Ovid Before Exile : Art and Punishment in the Metamorphoses.

Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 Ovid's Artists -- 2 The Poetic Contest: Metamorphoses 5 -- 3 The Weaving Contest: Metamorphoses 6 -- 4 Songs from Hell: Metamorphoses 10 -- 5 Ovid Anticipates Exile -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Index Locorum.

The epic Metamorphoses, Ovid's most renowned work, has regained its stature among the masterpieces of great poets such as Vergil, Horace, and Tibullus. Yet its irreverent tone and bold defiance of generic boundaries set the Metamorphoses apart from its contemporaries. Ovid before Exile provides a compelling new reading of the epic, examining the text in light of circumstances surrounding the final years of Augustus' reign, a time when a culture of poets and patrons was in sharp decline, discouraging and even endangering artistic freedom of expression. Patricia J. Johnson demonstrates how the production of art--specifically poetry--changed dramatically during the reign of Augustus. By Ovid's final decade in Rome, the atmosphere for artistic work had transformed, leading to a drop in poetic production of quality. Johnson shows how Ovid, in the episodes of artistic creation that anchor his Metamorphoses, responded to his audience and commented on artistic circumstances in Rome.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.