Carole E. Newlands

The role of the book in Tristia 3.1

The third book of the Tristia is the first to have been written in Tomis, Ovids place of exile. The long journey from Rome, the subject of the first book of the Tristia , is over. The distractions of the journey can no longer sustain him, and his only pleasure is to weep, in other words to write the elegy of lament: dum tamen et uentis dubius iactabar et undis, fallebat curas aegraque corda labor: ut uia finita est, et opus requieuit eundi, et poenae tellus est mini tacta meae, nil nisi flere libet… ( Tr. 3.2.15-19) But while in turmoil I was being tossed around by winds and waves, my worries and sad heart were distracted by the battle for survival. Now that the journey is over, the effort involved in travel is spent, and the land of my punishment has been reached, weeping is my only pleasure.

Fatal Unions: Marriage at Thebes

Marriage is at the heart of Statius’ Thebaid. The hell of civil war, the epic’s theme, derives from the incestuous union of Jocasta and Oedipus. At the start of Statius’ epic Oedipus, contrary to Sophoclean tradition, is not in exile but is still present at Thebes; likewise Jocasta is still alive and dwelling in the palace. Their discordant, incestuous marriage is not just a mark of shame for past crime but a present, spreading contamination of all their children and their marital hopes. The Roman ideal of marriage was Concordia; the marriage of Oedipus and Jocasta represents Discordia, and Discordia too is the term that Statius commonly uses throughout the Thebaid to describe the Theban civil war; discord is the companion of shared rule, sociisque comes discordia regnis (1.130), as the poet cynically puts it. This essay will examine the interpenetration of the language of civil war with that of marriage and will discuss how, in the Thebaid, the continuing presence of Oedipus and Jocasta at Thebes blights the exogamous marriages of their children and destroys hopes for a new future for Thebes.

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

Acknowledgments Ch. 1Glittering Trifles: Verbal Wit and Physical Transformation Transgressive Language: Narcissus and Althea Indecorous and Transformative Puns Misunderstanding aura: Cephalus, Procris, and the Pun Divinatory Wordplay: The Pun Overheard Vox non intellecta: Irony and Metamorphic Wordplay (Myrrha) Littera scripta manet - Or Does It? (Byblis) Self-Cancelling and Self-Objectifying Witticisms Wordplay, Personification, and Phantasia True Imitation: Ceyx, Alcyone, and Morpheus The House of Reception Ch. 2The Asss Shadow: Narrative Disruption and Its Consequences Some Exemplary Interruptions Daedalus and Perdix Cyclopean Violence and Narrative Disruption Some Scandalous Passages Ch. 3Disruptive Traditions Indecorous Possibilities: Callimachuss Hymn to Artemis and Ovidian Style Elegiac Contributions: Propertiuss Tarpeia and Ovids Scylla Epic Distortions: The Hecale in the Metamorphoses Ch. 4Deeper Causes: Aetiology and Style Aetiological Wordplay Ovids Little Aeneid Aetiology and the Nature of Flux Conclusion App. AG. J. Vossius on Syllepsis oratoria App. BSyllepsis and Zeugma App. CFurther Examples of Syllepsis in Ovid References Index locorum Index