographic, 75 cursus, 20, 20 n. 3, 30, 48, see also career
paradigms, character, 180 honorum, 30, 33
tragic, 5, 11, 15–17, 53, 61–2, 69, 149, 199, 217, litterarum, 30, 31, 33, 36, 39, 45, 49, 58, 59, 217
220 Cycnus (son of Hyrie), 129
Colchis, 23, 25, 121, 122, 144, 146, 148, 151, 205 Cydippe, 63, 65, 66, 67, 74, 78
Coleman, Kathleen, 101 Cyllene, 129
Collegium Poetarum, 32–3 Cynossema, 102, 104
Colosseum, 100 Cynthia, 76
Combe, 129
comedy, 6, 22, 25, 46, 49, 51, 72 Danaë, 70
coniugium, 122–3, 126, 127, 130, 132 Darius, 106
contaminatio, 24, 24 n. 19, 85, 192, 220, Davies, Malcolm, 116, 121, 165
see also intertextuality declamation, 29 n. 55, 37, 44 n. 124, 61, 85,
Aeneid see also rhetoric
Dido-Ajax, 53–4, 65 Deianira, 8, 85
Dido-Medea, 53 Heroides, 7, 8, 10, 12, 65, 69, 70, 81–3, 210–15,
Turnus-Ajax, 56 221
Catullus 64 Metamorphoses, 8, 10, 116, 149, 162, 178,
Ariadne-Medea, 52 200–6, 208, 209, 210–13, 215
Heroides Women of Trachis, 8, 95–6, 117, 162, 180,
Dido-Ajax, 65 200–1, 203–6, 211, 226
Iliona (Pacuvius), 24–5 Deipylus, 24–5, 106
Metamorphoses Demophoön, 60, 66, 73
Hecabe-Procne, 182–3, 184, 193 desperation, rhetoric of, 147–50, 156–8, 159, 180,
Hercules-Aeneas, 173, 176 204–6, 220
Iphigenia-Philomela, 186 Deucalion, 129
Iphigenia-Polyxena, 178, 185–200, 210 diachrony, 179, 180
Medea-Deianira, 178, 200–6, 208, 209, 210 Diana, 55, 67, 98–9, 186, 187, 195
266 General index
didactic, 37, 50, 59, 233 Eumelus, 129
Dido Eumenides, 27, 54
Aeneid, 53–5, 56, 65, 138, 146, 147, 207–8 Euripides, 1, 17, 25, 50, 60, 72, 81, 104, 132, 161,
Heroides, 60, 65, 66–7, 78, 152, 207–8, 209, 200, 218
210 Aeolus, 70, 81
Metamorphoses, 207–8 Alcestis, 139
dilemmas, 15–16 Bacchae, 6, 99, 185
Hippolytus (Stephanias, HS), 92 Hecabe, 8, 24–5, 27, 101–16, 153–7, 158,
Medea (Ovid), 42, 73 159–60, 187, 189–90, 191, 192–3, 194,
Metamorphoses, 92–3, 143–7, 176, 177–8, 196, 198
220 Helen, 139
Diomedes Hellenistic anthologies, 51
son of Tydeus, 26–7, 140 Hippolytus (Stephanias, HS), 14–17, 68–9,
Thracian king, mares of, 164, 172, 214 71, 92
Dionysia, 22, 223 Hippolytus Kalyptomenos (HK), 69, 90
Dionysus, 6, 105, 126–7 Iphigenia at Aulis (IA), 186, 187, 194–5, 196,
Artists of, 22 n. 11 197, 198
domus, 123, 126 interpolations, 192–3, 193 n. 31
Medea, 1, 8, 9, 23–4, 38, 42, 43, 46, 82, 121–32,
Easterling, P. E., 50 142, 147, 148–9, 187, 202, 203, 204–5,
Echidna, 163 208, 227, 231
ekkyklēma, 13, 88, 95 great monologue, 42, 138–9, 141,
ekphrasis, 63, 135 142, 144
Electra, 70 Protesilaus, 83
elegy, 6, 15, 153, 220–1, 233 Rhesus, 1, 17
theater of, 5, 12–13, 62–8, 84, 86, 88, 215 Trojan Women, 104, 139, 158, 159, 160–1
empire, see imperium Euryalus, 56
Ennius, Quintus, 21, 22, 25, 26, 31, 51, 52, Eurypylus, 129
56, 218 exits, 64, 67, 219, 221
Annales, 30–1 chorus after parodos, 138–9, 139 n. 19
career, 28, 30–1, 37 Hecabe, 107, 110, 112
Medea exul, 23–4, 29, 38, 46, 52, 55, 82, 147–8, Metamorphoses, 104, 113, 153
208, 227, 231 Trojan Women, 104
Thyestes, 30 Women of Trachis, 95, 173
entrances, 64, 67, 219, 221
Hecabe, 107 fabula
Metamorphoses, 99, 104, 112, 153 cothurnata, 27, 82
Women of Trachis, 95, 173 praetexta, 27–8, 31
ephebes, 6, 55–6, 99, 99 n. 13, 235 fama, 211–13, 211 n. 68
epic, 4, 6, 47, 51, 57, 218–20 Farrell, Joseph, 30, 31, 37, 49, 222
theater of, 5, 12–13, 84, 101, 111, 164, 219, 229, Feeney, Denis, 211 n. 68
232 Feldherr, Andrew, 98 n. 9, 100
transformed into tragedy, 226, 229, 230, 232, first-ship topos, 23–4, 25, 29
234 Flavian Amphitheater, 100
epideixis, 167, 171 footnote
epigraphs, 78, 86 Alexandrian, 184, 187
epistolary mode, 5, 62–8, 76, 93, 96, 149–50, 221 intratextual, 178, 184–5, 186, 193, 199, 202,
expanded in epic, 86–8, 221 205, 206–10, 220
epistula, 63 Fowler, Robert L., 147
Erasmo, Mario, 26 Fulkerson, Laurel, 81, 181 n. 11
eros, 88 Fulvius Nobilior, Marcus, 28, 31
Erymanthian boar, 163, 164 Furies, 27, 54
ethopoeiae, 37, 61, 85
etiology, 76, 102, 115 Gallus, Cornelius, 75
Euboea, 95, 118–20, 133 Gargaphie, 99
General index 267
genres, 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 14, 221, see also code; mode/ hydra, 163, 164, 165, 171–2, 200, 201
modality Nemean lion, 163, 164, 165, 171, 213, 214
crossing (Kreuzung der Gattungen), 11 serpents sent by Hera, 214
escalation, 37–9, 48, 82 Stymphalian birds, 163, 164, 165, 171
hybridization, 11, 12, 221 Metamorphoses, 8, 10, 96, 115–21, 132, 133, 134,
impurity, 11 137, 161–75, 176, 179, 200, 201, 202–3,
synergy, 12–13, 15, 16, 17, 62, 83–4, 132, 218, 210, 211, 212, 213–15, 219
219–21, 234 Women of Trachis, 8, 95–6, 116, 121, 162–5,
tension, 11–12, 15, 17, 62, 81–3, 132, 218–19 167–70, 171, 173–4, 180, 200, 201, 202,
see also under elegy; epic; tragedy; and other 204, 213
individual genres here-and-now, 95, 97, 219, see also space and
Gentili, Bruno, 51 time; there-and-then
gentrification (of tragedy), 30, 32–3, 36–7 Heroides, 63–8, 84, 221
Geryon, cattle of, 163, 164, 172, 214 Medea (Euripides), 131
Gildenhard, Ingo, 6, 7, 172, 178, 183, 184, 233 Metamorphoses, 86, 98, 113, 136, 219, 221
gladiators, see amphitheatricality Propertius 4.3, 79
Glauce, 131, 202, 203, 208 Women of Trachis, 169
Goldberg, Sander, 30, 32, 51 Hermione, 70, 73, 78, 181
gravitas, 44–6, 49, 69, 215, 217, 222 Hero, 64, 80, 220
Hesperides, apples of, 163, 164, 165, 171, 214
Hades, 139, 162, 163 Heywood, Thomas, 2
Haemon, 70, 71, 72 Hinds, Stephen, 11, 47, 98, 100, 223
hamartia, 53 n. 158 Hippolyte, girdle of, 163, 164, 171, 215
Hardie, Philip, 7, 53–4, 57, 100, 206, 222–3 Hippolytus, 70
heavens, vault of, 164, 165, 170, 171, 213 Heroides, 14–16, 60, 63, 68–9, 79–80, 88, 90–3
Hecabe, 8, 24, 129 Hippolytus (Stephanias, HS), 14–17, 68–9, 71
Hecabe, 8, 101–16, 153–7, 194, 196, 198 Metamorphoses, 6, 8, 93
Metamorphoses, 8, 96, 101–16, 120, 121, 132, historiography, 52
134, 137, 153–61, 175, 176, 177, 179, 182–3, Hollis, A. S., 207
184, 193, 194, 219 Homer, 12, 25, 31, 101, 138, 161, 218
Trojan Women, 104, 139, 160–1 Iliad, 140, 151, 159, 196
Hector, 83, 103, 104, 140, 159, 160, 161, 196, 197 Odyssey, 81, 90, 180, 181, 209
Hecuba, see Hecabe Hopkinson, Neil, 103–4, 159
Heinze, Richard, 53 Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), 31, 225
Helen, 64–5, 67, 80, 181, 186, 220 Ars poetica, 14, 232
Hellenism, 22–4, 29 authority on drama, 2
Hera, 162, 214 on Pollio, 36
Heracles/Hercules, 8, 129, 175, 206, 219 on tragic spectacle, 33–4, 39
Alcestis, 139 Hughes, Ted, 3
Heroides, 8, 10, 82, 211, 212, 213–15 hydra, 163, 164, 165, 171–2, 200, 201
labors, 211 Hyginus, 24–5
Amazons, 214 Hyllus, 95, 116, 117, 119, 120, 167, 168, 170, 180,
Antaeus, 163, 164, 171, 214 202
Augeas, stables of, 163, 164, 165, 171, 214 Hypermestra, 64, 78, 149–50
Busiris, 163, 164, 171, 172, 214 Hypsipyle, 60, 181, 220, 228, 233
centaurs, 163, 164, 214 Hyrie, 129
Cerberus, 163, 164, 165, 172, 214
Ceryneian hind, 163, 164, 165, 171, 214 Ilia, 75
Cretan bull, 163, 164, 171, 214 Iliona, 24–5, 27, 28
Diomedes, mares of, 164, 172, 214 imperium, 4, 28, 35, 217, 218
Erymanthian boar, 163, 164 and the Aeneid, 223–4, 225, 231
Geryon, cattle of, 163, 164, 172, 214 and intratextuality, 233
heavens, vault of, 164, 165, 170, 171, 213 and the Metamorphoses, 224–5
Hesperides, apples of, 163, 164, 165, 171, 214 and Seneca the Younger, 233
Hippolyte, girdle of, 163, 164, 171, 215 and tragedy, 56, 221–33
268 General index
ingenium, 44–5, 44 n. 124, 49, 58, 73, 166, 208, irony
217, 222, 233 defined, 79
Ingleheart, Jennifer, 234 Heroides, 11–12, 62, 76, 79–80, 81–4, 215, 220
inhuman-prodigy topos, 151–3 and the reader, 80, 81
intertextuality, 5, 6, 7, 162, 175–6, 177, 181, 187, Medea (Euripides), 202
195, 207, 208; see also allusion; code; Metamorphoses, 85, 94, 166, 202
genres; mode/modality; models and and the reader, 85
sources monologues, 150–1
and intratextuality, 185, 187–93, 199–200, 203, and synchrony, 181
204–5, 206 Itys, 70, 71, 183
intratextuality, 85, 177–215, 181 n. 11, 216, 221,
see also contaminatio Jacobson, Howard, 80
defined, 177 Jason, 29, 131
expanded, 206–15 Argonautica, 142
footnote, 178, 184–5, 186, 193, 199, 202, 205, Heroides, 10, 11, 41–2, 60, 151, 152, 220
206–10, 220 Medea (Euripides), 10, 23, 122, 123, 128, 130,
Heroides, 180–2, 220 148
Deianira–Deianira (Met.), 210–13 Medea (Ovid), 41
Deianira–Hercules (Met.), 213–15 Medea (Seneca), 1, 229
Hypsipyle–Medea, 181, 233 Metamorphoses, 43, 93, 121, 122, 126, 127, 130,
and imperium, 233 132, 141, 142, 143, 147, 148, 150, 151, 152
and intertextuality, 185, 187–93, 199–200, 203, Jocasta, 66, 72
204–5, 206 Jocelyn, H. D., 23–4
Metamorphoses, 182–5, 220 Jouteur, Isabelle, 6
Ariadne-Ariadne (Her.), 206–7, 209 Julius Caesar, Gaius, 35
Deianira-Deianira (Her.), 210–13 Oedipus, 33
Dido-Dido (Her.), 207–8, 209 Juno, 162, 175, 211, 215
Hecabe-Polyxena, 177 Jupiter, 121, 129, 211, 224
Hecabe-Procne, 182–3, 184, 193
Hercules-Deianira (Her.), 213–15 Keith, Alison, 5, 218
Iphigenia-Philomela, 186 Kennedy, Duncan, 81, 209
Iphigenia-Polyxena, 178, 185–200, 210 Konstan, David, 98 n. 9
Medea-Deianira, 178, 200–6, 208, 209, 210 Kreuzung der Gattungen, die, 11
Medea-Medea (Her.)-Medea (Med.), 208–9 Kristeva, Julia, 63
Medea-Orithyia-Procris-Scylla, 177–8 Kroll, Wilhelm, 11
Medea-Procne, 183–4, 187, 208, 209
Medea-Scylla-Byblis-Myrrha(-Phaedra), Lafaye, Georges, 138
146–7, 176 lamentation, 68, 82–3, 107, 112–13, 153–61, 182,
Narcissus-Oedipus, 141, 178 197–9, 210–13, 228, 234, see also pathos
Pentheus-Procne, 184–5 landscape, 88, 96, 97–8, 104–5, 107, 116–20, 121,
Phaedra-(Medea-)Scylla-Byblis-Myrrha, 132, 133, 135, see also locus; space and
92–3, 146, 178, 183 time
Tristia Laodamia, 8, 70, 78, 79, 83–4, 85, 88, 181, 197,
Ovid-Actaeon, 235 220
Iole, 200, 203, 210, 211, 215 Larmour, David, 178, 183, 184, 186
Iphianassa, 199–200, 199 n. 48 Leander, 64, 77
Iphigenia, 85 Lenaea, 223
Agamemnon, 187–90, 191, 194–5, 196, 198, 205 Leo, Friedrich, 230
De rerum natura, 199–200 Leto, 129
Iphigenia at Aulis (IA), 190–3, 194–5, 196, 197, levitas, 45–6
198, 205 Lichas, 95, 119
Metamorphoses, 8, 178, 185–200, 210 liminality and transgression
Iphis Aeneid
lover of Anaxarete, 137 Camilla, 56
lover of Ianthe, 137 Dido, 53–4
General index 269
Heroides, 233 Heroides, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 41–2, 60, 70, 78, 82,
Medea (Seneca), 232 84, 150–1, 152, 180–1, 208–9, 220, 227,
Metamorphoses, 96, 220, 233 232, 233
Byblis, 88 Medea (Euripides), 1, 8, 9, 10, 12, 23, 42, 43,
Hercules, 120–1 122, 123, 124, 138, 141, 142, 144, 147,
Medea, 126, 232 148–9, 151–2, 187, 202, 203, 204–5, 231
Tristia, 235 Medea (Ovid), 8, 41–3, 45, 73, 208–9
Women of Trachis, 173–4 Medea (Seneca), 1, 42, 229, 232
Lindheim, Sara H., 6, 222 Medea exul (Ennius), 23, 52, 147–8
litterae, 63, 77 Metamorphoses, 8, 12–13, 14, 43, 93, 96, 119,
Livius Andronicus, see Andronicus, Lucius 121–32, 133, 134, 136, 141–53, 154, 156, 159,
Livius 161, 175, 176, 178, 179, 183–4, 187, 200–6,
Livy (Titus Livius), 25–6, 52 208–9, 210, 219
locus, 88–9, 97, 100, 101, 105, 109, 115, 116, Megara, 215
132, 134, 136, 140, 141, 143, 165, 166, Meleager, 8, 205, 206
see also space and time; landscape memory, 65–7, 109, 158–9, 195, 228
amoenus, 98, 103 Menelaus, 139, 198
locus est, 97, 115, 219 Menephron, 129
Loraux, Nicole, 111 messenger speeches, 10, 66, 95, 96, 110, 166, 167,
Lucretius, 199–200 168, 169, 170, 189–90, 202, 203, 211, 218
ludi, 31 Metamorphoses (Zimmerman), 3
Apollinares, 35 n. 83 metamorphosis, see transformation
Romani, 27, 28 metatheater, see also role-play
Saeculares, 39 Aeneid, 54–5
Lycaon, 9–11, 12, 18, 114, 224 Amores, 49
Lycotas, 76–9 defined, 5
Lycurgus, 50 Heroides, 81–4, 99
Lynceus, 64, 150 Medea (Accius), 25
Medea (Seneca), 227–9, 231
Macareus, 60, 70, 72, 81 Metamorphoses, 99, 104, 109, 132–3, 136, 153–4,
Macer, 47, 49 175–6, 218, 220
Macrobius (Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius), Thyestes (Seneca), 227–9
52 Tristia, 235
Maecenas, Gaius, 35 Metelli (family), 27–8
Maera, 114 n. 45, 149 Michelini, Ann, 154
Magna Graecia, 22 mime, 36, 36 n. 90, see also pantomime
Malian Gulf, 95, 118, 119 Minos, 152, 207
Manuwald, Gesine, 27 Minotaur, 206
Marcellus, Marcus Claudius mode/modality, 217
nephew of Augustus, 34, 39, 56 n. 167 epistolary, 5, 62–8, 76, 93, 96, 149–50, 221
victor over Insubrian Gauls (222 tragic, 6, 60, 182, 218, 220–1
BCE), 27, 28 n. 44, 76 n. 45 models and sources, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 17, 27, 29,
March, Jennifer, 187, 205–6 96, 132, 175
Marius, Gaius, 32 code model (modello-codice), 15–16, 205
Marlowe, Christopher, 2 local model (modello-esemplare, 15–16
marriage to death, 72, 190, 196 modesty and desire, 14–17, 69, 92–3, 143–7, 176,
Martial (Marcus Valerius Martialis), 52, 55 177–8, 180, 220
materia, 69, 229 n. 27 monody, 25–6, 139–40, 139 n. 22, 156–7,
McKeown, James, 48, 49 see also canticum
me miserum/miseram!, 74, 74 n. 41, 78, 89 monologues, 150, 204, 220, 227, see also rhetoric
Meandrus, 213 Aeneid, 54, 138, 147
mēchanē, 13 after parodos, 139, 139 n. 19
Mechem, Leslie, 194 n. 33 Argonautica, 138, 142
Medea, 1, 8, 16, 17, 21, 180, 206 artificiality, 137–8, 166
Argonautica, 138, 142, 146, 148 Catullus 64, 54, 138, 147, 150, 206–7
270 General index
monologues (cont.) Naxos, 63, 207
as code, 138, 159 Nemean lion, 163, 164, 165, 171, 213, 214
entrance, 139 n. 18 Neoptolemus, 108, 109, 111, 194, 195, 196, 198,
epic, 138, 140–1 219
Heroides, 61, 61 n. 4, 85–6, 210, 220 Nero (Nero Claudius Caesar), 217, 233
Iliad, 140 Nessus, 65, 82, 116, 200–3, 205, 225–6
irony, 150–1 new formalism, 6–7
isolation of speakers, 138–41, 219–20 new historicism, 7
Medea (Euripides), 42, 138–9, 141, 142 Newlands, Carole, 178, 183, 184
Metamorphoses, 4, 85–6, 135, 136–41, 137 n. 7, Nikolaidis, A. G., 44–5
175, 176, 219–20 Niobe, 8
Althaea, 137, 149, 227 Nisus
Boreas, 136 companion of Euryalus, 56
Byblis, 89–90, 92, 94, 137 father of Scylla, 93
Deianira, 149, 203–6, 210, 212, 213 noverca, 69, 91, 132
feminine discourse, 86, 137, 153, 212, 220 Nugent, Georgia, 137, 144
Hecabe, 112, 134, 137, 153–61, 176, 219
Hercules, 134, 137, 161–75, 176, 213–15 Octavian (Gaius Octavius), see Augustus
Iphis (lover of Anaxarete), 137 Odysseus/Ulysses, 63
Iphis (lover of Ianthe), 137 Hecabe, 108, 109, 110, 154, 194
masculine discourse, 161–2 Heroides, 60, 79, 81, 83, 88
Medea, 134, 136, 141–53, 159, 161, 176, 219 Metamorphoses, 103
Myrrha, 137 Odyssey, 81, 180
Narcissus, 136, 141 Oechalia, 118, 201, 211
Polyxena, 156 Oedipus, 179
Scylla (daughter of Nisus), 136 Julius Caesar, 33
Thisbe, 141 Metamorphoses, 6, 141, 178
Periboea (Pacuvius), 26–7, 140 Oedipus Tyrannos (OT), 66, 72
Roman tragedy, 26–7, 140, 219 Oenone, 60, 78, 181, 220
Mossman, Judith, 154 Oeta, 116–20, 133, 161, 164, 213, 219
Most, Glenn, 14 offstage action, 4, 95, 96, 97, 219, 232
mundus, 97, 120, 133, 200 Antigone, 27
Myrrha, 93, 137, 146, 183 Bacchae, 99
myth/mythography, 179–80, 215, 223, 234 Hecabe, 10, 107, 109, 219
as code, 62, 75 Heroides, 12
elegiac, 75–6 Medea (Ovid), 43
Heroides, 29, 62, 75–8, 84, 220 Medea (Seneca), 229
and irony, 81 Metamorphoses, 170, 210, 219, 229
Metamorphoses, 29, 85, 101 Thyestes (Seneca), 229
Propertius 4.3, 79 Women of Trachis, 116, 121, 168–70
tragic, 8, 16, 22, 24–5, 29, 66, 75–8, 101 Omphale, 213–14, 215
onstage action, 4, 96, 219
Naevius, Gnaeus, 21, 22, 24, 26, 27–8, 56, 178 Antigona (Accius), 27
Equos Troianus, 33 Hecabe, 109, 154
Romulus, 27 Medea (Seneca), 229, 231–2
Narcissus, 6, 136, 141, 178 Metamorphoses, 12–13, 97, 99, 170, 229, 232
narrative, 3, 4, 10, 13, 44, 52 Thyestes (Seneca), 229
first-person perspective, 16, 63, 218 Women of Trachis, 168–70
Heroides, 64–8, 84, 86, 97, 221 Ophius, 129
Metamorphoses, 86, 135–6, 137 oratory, see rhetoric
third-person perspective, 140 Orestes, 27, 54, 70, 71, 180
Metamorphoses, 85, 86–8, 89, 94, 97, 106–7, Orithyia, 178
112, 113, 130–1, 135–6, 170, 221, 226 Orpheus, 100–1
Thyestes (Seneca), 226 Otis, Brooks, 11, 166, 222
Women of Trachis, 226 Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso)
General index 271
Amores, 4, 19, 37–40, 45–6, 47–9, 50, 52, 57, problems in, 4, 118–20, 185, 193–6, 202
59–60, 74, 75, 76, 224 reception
Ars amatoria, 37, 45, 49–50, 59, 62, in the Renaissance, 2
70, 233–4 by Seneca the Younger, 233
career, 2, 4, 5, 8, 17–18, 19, 21, 30, 37–9, 45–6, of Vergil, 221–4
47, 48–50, 57–8, 59–60, 85, 175, 215, 217, rhetorical education, 29 n. 55, 44 n. 124
218, 221, 222, 234 as tragedian, 2, 5, 8, 19, 21, 24, 29, 37–49, 60,
chronology of early works, 19 n. 1, 47 n. 132, 60 62, 84, 85, 100, 134, 175, 178, 215, 217,
exile/relegation, 5, 40–1, 45, 70, 72, 218, 221, 218–21, 223, 230–3
235 Tristia, 40–1, 45, 46, 49, 69–73, 235
Fasti, 76
Heroides, 5, 49, 50, 96, 134, 206, 215, 216, 217, Pacuvius, Marcus, 4, 21, 22, 24, 25, 28, 31,
220–1, 230, see also elegy 44, 45
authenticity, 60, 60 n. 3 Iliona, 24–5, 27, 28, 106
double letters, 5, 61, 88 Orestes, 27, 54
epistolary mode, 5, 62–8, 93, 96, 149–50, Pentheus, 6, 27, 54
221 Periboea, 26–7, 140
influence of tragedy, 5, 7, 60 Page, D. L., 193 n. 31
and the Medea, 17–18, 19, 20, 29, 41–2, 57, Pallas (son of Evander), 56
58, 60, 84, 85, 208–9, 221 Pandion, 135
and the Metamorphoses, 5, 57, 84–94, 137, Panoussi, Vassiliki, 54, 223–4
149–53, 178, 206–15, 221 pantomime, 36, 36 n. 90, see also mime
poem “22” (Byblis), 84–94 Heroides, 40–1, 41 n. 108, 61, 61 n. 5
problems in, 209–15 Medea (Ovid), 40–1
single letters, 5, 61, 70, 88 paradigms, character, 4, 17, 85, 90–3, 159, 176,
“hesitant precursor” to Seneca the Younger, 179–82, 216
218, 225, 230 as code, 180, 185, 202, 205, 220
Medea, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 17, 19, 20, 21, 23, 29, 35, Deianira, 205–6
37–49, 50, 57, 60, 76, 82, 94, 131, 215, Hecabe, 159, 182–3
216, 217, 221, 227, 231 Iphigenia, 187–9, 190–3
canticum, 42, 140 n. 23 Medea, 180–1, 200–6, 227–9, 231
date, 39–40 Pentheus, 184–5
first in a series of plays, 40, 49, 221 Philomela, 186
fragments, 41–3, 43 n. 117 Polyxena, 185–200
and the Heroides, 17–18, 19, 20, 29, 41–2, Procne, 182–3
57, 58, 60, 84, 85, 208–9, 221 Thyestes, 227–9
length, 41 parameters, see code
as lost text, 57–8 parergon, 164, 171, 214
and Medea (Euripides), 42, 43 Paris, 60, 64–5, 66, 67, 74, 78, 80, 129, 181, 220
and Medea (Seneca), 2, 42, 229–30 parodos, 139
and the Metamorphoses, 17–18, 19, 20, 29, pathos, 16, 95, 152, 153, 166, 173, 186, 193, 214,
43, 58, 208–9, 221 see also lamentation
reception, 2, 43–6, 57, 221 Agamemnon, 72
recitation drama, 40–1, 46, 94 Antigone, 72
spectacle, 208–9 Heroides, 5, 62, 68–74, 76, 77–8, 86, 208, 212,
Metamorphoses, 3, 5, 8, 9, 11, 97, 206, 215, 216, 215, 220
217, 218–20, 229, 230, 234, see also epic Hippolytus (Stephanias, HS), 68–9
and the Aeneid, 223–4 Hippolytus Kalyptomenos (HK), 69
and the Heroides, 5, 57, 84–94, 137, 149–53, Medea (Ovid), 73
178, 206–15, 221 Metamorphoses, 85, 86, 88, 89, 94, 101, 116–18,
illustrated, 3 120, 162, 166, 170–5, 202–3, 219, 220
and imperium, 224–5 Oedipus Tyrannos (OT), 72
influence of tragedy, 4–5, 7–8 Phaedra (Sophocles), 69
and the Medea, 17–18, 19, 20, 29, 43, 58, Propertius 4.3, 77, 78, 79
208–9, 221 Women of Trachis, 69, 116, 167–70
272 General index
Patroclus, 151 Metamorphoses, 8, 10, 13, 102, 107, 108–13, 153,
Pavlock, Barbara, 127, 130 154–6, 157–9, 173, 177, 178, 182, 185–200,
Peleus, 63 205, 210, 219, 228
Pelias, 23, 70, 121, 127–8, 147, 148 Polyxena (Sophocles), 27, 106
Penelope, 12, 60, 72, 79, 81, 83, 85, 88, 159, 180, Pompey (Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus), 33, 34,
181, 209, 220 35, 39
Pentheus, 5–6, 8, 27, 54, 99–100, 101, 184–5 Pompilius, 31
Periboea, 26–7, 140 Pomponius Secundus, 32 n. 68
peripeteia, 16, 53, 68, 218 pornography, 72 n. 36, 110, 190, 196
Periphas, 132 Poseidon, 139
personification, 166, 168 Priam, 24, 103, 155–6, 159, 160
Phaedra, 8, 70, 72 Procne, 8, 70, 71, 135, 182–3, 184–5, 187, 193, 208,
Heroides, 7, 12, 14–16, 60, 63, 68–9, 70, 77, 209, 227, 229
78, 79–80, 88, 90–3, 146, 181 Procris, 178
Hippolytus (Stephanias, HS), 14–17, 54, 71, proemio al mezzo (proem in the middle), 38,
144–5, 146 56–7
Hippolytus Kalyptomenos (HK), 69 professionalism, see career
Metamorphoses, 8, 183 prologues, 66, 95
Phaedra (Sophocles), 69 Aeneid, 55
Phaëthon, 7 Andromache, 139 n. 21
Phaon, 60, 66 Catullus 64, 52
Phene, 132 Hecabe, 106–7
Philomela, 70 Heroides, 64
Metamorphoses, 8, 71, 72–3, 134–6, 137, 140, Medea (Accius), 25
182, 186 Medea (Euripides), 23–4, 128
Tereus (Accius), 28–9 Medea exul (Ennius), 23–4, 52, 55
Tereus (Sophocles), 72–3, 136 Metamorphoses, 102–3, 105–7
Philyra, 129 Polyxena (Sophocles), 106–7
Phrixus, 142 Prometheus (PV), 139 n. 21
Phyllis, 60, 66, 67, 73, 78 Women of Trachis, 139 n. 21
pietas, 145 Propertius, Sextus, 75, 76–9
Pisones (family), 32 n. 68 prophecy, 95, 130–1
Plato, 63 Protesilaus, 70, 79, 83–4, 88, 197
plot, 16 pudor, 14–16, 28, 69, 92–3, 145, 146, 159, 220,
Plutarch, 52 see also modesty and desire
polis, 223 Punic War, First, 27
politics and society, 17, 22, 30, 216 Pupius, 31
Athenian tragedy, 223 Pygmalion (brother of Dido), 66–7
Heroides, 218, 235 Pyramus, 6, 141
Metamorphoses, 218, 235 Pyrrhus, 181
Roman tragedy, 27–9, 218
Pollio, Gaius Asinius, 36, 38 Quellenforschung, 7, 10, 15, 53
Polydorus Quintilian (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus), 41,
Hecabe, 9, 24–5, 27, 102, 105–7, 154 44–5, 49
Iliona (Pacuvius), 24–5, 27 Quintus Tullius Cicero, 32
Metamorphoses, 105–7, 108, 112, 113,
158, 182 Rabinowitz, Nancy Sorkin, 72
Polymestor Raval, Shilpa, 90 n. 83, 90 n. 84, 91 n. 85,
Hecabe, 24–5, 102, 105, 107, 154, 158 94 n. 95
Iliona (Pacuvius), 24–5 reader, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 17, 51, 87
Metamorphoses, 107, 113, 114–15, 183 and irony, 80, 81, 85
Polyxena, 8, 85, 176 as listener, 3–4, 89, 94, 210
Hecabe, 9, 10, 102, 105, 107, 108–12, 154–5, as spectator, 3, 63, 89, 94, 96, 98–9, 98 n. 9,
157, 159–60, 189–90, 191, 192–3, 194, 195, 102, 117, 158, 219
196, 197, 198, 205 as transgressor, 186, 211, 220
General index 273
recitation drama, 30, 36–7, 50 Seneca the Elder (Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Heroides, 61, 61 n. 5 maior), 36, 42, 44 n. 124
Medea (Ovid), 40–1, 46, 94 Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca
recognition (anagnorisis), 16, 218 iunior), 1, 2, 3, 17, 55, 140, 217
recusatio, 37, 40, 47–9, 56, 60 and imperium, 233
revenge, 16, 229 Medea, 1, 2, 13, 218, 229, 230, 232
Hecabe, 113–14 and Medea (Ovid), 2, 42, 229–30
Iliona (Pacuvius), 28 Phaedra, 69
Metamorphoses, 107, 113–14, 127–8, 131, 182–3, reception of Ovid, 233
201–6 Thyestes, 218, 225–8, 230
Thyestes (Seneca), 225–8, 230 Servius (Maurus Servius Honoratus), 52
reversal (peripeteia), 16, 218 servus amoris, 214, 215
rhetoric, 4, 134 n. 1, 180, 218, see also messenger Shakespeare, William, 2, 3, 3 n. 9
speeches; monologue career, 1, 2
desperation, 147–50, 156–8, 159, 180, 204–6, Sharrock, Alison, 177
220 simile, 88, 121
Hecabe, 153–4 skēnē, 1, 88, 96, 99, 102, 107, 109, 112, 115, 116,
Heroides, 29, 61, 61 n. 4, 62 n. 8, 72, 78, 80, 121, 122, 124, 132, 136, 175, 229, 231, 232,
85–6, 220 see also scenery
Medea (Euripides), 142, 149, 154 society, see politics and society
Medea (Ovid), 29, 43, 46, 134 soliloquy, see monologue
Metamorphoses, 4, 29, 85–6, 89, 92, 110–11, sōma, 166
134–6, 153, 165–6, 175–6, 196–7, Sophocles, 17, 50, 81, 121, 133, 202, 215, 218
215 Ajax, 64, 65, 139
Roman tragedy, 26–7, 30, 36–7, 52, 134, 138, Antigone, 27, 71, 72
166, 175, 218, 219 Oedipus Tyrannos (OT), 66, 72
Women of Trachis, 162–5, 167–70, 172 Phaedra, 69, 90
ritual, 17, 100, 105, 127 Polyxena, 27, 106
role-play, see also metatheater Tereus, 73, 136, 187, 227
Aeneid, 54, 55 “Theban trilogy,” 104
Amores, 48–9 Women of Trachis, 8, 95–6, 115–21, 162–5,
Heroides, 181, 228 167–70, 173–4, 180, 181, 201, 202, 203–6,
Medea (Seneca), 227–9, 231 211, 213, 214
Metamorphoses, 90–2, 109–11, 112–13, 127, problems in, 200–1
146–7, 158–61, 173, 176, 195 soror, 87, 91
Thyestes (Seneca), 227–9 source criticism (Quellenforschung), 7, 10,
Tristia, 235 14–15, 53
Rosati, Gianpiero, 98 sources, see models and sources
Ross, David, 184 space and time, see also here-and-now;
rota Vergiliana, 37 n. 97, 222 landscape; locus; there-and-then
Hecabe, 107, 153
Sandys, George, 2 n. 7 Heroides, 63–8, 84, 85, 97, 221
Santra, 31 Medea (Euripides), 124
Sappho, 60, 66, 67, 77 Medea (Seneca), 232
scenery, 55, 60, 64, 65, 97, 99, 103, 109, Metamorphoses, 85, 86–7, 96–8, 105, 107,
see also skēnē 113–14, 118–19, 120–1, 122, 124–6, 128–31,
Schiesaro, Alessandro, 229, 230 132, 133, 134, 136, 140, 153, 158, 164, 175,
Scipio Africanus, Publius Cornelius, 28 179, 218–19, 221, 232
Scipiones (family), 28 tragic, 63–8, 85, 95–6, 97
Scylla Women of Trachis, 95–6, 118, 120, 133,
daughter of Nisus, 93, 136, 146, 149, 152, 178, 168–70
183 spectacle
sea monster, 151, 152, 207 Heroides, 90
Segal, Charles, 75, 166, 174, 180 Medea (Ovid), 29, 40, 43, 46
Semele, 70 Medea (Seneca), 229, 231–2
274 General index
spectacle (cont.) Athenian canons, 50–1
Metamorphoses, 3, 29, 43, 85, 88, 96, 98–9, Hellenistic anthologies, 51
103, 108, 111, 114, 115, 120–1, 127–8, 132, Heroides, 94
134, 153, 158, 174, 175, 177, 198, 215, Metamorphoses, 94, 104
218–19 quotation, 51
Roman tragedy, 27, 30, 33–5, 36, 39, 50, 52, thalamus, 88, 89
100, 134, 218 Thalmann, William, 189–90
in Rome, 100, 100 n. 17, 219 theater, see also theatron; theatrum
Thyestes (Seneca), 229 Balbus, 39
Women of Trachis, 167–70, 173–4 Curio, 34–5, 101
speeches, see messenger speeches; monologue; of elegy, 5, 12–13, 62–8, 84, 86, 88, 215
rhetoric of epic, 5, 12–13, 84, 101, 111, 164, 219, 229,
Spentzou, Efrossini, 63 232
sphragis, 37 Marcellus, 34, 39
stage directions, 64, 65 Pompey, 33, 34, 39
stagecraft, see entrances; ekkyklēma; exits; Roman, 33–5, 39–40, 46, 221
mēchanē; onstage action; offstage action; theatricality, 3–4, 5, 6, 10, 12–14, 22, 61, 96, 115,
rhetoric; scenery; skēnē; spectacle; stage 215
directions; theatricality Heroides, 5, 12–13, 60, 62–8, 86, 215, 221
Stheneboea, 72 Metamorphoses, 3, 12–13, 88–9, 96,
story patterns, 16 98–9, 104, 108–11, 116–17, 126–7,
structuralism, 179 132, 136, 140–1, 158, 172–3, 175–6,
Stymphalian birds, 163, 164, 165, 171 219–20
suasoriae, 37, 61, 86 Propertius 4.3, 79
Sychaeus, 54, 55, 66–7 Roman tragedy, 25–7, 134
Symplegades, 152 in Rome, 33–6, 39
synchrony, 179–80, 187 Women of Trachis, 116, 167–70
Heroides, 180–2 theatron, 3, 13, 52, 60, 62, 86, 88, 96, 98,
and irony, 181 101, 109, 111, 114, 116, 126, 134,
Metamorphoses, 182–5 136, 164, 169, 175, 204, 218, 221,
structuralism, 179 see also theatrum; theater
Women of Trachis, 180 theatrum, 3, see also theatron; theater
synergy, 17 Balbi, 39
elegy and tragedy, 12–13, 15, 16, 62, 83–4, Curionis, 34–5, 101
220–1 Marcelli, 34, 39
epic and tragedy, 57, 132, 218, 219–20, 234 Pompeii, 33, 34, 39
Syrtis, 151 “viewbook,” 3
Thebes, 8, 54, 104, 172
Tacitus, Cornelius, 43–4, 49 as anti-Athens, 222–3
Tales from Ovid, 3 there-and-then, 63, 65, see also here-and-now;
Talthybius, 108, 110, 189–90, 196, 198 space and time
Taplin, Oliver, 13, 64, 95–6 Medea (Euripides), 131
Tarrant, R. J., 140, 221, 223, 225–6, 229–30 Metamorphoses, 86, 97, 98, 113, 219, 221
Tecmessa, 32 Women of Trachis, 169
Telchines, 129 Theseus, 60, 70, 132, 133, 151, 152, 206, 207
Telemachus, 81, 180 Thessaly, 124–6, 129, 232
tension, 17 Thetis, 63
elegy and tragedy, 11–12, 15, 62, 81–3 Thisbe, 6, 141
epic and tragedy, 132, 218–19 Thrace, 24, 102, 104–6, 121, 182
Tereus, 8, 28–9, 70, 71, 72, 134–6, 182, 229 Thyestes, 71, 225–6, 229
Teuthras, 32 Thyestes (Varius), 35–6
textualization (of tragedy), 50–7, 61, 166, 216, Tibullus, Albius, 75
221 time, see space and time
Aeneid, 52–7 Titius, Gaius, 32
anthologies, 50–1 Tomis, 40, 233
General index 275
topoi, 175 Varius Rufus, Lucius, 35, 38
akrasia, 144–6, 148, 180 career, 35
ekphrasis, 63, 135 Thyestes, 35–6, 43–4
first ship, 23–4, 25, 29 Varro Atacinus, Publius Terentius, 29
inhuman prodigy, 151–3 venatio, 100–1
locus est, 97, 115 vengeance, see revenge
marriage to death, 72, 190, 196 Venini, Paolo, 155
me miserum/miseram!, 74, 74 n. 41, 78, 89 Venus, 55, 67
modesty and desire, 14–17, 69, 92–3, 143–7, Victrix, 33
176, 177–8, 180, 220 Vergil (Publius Vergilius Maro), 4, 31, 50, 217,
proemio al mezzo, 38, 56–7 218, 221, 225
recusatio, 37, 40, 47–9, 56, 60 Aeneid, 4, 20, 27, 30, 35, 38, 52–7, 207–8,
rhetoric of desperation, 147–50, 156–8, 159, 221
180, 204–6, 220 and imperium, 223–4, 225, 231
sphragis, 37 and the Metamorphoses, 223–4
Trojan woman enslaved, 158–61, 176 and the Poetics, 53
Trachis, 95, 116, 118, 119, 120, 121, 133, 210 career, 20–1, 37–8, 50, 56–7
tragedy, 1, 4, 12–14, 15–17, 35 rota Vergiliana, 37 n. 97, 222
anthologies, 50–1 Eclogues, 20, 37
Athenian, 1, 8, 17, 21, 22, 50–1, 54, 112, 215, Georgics, 37
217, 223 “hesitant precursor” to Ovid, 218, 223, 225,
gentrified, 30, 32–3 229
and imperium, 56, 221–33 reception by Ovid, 221–4
modern vernacular sense, 4 as tragedian, 52, 57, 60, 94, 216, 223
Roman, 1, 21–33, 35–6, 215, 217, 218 violence, 1, 12–14, 95, 105, 166, 187–93, 230,
textualized, 50–7, 61, 94, 104, 166, 216, 221 see also amphitheatricality
transformed Heroides, 11–12, 82
into elegy, 5, 94, 211, 220–1 Medea (Euripides), 1, 9, 43, 203,
into epic, 5, 10–11, 52–7, 60, 94, 96, 101–2, 205
104, 107–8, 113, 115, 118–20, 172–3, 175–6, Medea (Ovid), 42, 43
211, 218–20, 226 Medea (Seneca), 1, 13, 42, 229, 231–2
transformation, 3, 9, 10, 85, 86, 121 Metamorphoses, 12–13, 43, 85, 99–101, 105–7,
Byblis, 88 108, 109, 111, 112, 115, 117, 118, 127–8,
Hecabe, 103–4, 107, 114–15 134, 158, 170–5, 182–4, 202–3, 218, 219,
Hercules, 116, 120–1, 133, 133, 166, 219 225–6
Lycaon, 9–10, 114 Thyestes (Seneca), 225–6, 229
Medea, 121–32, 133, 232 Women of Trachis, 167–70, 202
transgression, see liminality and transgression Virbius, 93
Troezen, 79 visuality, see spectacle
Trojan-woman-enslaved topos, 158–61, 176
Troy, 24, 33, 83, 84, 85, 102–4, 105, 156, 158–61, Westerhold, Jessica, 19 n. 1
186 Wheeler, Stephen, 4
Turnus, 56 Wilkinson, L. P., 80
Williams, Gareth, 81
Ulysses, see Odysseus
unity (Aristotelian), 62, 62 n. 11, 97 Zeus, 121, 162
Zimmerman, Mary, 3
Valerius Maximus, 32–3 Zissos, Andrew, 6, 7, 172, 178, 183, 184, 233

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T R A G E D Y I N OV I D

DAN CURLEY is Associate Professor of Classics at Skidmore College.

© Daniel Curley 2013

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception

First published 2013

Printed by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon CR0 4 YY

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data

ISBN 978-1-107-00953-0 Hardback

Preface page vii

1 Mutatas dicere formas. The transformation

2 Nunc habeam per te Romana Tragoedia nomen.

3 Lacrimas ﬁnge videre meas. Epistolary theater 59

4 Locus exstat et ex re nomen habet. Space, time,

5 Tollens ad sidera palmas exclamat. Staging rhetoric 134

6 Medeae Medea forem. Tragic intratextuality 177

7 Carmen et error. Tragedy’s end 217

This book, a study of tragic theatricality in Ovid’s Heroides and

CAF Kock, T. (ed.) (1880–8) Comicorum Atticorum Fragmenta,

Mutatas dicere formas

At the climax of Seneca’s Medea, the protagonist-heroine does something

1 Theater and metatheater

2 Sources and genres

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