OVID AND HESIOD The Metamorphosis of the Catalogue of Women The influence on Ovid of Hesiod, the most important archaic Greek poet after Homer, has been underestimated. Yet, as this book shows, a profound engagement with Hesiod s themes is central to Ovid s poetic world. As a poet who praised women instead of men and opted for stylistic delicacy instead of epic grandeur, Hesiod is always contrasted with Homer. Ovid revives this epic rivalry by setting the Hesiodic character of his Metamorphoses against the Homeric character of Virgil s Aeneid. Dr. Ziogas explores not only Ovid s intertextual engagement with Hesiod s works, but also his dialogue with the rich scholarly, philosophical, and literary tradition of Hesiodic reception. An important contribution to the study of Ovid and the wider poetry of the Augustan age, the book also forms an excellent case study in how the reception of previous traditions can become the driving force of poetic creation. ioannis ziogas is Lecturer in Classics at the Australian National University.
OVID AND HESIOD The Metamorphosis of the Catalogue of Women IOANNIS ZIOGAS
cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Mexico City Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 8ru, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York Information on this title: /9781107007413 C 2013 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2013 Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by the MPG Books Group A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Ziogas, Ioannis, 1977 Ovid and Hesiod : the metamorphosis of the Catalogue of Women /. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-1-107-00741-3 (hardback) 1. Ovid, 43 b.c. 17 or 18 a.d. Criticism and interpretation. 2. Hesiod Influence. 3. Hesiod. Catalogus feminarum. 4. Womenand literature Greece History To 1500. 5. Intertextuality. I. Title. pa6537.z54 2012 871.01 dc23 2012027123 isbn 978-1-107-00741-3 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
For Erica Melanie Bexley
Contents Preface Acknowledgments page ix xi Introduction: Ovid as a Hesiodic poet 1 1 Helen: the intertext of illusion 20 2 Cosmos and Eros: from Chaos to divine loves 54 3 Coronis and Mestra: bringing the women back to the Catalogue of Women 112 4 Atalanta: literal and literary races 148 5 Caenis and Periclymenus: Hesiod at Achilles party 180 Concluding remarks 219 Bibliography 222 Index of passages discussed 236 General index 241 vii
Preface This book follows a growing scholarly interest in the Catalogue of Women and the reception of Hesiod in antiquity. Martina Hirschberger s edition and commentary in 2004, followed by Glenn Most s Loeb in 2007, have improved our knowledge of the fragments vastly. In the meantime, a collection of essays edited by Richard Hunter in 2005 has contributed a long overdue literary assessment of the Hesiodic Catalogue and its reception in Hellenistic and Latin poetry. Kirk Ormand s monograph on the Catalogue and Joseph Farrell s forthcoming study on genealogies in the Metamorphoses are avidly anticipated. These studies shed new light on the Hesiodic fragments, sometimes revising, other times building on Martin West s fundamental workon thecatalogue. Chad Schroeder s Hesiod in the Hellenistic Imagination (2006) and Hugo Koning s Hesiod: The Other Poet (2010) are invaluable studies of Hesiod s reception from the archaic to the Hellenistic period, while Brill s Companion to Hesiod, edited by Franco Montanari, Antonios Rengakos, and Christos Tsagalis (2009), includes (among several significant contributions) an important article by Gianpiero Rosati on the Latin reception of Hesiod. Some of these works appeared during the final stages of this book s gestation, and taking them into account was often challenging but mostly rewarding. Working on a fragmentary work is both a fascinating and frustrating experience. For the text of the Catalogue, I used Merkelbach and West s first (1967) and third edition (1990), 1 but I constantly consulted Hirschberger (2004) and Most(2007). I have been cautious about building an argument on emendations and, whenever I have done it, it is because the formulaic diction of the Catalogue often makes it possible to restore lacunose lines 1 The third edition of the fragments ( Fragmenta Selecta ) is published in the same OCT volume as Solmsen s edition of the Theogony,theWorks and Days,andtheShield. Although this edition includes fragments discovered after the publication of the first edition in 1967 (Oxford), many testimonia and fragments that appeared in the first edition are omitted. Most 2006, includes a valuable collection of testimonia. ix
x Preface with reasonable assurance. Though it was tempting, I did not offer my own textual conjectures and avoided the equally tempting, but circular, method of using Ovid to restore Hesiod s text. For the text of Heroides 16 17,Iuse Dörrie (1971) (in the absence of a new edition) and Kenney (1996). For the Metamorphoses, I use Tarrant s 2004 OCT. In the bibliography, I follow the journal abbreviations used in L Année Philologique. Australian Capital Territory January 2012
Acknowledgments It is my pleasure to thank those who helped me write this book with their knowledge, experience, collegiality, moral support, friendship, and love. The idea of working on Ovid and Hesiod was conceived while I was working on a conference paper with Marios Skempis, and I owe a lot to Marios friendship and scholarship. This book is a substantial revision of my Cornell dissertation, and many thanks are due to my thesis advisor, Frederick Ahl. His tremendous knowledge of and unfailing enthusiasm for the world of Greek and Roman literature have been an endless source of inspiration and courage. I was equally fortunate with the other members of my dissertation committee. Michael Fontaine helped me bring my ideas into clearer focus, while his deep knowledge of the Latin language saved me from several infelicities. Jeffrey Rusten meticulously read many drafts of my thesis and helped me improve my work with his insightful comments, his amazing knowledge of Greek, and his experience in working on fragments. I am also very grateful to my learned friends at Cornell, especially Todd Clary, Roman Ivanov, Annetta Alexandridis, Ann Hubert, and Tobias Torgerson, and the faculty members of Cornell s Classics department, especially Charles Brittain, Eric Rebillard, Hayden Pelliccia, and Pietro Pucci. Stratis Kyriakidis and Eleni Peraki-Kyriakidou first taught me Latin as an undergraduate student and then supervised my MA thesis in Greece I owe them my fascination with Latin poetry. Their guidance as teachers and scholarly examples has been invaluable. I am also grateful to Vasileios Fyntikoglou, Chrysanthe Tsitsiou-Chelidoni, Michael Lipka, Christos Tsagalis, Theodore Papanghelis, and Antonios Rengakos for their advice and constructive criticism. I also thank the anonymous readers of Cambridge University Press for their particularly encouraging reviews and excellent suggestions for revision. Andrew Dyck, my exceptionally learned and efficient copy-editor, saved me from many blunders. Many thanks are due to Kirk Ormand and xi
xii Acknowledgments Joseph Farrell for sharing with me their research plans and unpublished work on the Catalogue of Women. Han Baltussen and Peter Davis gave me a job when I badly needed it and made sure that I had everything I needed for my research at the University of Adelaide. It was a real pleasure to work in such a friendly academic environment. Peter kindly made available his bibliographical resources at a time when half of my books were in Greece, the other half in the United States, and I was working in Australia. My family supported me more than I can say here, especially during the difficult period between my departure from Cornell and my arrival at the University of Adelaide. This book would have never come out without the love and support of my parents, Vasileios and Xantho Ziogas, my sisters, Dimitra and Maria, and my brothers-in-law, Asterios Christodoulou and Peter Panagiotidis. Erica helped me in every possible way. She read and reread numerous drafts, made extremely helpful comments, and, most importantly, has never failed to cheer me up with a smile that has the Graces radiance.