This study seeks to renew interest in the poetically constructed landscapes of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Far from existing as mere background to the epic, close investigation and analysis reveals the reflective relationship and mutually exerted force between landscape and narrative. Detailed readings show how the landscapes are created in order to reveal Ovid’s poetic programme, especially as concerns the intersection of genre; landscape descriptions are read as interpretive strategies for understanding the crossing of genres that comprise Ovid’s hyper-Alexandrian epic. I argue for this interest as indicated to the reader by three points of departure made by the poet that show up against the background of his interconnected patterning of narrations. These are choices demanding exegesis beyond mere recognition, and are designed to reveal a purposeful agenda that focuses attention upon the descriptions of the natural world. The first chapter explores the construction of Thessalian Tempe in Book 1, made prominent by Ovid’s mythological placement of Daphne as a Thessalian nymph. Tempe represents a landscape consequentially shaped by the narrative of Apollo and Daphne, memorialising topographically the intersection of the ‘high’ and ‘low’ genres of epic and elegy exemplified in their interaction. This narrative influence over the landscape is explored in this programmatic tale, and Tempe’s metapoetic construction is argued for using Callimachus’ Hymn to Delos as a poetic model, focusing on the figure of the Peneus common to both texts. The second chapter focuses on Helicon in Book 5, and examines the finely-drawn relationship between the contest songs and Helicon’s position as the contest prize across the complex layers of narrative space, demonstrating how the inspiratory springs of Helicon provide the narrative motivation for the contest songs and tracing the generic topography of Calliope’s song. The third chapter offers a new interpretation of Orpheus’ grove as an atmospheric doublet of the Underworld, examined through the patterning of meaning imposed by the dual meaning of umbra, and identifies Ovid’s transformation of a literary topos.

The thesis tests the hypothesis that certain aspects of linguistic variation in Attic prose are related to the type of oral performance, private or public, which the author envisaged for his text. This hypothesis rests on the assumption that authors more or less consciously optimized their texts for their intended communicative situation. A crucial feature of texts optimized for public delivery was clarity, which figures as an essential component of the 'virtue of speech' in the Greek rhetorical thought. In private situations the audience itself could alter the pace of reading or recitation. Clarifications could be sought, and pauses and repetitions would be possible. The case was different with public situations, where the text itself coincided with its performance and it was entirely up to the speaker to determine the way in which the audience would access it. Especially in political and judicial contexts, where important decisions were to be made, public speakers could not afford being unclear. In order to test whether public texts were clearer than private texts, 'clarity' must be defined in a linguistically thorough way. Modern psycholinguistics studies human language comprehension, and experimental research has revealed language-independent mechanisms which can be confidently applied to dead languages. In the thesis, clarity is measured by the number of syntactic, semantic, and referential reanalyses which linguistics structures induce in a given amount of text. This methodology is tested on a corpus of Attic speeches, which includes both texts that were devised exclusively for written circulation and private delivery, and texts that were at least conceived for public delivery, although we do not know to what extent they correspond to the versions which were actually delivered. The difference between the average score of 'public texts' and that of 'private texts' is statistically significant and supports the hypothesis that 'public texts' were generally clearer than 'private texts' for audiences of native speakers.

This thesis aims to solve the apparent problem of the frequent repetitions in Lucretius' De Rerum Natura (DRN). Verbal repetitions of many different lengths pervade DRN, and are noted in the scholarship. Yet a consensus has not been reached as to their purpose and function, or even if they rightly belong in the text. Multi-linear repetitions are viewed as a temporary stop-gap which Lucretius would have removed or adjusted had he lived long enough to effect it; or as later interpolations; while shorter repetitions are underplayed or even ignored altogether. But repetitions and internal allusions in DRN are part of a purposeful, meaningful didactic and rhetorical strategy, and they form much of the intellectual structure of the poem. These internal connections combine in DRN to form a remarkably complex intratextual network. The thesis argues that repetition is a crucial way in which Lucretius conveys his arguments and persuades the reader to pursue a rational life. Chapter 1 analyses the ways in which Lucretius' epic predecessors used repetition and how Lucretius may have applied these models. Chapter 2 looks at the internal evidence for the alleged unfinished state of the poem and examines the function of long repetitions in DRN. Chapter 3 investigates the rhetorical background to and functions of different kinds of repetition in DRN. Chapter 4 explores the didactic and psychological effects of repetitions and internal allusions. Chapter 5 shows how repetition creates an image of the world Lucretius describes: just as Lucretius tells us that atoms and compounds make up different substances depending on their arrangement in combination, so repetitions perform different functions and produce different outcomes depending on their placement in the text. Throughout the poem, repetition serves again and again to reinforce Lucretius' message, creating argumentative unity, and bringing order from chaos.

This thesis analyses the relationship between Marcus Porcius Cato Censorius and his eldest son, Marcus Porcius Cato Licinianus, considering its importance for Cato's public image and political career, investigating its place within some of the central cultural debates of the 2nd century BC, and looking at the impact which this relationship had upon received impressions of Cato the Censor as presented by later Latin authors. This is done primarily through the examination of the written works which Cato addressed to Licinianus, the extant fragments of which are presented here, with a translation and commentary, in the first modern edition to treat these texts as a unified project. The subsequent sections of this thesis set the works which Cato addressed to his son within the context of the general cultural debate and individual political competition which engaged Rome's ruling elite during this period; Cato's adoption of a paternal persona within these works is related to the character's popular appeal in the military sphere and on the comic stage; and the didactic pose and agricultural instruction featured in these texts is used to illuminate some of the challenges posed to Cato's successful performance of his duties as censor. A final section considers the reappropriation of Cato's relationship with his son as found in the De officiis of Cicero, the Institutio oratoria of Quintilian, and the anonymous Disticha Catonis. This thesis suggests that the Censor's relationship with his son, and the works which he addressed to the young man, played a more significant part in Cato's public image and political career than has hitherto been acknowledged. These texts illuminate some of the finer points of Cato's clever political strategy and they offer fresh insight into the popular culture and elite competition of the period in which he lived. The relative importance of this relationship within Cato's public life helps to explain the popularity of later images of the Censor as a paternal and educational figure and offers us a better understanding of modern conceptions of Cato.

This thesis is a narratological study of Nonnus of Panopolis' Dionysiaca, focussing on the figure of the narrator whose interventions reveal much about his relationship to his predecessors and his own conception of story-telling. Although he presents himself as a follower of Homer, whom he mentions by name in his poem, the Dionysiaca are clearly influenced by a much wider range of sources of inspiration. The study of narratological interventions brings to light the narrator's relationship with Homer, between imitation and innovation. The way he renews and transforms epic narratorial devices attests to his literary skills as he strives for ποικιλία in his poem. His interventions hint at sources of inspiration other than Homer, such as lyric poetry, historiography, and didactic epic. Another innovation is the way the narrator intervenes not to draw the narratee's attention to the contents of his text, but to underline his own role as story-teller. Some interventions signal a change in tone or the integration of another genre; the expected proems and invocations to the Muse become spaces for a display of ingeniousness, a discussion of the sources and a reflection on the role of the poet. The efforts made by the Nonnian narrator to renew well known devices also denotes his mindfulness of his narratee, whom he involves in the story through metaleptic devices, or by drawing on a shared cultural background to enhance the narrative with allusions to extradiegetic references. The study of narratorial interventions proves that the Dionysiaca were not written only in an attempt to recreate a Homeric epic, but are a compendium of influences, genres, and myths, encompassing the influence of a thousand years of Greek literature.

Au-delà d’être un poème didactique, les Phénomènes d’Aratos sont un poème pédagogique qui unit étroitement le fond et la forme. On y trouve une conscience méthodique de la construction d’un savoir ; l’analyse du vocabulaire, pourtant issu de la poésie homérique, révèle une réflexion sur la transmission scientifique déjà définie comme un processus dynamique, à une époque où les écoles et leurs méthodes sont encore jeunes : percevoir, délimiter, nommer, et enfin assurer la conservation d’un objet de science. Cette idée de transmission prouve la préoccupation pédagogique d’Aratos, qu’il met en scène dans le poème à travers des figures de maîtres et d’élèves. Il s’y lit, notamment dans le mythe de l’Âge d’Or, une foi en la collaboration entre tous les vivants, fondée sur un respect qui tranche avec la dureté des poèmes didactiques archaïques. La pédagogie devient dans les Phénomènes un enjeu poétique : Aratos définit le poète comme un des membres de cette collaboration universelle, derrière laquelle il doit s’effacer, dans une éthique et une esthétique de l’anonymat qui remettent en question le kléos archaïque. La tradition poétique peut désormais être bousculée au nom de la transmission scientifique, et cette nouvelle conception n’est pas sans rappeler les récentes critiques opérées par Platon. Tout se passe comme si Aratos avait voulu relever le défi que Platon a lancé aux poètes de son temps : chanter le Dieu et sa création selon le Vrai ou le Vraisemblable, et devenir par son chant l’éducateur de la cité idéale. C’est probablement la réussite de cette gageure qui a assuré la gloire des Phénomènes dans les siècles où la philosophie de Platon a été suivie et admirée. / The Phaenomena by Aratus are not only a didactic, but also pedagogical poem, in which form and content are tightly bound. One may find in it a methodical conscience of how knowledge is built; the analysis of vocabulary, although taken from Homeric poetry, shows that scientific transmission is already understood as a dynamic process, in a time when schools and their proceedings were still young : to perceive an object of science, to delimitate it, to name it, and at last to guarantee his preservation. This idea of transmission proves that Aratus is concerned with pedagogy, which is illustrated in the poem through different figures of masters and pupils. We can observe, especially in the myth of the Golden Age, all his faith in the collaboration between all kinds of living being bound together by a respect that is really different from the harsh tone of archaic didactic poetry. In the Phaenomena, pedagogy becomes a poetic matter: Aratus defines the poet as a member of this universal collaboration, behind which he has to fade because of an ethic and an aesthetic of namelessness; so is the archaic kleos questioned. Poetic tradition can be shaken up in the name of scientific transmission, and this new conception may remind us of Plato’s recent criticism. Apparently, Aratus did want to take up Plato’s challenge to the poets of his time: to sing the God and his creation according to Truth or Verisimilitude, and to become the teacher of an ideal state, thanks to his song. In all likelihood, Aratus’fame came from the success of this wager, during all the centuries when Plato’s philosophy was followed and admired.

La comédie d’Aristophane est abondamment reçue et réécrite par la littérature grecque de l’époque impériale. À partir de l’histoire de la transmission des pièces, rarement rejouées entre leur création et les deux premiers siècles de notre ère, mais diffusées et réinterprétées par différents canaux, iconographiques ou textuels, la thèse étudie la place et le rôle de ce théâtre dans le paysage culturel du Haut-Empire, et plus spécifiquement chez les prosateurs grecs. Le statut de ce théâtre paraît de prime abord problématique : il est souvent entouré de silence, voire d’un blâme théorique, surtout quand on l’oppose à Ménandre ; mais les écrivains, dans des genres et des formes très variés, se le sont pleinement approprié. De nombreux enjeux caractérisent la réécriture des comédies : enjeux historiques et linguistiques, grâce à l’ancrage des textes dans un contexte et une langue attiques et à la réserve de realia que représentent les comédies et qui contribuent à instaurer et affermir l’hellénisme des pépaideumenoi de l’Empire ; enjeux moraux et comiques, notamment par la satire et la parodie ; plus largement, des enjeux poétiques et rhétoriques : ce théâtre est devenu un vecteur reconnu d’images et un garant de créativité et d’autorité. Deux études de cas portent sur des auteurs emblématiques de la période, Plutarque de Chéronée et Lucien de Samosate : les usages qu’ils font de la référence aristophanienne sont protéiformes et marqués par une grande ambiguïté, que cette thèse tente d’élucider. / The reception of Aristophanes’s comedy in the Greek literature of the Roman Empire is extensive. Based on the history of transmission of the comedies, which from their creation to the the first two centuries AD were rarely performed on stage but spread and re-interpreted by different means, whether iconographic or textual, this dissertation studies the place and role of this theatre in the cultural landscape of the Roman Empire, specifically in the work of Greek prose writers. The status of this theatre seems at first sight quite problematic: it is rarely mentioned and if mentioned it is spoken of with theoretical disapproval, yet the writers, in various literary genres and forms, fully appropriated it. The rewriting of the comedies is at stake on many levels: on the historic and linguistic levels, in the light of how these texts are anchored in the Attic context and language, and the stock of realia they contain, which contributes to demonstrating the "pepaideumenoi"‘s hellenism in the Empire; on the moral and comic levels, too, as well with satires and parodies; and to a larger extent on the poetic and rhetorical levels, this theatre becomes a conveyor of images and guaranteeing creativity and authority. Two case studies were presented here about emblematic writers of the imperial period, Plutarch of Chaeronea and Lucian of Samosata: they make protean and ambiguous use of the reference to Aristophanes, that this dissertation attempts to clarify.