Ovid and Gore: Horror, Cruelty and Repulsiveness in the Metamorphoses

TY - JOUR

T1 - Ovid and Gore: Horror, Cruelty and Repulsiveness in the Metamorphoses

AU - Schwartz, Adam

PY - 2013

Y1 - 2013

N2 - Throughout Ovid's Metamorphoses are scattered a number of scenes of an extremely violent or otherwise repulsive nature. Often jarring in their effect, they have been criticised since antiquity as betraying sadism or at least a lack of taste; and recently they have been analysed as a means of engaging rather than distancing the reader. In this article the intended effect and possible causes of such scenes are analysed, and they are compared with other Roman poetry. It is suggested that our own time offers a unique opportunity for appreciating them in a culturally congenial manner.

AB - Throughout Ovid's Metamorphoses are scattered a number of scenes of an extremely violent or otherwise repulsive nature. Often jarring in their effect, they have been criticised since antiquity as betraying sadism or at least a lack of taste; and recently they have been analysed as a means of engaging rather than distancing the reader. In this article the intended effect and possible causes of such scenes are analysed, and they are compared with other Roman poetry. It is suggested that our own time offers a unique opportunity for appreciating them in a culturally congenial manner.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - Poesi, antik litteratur, Ovid, reception

KW - Ovid

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0106-5815

VL - 64

SP - 175

EP - 198

JO - Classica et Mediaevalia

JF - Classica et Mediaevalia

ER -