Calum Maciver

Vergil and the death of Pentheus in Ovid Metamorphoses III

In a pivotal article in 1990, P. Hardie illustrated that the Theban narrative of Ovid Metamorphoses 3 and 4 was the first anti-Aeneid. He did not include discussion of the death of Pentheus at the end of Book 3. In this article I show that the depiction of the Theban king’s death is bound up with key Vergilian intertexts which have a profound impact both on reading the pathos of the scene, but more importantly, on Ovid’s reconstruction of the end of the Aeneid and the death of Turnus. A seemingly clichéd simile comparing Pentheus’ sparagmos with the falling of leaves from a tree evokes the famous passage from the underworld in Aeneid 6 in which the souls of those who died prematurely are described. More importantly, in relation to Ovid’s narrative of the Theban ktisis, careful allusions to the final lines of the Aeneid in Pentheus’ death-scene act as a critical commentary on the Aeneid and the actions of Aeneas.

Truth, narration, and interpretation in Lucian's Verae Historiae

This article examines the representation of truth and interpretation in Lucian’s True Stories. The discussion is comprised of two parts: the first half brings under examination the rhetorical and philosophical significance of the preface’s key terms, and in particular the use of the term psychagōgia and its heritage. Through this term, I point to certain Platonic and Aristophanic intertexts, which adumbrate exactly why Lucian forsakes truth for lies in his narrative. The second part of this article focuses on the meeting of Homer in the Isles of the Blessed and the negation of truth as the essential aspect of rhetoric already set forward in the preface. Lucian’s text complicates interpretation through narratorial voices characterized as slippery because of their intertextual representations; this is seen not only in the unsatisfactory answers of Homer about his own poetry, but also through the new Homeric hexameter pastiches in Book 2, which underline, through Homeric intertext, the inevitable epigonality of all texts and the unreliable nature of “true,” authorial pronouncements.

Flyte of Odysseus: Allusion and the hoplōn krisis in Quintus Smyrnaeus Posthomerica 5

This article principally discusses the contest between Ajax and Odysseus in Quintus Smyrnaeus Posthomerica 5. Scholars have recently labelled the poem as a “Second Sophistic epic,” partly on the basis of discussion of the Hoplōn Krisis in Book 5. I begin by discussing the literary and cultural context of the Posthomerica, and especially the contest in Book 5, in relation to this label. I then show that the contest is closely modelled on speech-making situations in the Iliad, particularly contests of “flyting.” I discuss the nature of flyting speeches, and discuss how Odysseus is made to appropriate Iliadic flyting settings to prove his worth as the rightful heir to the arms.