Grand Perversions: Sex and Genre in Ovid's Metamorphoses

Melissa Grady

Date of Award

2009

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Rohrbacher, David

Keywords

Ovid, Latin, Epic, Elegy, Genre

Area of Concentration

Classics

Abstract

For my senior thesis, I look at the works of the Roman poet Ovid, especially his epic Metamorphoses. I give close readings to six sections of the epic, comparing and contrasting them with Ovid's elegiac works and traditional epics in the Homeric and Virgilian style. For instance, in the second chapter, I examine Io's story, in which epic tropes create a framework around an elegized story of lust, vindictiveness, foolish gods, and cows. The first chapter establishes that genre is mutable in Ovid's epic through the comparison of two versions of one story. The second chapter expands on the idea of an "elegized epic" through three more examples. The third chapter looks at two examples of non-elegiac genre play in the Metamorphoses, emphasizing Ovid's clever wordplay and self-conscious narration. The thesis studies the effects of genre on Ovid's poetry and serves as a primer to deeper readings of his grand work.

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