The Face of Nature: Wit, Narrative, and Cosmic Origins in Ovid’s Metamorphoses

252 Pages·1996·12.95 MB·English

by  Garth Tissol

The Face of Nature

The Face of Nature
W I T , N A R R A T I V E , A N D
C O S M I C O R I G I N S I N O V I D ' S
METAMORPHOSES
Garth Tissol
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
Copyright © 1997 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Chichester,
West Sussex
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Catalogi>ΐβ-in-Publicatum Data
Tissol, Garth, 1953—
The face of nature : wit, narrative, and cosmic origins in Ovid's Metamorphoses / Garth
Tissol.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-691-01102-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Ovid, 43 B.C.—17 or 18 A.D. Metamorphoses. 2. Latin wit and humor—History
and criticism. 3. Epic poetry, Latin—History and criticism. 4. Mythology, Classical, in
literature. 5. Cosmology, Ancient, in literature. 6. Ovid, 43 B.C—17 or 18 A.D.—
Style. 7. Metamorphosis in literature. 8. Latin language—Style. 9. Narration (Rheto-
ric). 10. Rome—In literature. ll.Rhetoric,Ancient. I. Title.
PA6519.M9T57 1997 883.01—dc20 96-26943 CIP
ISBN 0-691-01102-8
This book has been composed in GaOiard
Princeton University Press books are printed on aad-frce paper
and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the
Committee on Production Ciuidelines for Book Longevity of
the Council on Libran' Resources
Printed in the United States of America by Princeton Academic Press
1 3 5 7 9 1 0 8 6 4 2
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY LIBRARY PAIR
32101 033269 82
W. S. A.
donato iam rude

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
ix
Abbreviations
xi
Introduction 3
CHAPTER 1
Glittering Trifles: Verbal Wit and Physical Transformation 11
Transgressive Language: Narcissus and Althea 11
Indecorous and Transformative Puns 22
Misunderstanding aura: Cephalus, Procris, and the Pun 26
Divinatory Wordplay: The Pun Overheard 30
Vox non intellecta: Irony and Metamorphic Wordplay (Myrrha) 36
Littera scripta manet—Or Does It? (Byblis) 42
Self-Cancelling and Self-Objectifying Witticisms 52
Wordplay, Personification, and Phantasia 61
True Imitation: Ceyx, Alcyone, and Morpheus 72
The House of Reception 85
CHAPTER 2
The Ass's Shadow: Narrative Disruption and Its Consequences 89
Some Exemplary Interruptions 89
Daedalus and Perdix 97
Cyclopean Violence and Narrative Disruption 105
Some Scandalous Passages 124
CHAPTER 3
Disruptive Traditions 131
Indecorous Possibilities: Callimachus's Hymn to Artemis and
Ovidian Style 131
Elegiac Contributions: Propertius's Tarpeia and Ovid's Scylla 143
Epic Distortions: The Hecale in the Metamorphoses 153
CHAPTER 4
Deeper Causes: Aetiology and Style 167
Aetiological Wordplay 167
Ovid's Little Aeneid 177
Aetiology and the Nature of Flux 191
Vlll CONTENTS
Conclusion 215
ApPENDIX A
G. J. Voss ius on Syllepsis oratoria 217
APPENDIx B
Syllepsis and Zeugma 219
APPENDIX C
Further Examples of Syllepsis in Ovid 221
References 223
Index locorum 231
Index 235
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I AM GRATEFUL to many who have assisted me at various stages in this
project. When it was inchoate as a dissertation, William S. Anderson,
A. W. Bulloch, and Peter Dale Scott offered many suggestions for im-
provement. The work is dedicated to Professor Anderson on the occa-
sion of his retirement. I also owe much to Leonard Barkan, Peter Bing,
Ann Cumming, Charles P. Reichmann, Florence Verducci, Stephen M.
Wheeler, and two anonymous readers for Princeton University Press. For
the opportunity to make further improvements and to add much I am
indebted to two institutions: Emory University provided a grant from
the University Research Committee; and the National Endowment for
the Humanities provided a Fellowship for College Teachers and Inde-
pendent Scholars. The editors of Helios and Syllecta Classica kindly al-
lowed republication of two sections that originally appeared in those
journals: "Polyphemus and His Audiences: Narrative and Power in
Ovid's Metamorphoses," Sylleeta Classiea 2 (1990): 45—58; and "Ovid's
Litde Aeneid and the Thematic Integrity of the Metamorphoses," Helios 20
(1993): 69—79. Finally, I have received most welcome assistance and
support from the staff of Princeton University Press.