Originallly presented as the author's Thesis--Harvard, 1971. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 107-114) and index.

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.

This paper examines the role of the ability to speak in Ovid's construction of identity within the Metamorphoses . As various scholars have recognized, metamorphosis in Ovid is closely connected with the issue of identity. An important aspect of identity in Metamorphoses is the linguistic ability of its characters. Ovid's manipulation of his characters' linguistic ability and, in particular, of their loss of speech adds meaning to what it is to be metamorphosed in Ovid's chef d'oeurve . Throughout the work, Ovid consistently portrays the metamorphosized human characters as changed due to their lack of linguistic ability. Since the ability was seen as an aspect strictly reserved for humans, the loss of such ability led to the dehumanization, or metamorphosis, of the character. In the stories of Lycaon, Acteon, Philomela, Echo, Io, et al., Ovid takes each characters ability to speak from them as they mutate into their changed shape. The mens of each is intact; however, they are unable to speak and, thus, are unable to communicate with humanity. This lack of connection to humanity results in the loss of the ability to express identity or, in fact, to have identity. To explore the role of speech loss in construction of identity, this paper analyzes Ovid's depiction of humans metamorphosed through the lens of modern socio-linguistic theory. The theory of performative utterance first introduced by J.L. Austin and then refined by many other scholars, most notably John Searle, provides an interestingly fresh prism through which to examine Ovid's construction of identity. In addition, if one includes the literary-philosophical ideas of the 20th century scholar Walter Benjamin into the mix, the picture is refined further. To these scholars, if one could not speak, one could not be. Words are not a simple means by which one can communicate. Instead, they form the ability to do within a society, thereby describing one's ability to become a part of humanity. By stripping the metamorphosed of their ability to be and, consequently, the ability to do something human, Ovid removes their human identity. Moreover, by looking at such narrative technique through the kaleidoscope of Benjamin, Austin, and Searle, this paper hopes to open doors to the discussion of how Ovid saw his own identity. As a poet, the power of speech was paramount to him and because of such speech, Ovid could be spoken of amongst humanity (ore legar populi), a concept later picked up by Martial (3.95,7 and 8.3,7). Could this power have led Ovid to see a heightened identity for himself as well, a melior pars that might possibly give him precedence over the rest of mankind, or possibly over Augustus himself? Or, in the words of 18th century German poet Heinrich Heine, "Don't belittle the poets, they can flash and thunder, they are more fierce than the bolt of Jove, which, after all, they created for him." / text

My dissertation explores several topics recurring throughout Ovid’s single Heroides. When, how, and why does Ovid restructure tragic, epic, or pastoral stories into elegy? How do his heroines deal with their lovers starting relationships with new women, and what method of coping with abandonment is the most effective? What is the role of magic in the Heroides, what rules does it follow, and who uses it successfully? How does Ovid capitalize on the connection between elegy and lament, and which heroines does he use to do so? Finally, what is the role of writing in the Heroides, how does Ovid use the character of Sappho in the collection, and how does the Sappho epistle help readers interpret the rest of the Heroides? The letters of Briseis (3), Phaedra (4), Hermione (8), and Oenone (5) transform previously epic, tragic, and pastoral worlds and inhabitants into elegiac contexts to show how they wish their men to accept the role of the elegiac lover. Ovid uses these reclassifications to explore the boundaries of elegy and show how thorough knowledge of audience and the genre are necessary for success. Oenone (5), Hypsipyle (6), Deianira (9), and Medea (12) each see their lovers replace them with another woman; Ovid uses their different methods—emulating the new woman’s qualities, attempting to regain the lover’s affection, and seeking revenge—to discover which approach will achieve its desired purpose. Ovid’s construction of magic as a practical tool is established in the letter of Medea (12), and can be applied to the epistles of Deianira (9), Hypsipyle (6), and Laodamia (13) to interpret the magical practices in those epistles. Ovid explores a different facet of the elegiac genre by using the traditional link between elegy and epitaph in the letters of Phyllis (2), Dido (7), and Hypermnestra (14), but alludes to it in the epistles of Canace (11), Ariadne (10), and Deianira (9) to bridge the gap between literary characters and his readers’ reality. Finally, the Sappho epistle (15) provides a tool for interpreting both the individual letters of the Heroides and Ovid’s own concerns. By using the famous poetess as one of his heroines, Ovid connects himself and his reputation to hers. His character Sappho provides a lens through which we can examine all of the heroines who are at a crisis point, a metaphorical cliff’s edge, as they write.

This essay is a critical review of the Swedish writer, Theodore Kallifatides' novel Brev till min dotter (2012) ('Letters to My Daughter'). It is formatted, thematically and inspirationally, by Ovid's two works Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto, written while in exile in Tomis (today's Constanța) on the Black Sea. I have organized Kallifatides' fictive narrative of his pre-Junta (1964) emigration from Greece (where he was born), his multilevelled refashioning of the source material, into a palimpsest that contains three rhetoric layers: the epistle, the autobiography, and the pamphlet. The first depicts the slow transition of 'Ovid', the presumptive Roman imperialist and colonialist, into the less self-centered icon of the Ars Amatoria fame and the more accommadating listener to the people around him. In the second, I show how 'Ovid' is merging into the persona of Kallifatides, a migrant who voluptuously absorbs his new language (Swedish). A language that he masters with the innovatory skill of the best postcolonial writer. The third constitutes a universal praise song of freedom of speech and gender equality. Ovid, in Kallifatides portrait, is feminized.

In my thesis I will discuss Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” in relation to the expectations that scholars have of the gothic genre. I will break this project into four chapters, along with an introduction: (Ch.1) a critical review of scholarship on Poe’s “Usher” that will demonstrate the difficulty in coming to a critical consensus on the tale, (Ch.2) a discussion of Brown’s outline of Gothic conventions, (Ch.3) a look at Poe’s “The Philosophy of Composition” juxtaposed with Aristotle’s Poetics to illumine aspects of Poe’s approach to writing and how it has been informed, and (Ch.4) a close reading of Poe’s “Usher.”

This thesis examines the eroticization of historical and political narratives from Ovid’s Fasti, particularly the capture of Gabii (2.687-710), the rape of Lucretia (2.721-852) and the Aristaeus narrative (1.363-390). I argue that Ovid’s eroticization of these narratives is a response to the political pressure to write poetry in support of Augustan ideology. These narratives about military conquests and moments of great political change are imbued with epic themes and Augustan ideology. Yet, Ovid transports these narratives into elegy, which is a genre that defines itself as distinct from imperial and public domain. Ovid’s asserts poetic autonomy by re-envisioning historical narratives and political ideology in a manner suitable to his elegiac concerns. His version of history does not reflect Augustan ideology and, at times, is starkly opposed to it. I argue that Ovid’s re-imagining of these narratives asserts the freedom of the poet as an autonomous storyteller. / Graduate

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago. / "Influence of Ovid on Crestien's conception of love."--P. 97. At head of title: The University of Chicago. "Private edition distributed by the University of Chicago libraries, Chicago, Illinois." "Reprinted from the Romantic review, vol. XII, no. 2 and 3, April-June and July-September, 1921."

Thesis (MA)--University of Melbourne, School of Historical Studies, 2010. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-91)

Thesis (M.A.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2004. / Bibliography: leaves 93-103.