The battle scenes in Ovid's 'Metamorphoses

This dissertation is a close reading of the two major battle scenes in Ovid's Metamorphoses in light of their Homeric and Vergilian models. By and large neglected and even considered artistic failures, Ovid's battle scenes benefit from a more descriptive approach. The first two chapters address the Homeric and Vergilian background in a selective way, while the chapters on Ovid cover the texts of the battle scenes in their entirety. Particular attention is given to Ovid's methods of synthesis and creative variation, as well as to a broader understanding of parody.;Chapter One on the Homeric tradition discusses those features of battle composition that best inform the reader what to expect in this most conventional of topoi: types of battle scenes, the portrayal of violence, the characterization of warriors, and the use of irony. The second chapter investigates Vergil's use of the conventions of wounding and dying to portray the distinctive character of the combatants, especially the hero. Vergil's intertextuality is most in evidence when Aeneas responds to critics of his actions in the Iliad. Chapter Three is a close reading of the first of the two major battle scenes in the Metamorphoses, the clash between Perseus and Phineus (5.1--235), which is best understood as a response to Vergil's Aeneid. A metapoetical reading reveals two approaches to composing battle narrative as embodied by the brash and inventive young warrior and artist Perseus and his old, predictable antagonist Phineus. The fourth chapter is a close reading of the battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs (12.210--535) which is Ovid's response to Homer's Iliad. A new aesthetic arises naturally from the dynamic and competitive atmosphere of Nestor's story-telling, which is emblematic of Ovid's competition with the literary traditions that he inherited and recast.