Os deuses no exílio: rituais religiosos e cultos romanos na poesia de Ovídio

Abstract

This paper discusses some Roman cults and religious festivals of the early Empire, mentioned and described in two works of the Roman poet 1 É Professora Adjunta A de Língua Latina, Literatura Latina e Filologia Românica no Instituto de Letras e Linguística da Universidade Federal de Uberlândia (ILEEL/UFU). E-mail: [email protected]. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3676-833X AVELLAR, Júlia Batista Castilho de. Os deuses no exílio... 213 História: Questões & Debates. Curitiba, v. 69, n. 1, p. 212-240, jan./jun. 2021. Universidade Federal do Paraná. ISSN: 0100-6932. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5380/his.v00i0.000000 Ovid (43 B.C.-17/18 A.D.): the Fasti, a calendrical poem with each day celebrations and its legendary origins and aetiologies, and the Tristia, the first collection of elegies concerning the so-called exile of the poet to the city of Tomis, on the shores of the Black Sea, on the edges of the Empire. To examine the intersections between private cult and public festivals in ancient Rome, as well as to investigate its resignifications in a poetic context, I discuss two religious celebrations referred to in this works – the private cult in celebration of the birthday and in honor of the tutelary Genius (Tristia 3.13; 5.5); and the Quinquatria, a festival in honor of the goddess Minerva (Tristia 4.10.13-14; Fasti 3.809-847). First, I analyze the characteristic prayers and rituals in each of these manifestations, and then I reflect on the new significations they acquire in Ovid’s poetry. Rather than an accurate historical record, the religious cults in Ovidian poetry are poetic recreations which, through religious elements, raise reflections on the power relations in Antiquity.