GENRE AND INTERTEXTUALITY IN OVID'S HEROIDES

Date of Award

2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Rohrbacher, David

Keywords

Ovid, Heroides, Greek Heroines, Greek Poetry

Area of Concentration

Classics

Abstract

This thesis examines Ovid’s Heroides 7, 10, and 12 through intertextual readings of the heroines’ myths and the themes of three different generic traditions. The first, epistolography, enables the heroines to create their own personae and persuade the readers to believe them. To maintain their lovers’ interests, they characterize themselves as both powerful and powerless. The second, lament, uses intertextual references to produce the irony pervading the three poems. Although bolstered by funeral imagery, the heroines’ laments are undercut by the readers’ knowledge of previous versions of their myths. The third, elegy, introduces strict roles for the heroines to fulfill. Reversing these roles causes the heroines embody conflicting personae. Considering these genres and intertextual allusions, I give new readings of Heroides 7, 10, and 12 and discuss their impact on the reader.

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