Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T07:41:01.124Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Brutal Hack: Tyranny, Rape, and the Barbarism of Bad Poetry in Ovid's Pyreneus Episode

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 December 2020

Robert Cowan*
Affiliation:
The University of [email protected]

Abstract

Poet-figures in Ovid's Metamorphoses have been the object of much study, especially those silenced by the powerful, but little attention has been given to Pyreneus. Immediately before the famous contest of the Muses and Pierides, the former briefly narrate their attempted rape by the usurping Thracian tyrant Pyreneus and his precipitous death while trying to fly after them. The few critics who have touched on this episode have tended to focus exclusively on one aspect, be it the poetic, sexual, political, or religious. None has provided a holistic interpretation which does justice to the complex interplay of these four dimensions or to Ovid's witty and characteristic reification of figurative language.

Pyreneus is simultaneously an invading usurper, an attempted rapist, an impious theomach, and, on the poetic plane, a talentless plagiarist or derivative imitator, who tries to appropriate others’ work but bathetically and disastrously fails. The interrelation of these four roles, each troping the others, throws light on all, and Pyreneus needs to be contextualized among the Met.'s other tyrants, rapists, and theomachs, as well as its poet-figures. The episode itself, derivative and overstuffed with Ovidian motifs, is mimetic of the sort of narrative bad (would-be) poets like Pyreneus produce.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Australasian Society for Classical Studies 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, W. S. (1989), ‘The Artist's Limits in Ovid: Orpheus, Pygmalion, and Daedalus’, SyllClass 1, 111.Google Scholar
Anderson, W. S. (ed.) (1996), Ovid's Metamorphoses: Books 1–5. Norman, OK.Google Scholar
Barchiesi, A. (1992), ‘Discordant Muses’, PCPhS 37, 121.Google Scholar
Bartenbach, A. (1990), Motiv- und Erzählstruktur in Ovids Metamorphosen: das Verhältnis von Rahmen- und Binnenerzählungen im 5. 10. und 15. Buch von Ovids Metamorphosen. Frankfurt am Main.Google Scholar
Beer, B. (2018), ‘L'art pour l'art: zum poetologischen Programm der Spinne in Ovids Arachne-Erzählung (Met. 6,1–145)’, A&A 64, 6678.Google Scholar
Bömer, F. (1976), P. Ovidius Naso: Metamorphosen. Kommentar: Buch IV–V. Heidelberg.Google Scholar
Boughner, R. (1983), ‘Mentula in Catullus C. 105’, CB 59, 2932.Google Scholar
Braund, S. M. (1996), ‘The Solitary Feast: A Contradiction in Terms?’, BICS 14, 3752.Google Scholar
Chaudhuri, P. (2015), The War with God: Theomachy in Roman Imperial Poetry. Oxford.Google Scholar
Clauss, J. J. (1989), ‘The Episode of the Lycian Farmers in Ovid's Metamorphoses’, HSCPh 92, 297314.Google Scholar
Conte, G.-B. (1986), The Rhetoric of Imitation: Genre and Poetic Memory in Virgil and other Latin Poets. Ithaca, NY.Google Scholar
Cowan, R. (2011), ‘Passing over Cephisos’ Grandson: Literal praeteritio and the Rhetoric of Obscurity in Ovid Met. 7.350–93’, Ramus 40, 146–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowan, R. (2014), ‘Fingering Cestos: Martial's Catullus’ Callimachus’, in Augoustakis, A. (ed.) Flavian Poetry and its Greek Past. Leiden, 345–71.Google Scholar
Curran, L. C. (1978), ‘Rape and Rape Victims in the Metamorphoses’, Arethusa 11, 213–41.Google Scholar
Deroux, C. (2006), ‘Le poème CV de Catulle ou: De l'obscénité comme moyen d'expression littéraire’, Latomus 65, 612–27.Google Scholar
Dessen, C. S. (1995), ‘The Figure of the Eunuch in Terence's Eunuchus’, Helios 22, 122–39.Google Scholar
Deuling, J. K. (1999), ‘Catullus and Mamurra’, Mnemosyne 52, 188–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doblhofer, G. (1994), Vergewaltigung in der Antike. Stuttgart.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dobrov, G. W. and Urios-Aparisi, E. (1995), ‘The Maculate Muse: Gender, Genre, and the Chiron of Pherecrates’, in Dobrov, G. (ed.), Beyond Aristophanes: Transition and Diversity in Greek Comedy. Atlanta, 139–74.Google Scholar
Dougherty, C. (1993), The Poetics of Colonization: From City to Text in Archaic Greece. Oxford.Google Scholar
duBois, P. (1988), Sowing the Body. Chicago.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunkle, J. R. (1967), ‘The Greek Tyrant and Roman Political Invective of the Late Republic’, TAPA 98, 151–71.Google Scholar
Feldherr, A. (2004–5), ‘Reconciling Niobe’, Hermathena 177/8, 125–46.Google Scholar
Feldherr, A. (2010), Playing Gods: Ovid's Metamorphoses and the Politics of Fiction. Princeton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gloyn, E. (2013), ‘Reading Rape in Ovid's Metamorphoses: A Test-Case Lesson’, CW 106, 676–81.Google Scholar
Gowers, E. (2004), ‘The Plot Thickens: Hidden Outlines in Terence's Prologues’, Ramus 33, 150–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, E. (2006), ‘Female Personifications of Poetry in Old Comedy’, in The Theatrical Cast of Athens: Interactions between Ancient Greek Drama and Society. Oxford, 170–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardie, A. (2006), ‘The Aloades on Helicon: Music, Territory and Cosmic Order’, A&A 52, 4271.Google Scholar
Hardie, P. (2002), Ovid's Poetics of Illusion. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hardy, C. S. (1995), ‘Ecphrasis and the Male Narrator in Ovid's Arachne’, Helios 22, 140–48.Google Scholar
Harries, B. (1990), ‘The Spinner and the Poet: Arachne in Ovid's MetamorphosesPCPhS 36, 6482.Google Scholar
Hartz, C. (2007), Catulls Epigramme im Kontext hellenistischer Dichtung. Berlin.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hejduk, J. D. (2011), ‘Epic Rapes in the Fasti’, CPh 106, 2031.Google Scholar
Hendren, T. G. (2016), ‘Catullus's Ameana Cycle as Literary Criticism’, Mnemosyne 69, 262–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinds, S. E. (1987), The Metamorphosis of Persephone: Ovid and the Self-Conscious Muse. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hinds, S. E. (1998), Allusion and Intertext: Dynamics of Appropriation in Roman Poetry. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hollis, A. S. (ed.) (2009), Callimachus: Hecale. 2nd edition (orig. ed. 1990). Oxford.Google Scholar
Hunter, R. (2006), The Shadow of Callimachus: Studies in the Reception of Hellenistic Poetry at Rome. Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, P. (2004), ‘Marsyas’ Musical Body: The Poetics of Mutilation and Reflection in Ovid's Metamorphic Monsters’, Arethusa, 37, 88103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, S. L. (2016), ‘Rape and Repetition in Ovid's Metamorphoses: Myth, History, Structure, Rome’, in Fulkerson, L. and Stover, T. (eds.), Repeat Performances: Ovidian Repetition and the Metamorphoses. Madison WI, 154–75.Google Scholar
Johnson, P. J. (2008), Ovid Before Exile: Art and Punishment in the Metamorphoses. Madison WI.Google Scholar
Johnson, P. J. and Malamud, M. (1988), ‘Ovid's Musomachia’, Pacific Coast Philology 23, 30–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joplin, P. K. (1990), ‘Ritual Work on Human Flesh: Livy's Lucretia and the Rape of the Body Politic’, Helios 17, 5170.Google Scholar
Kaufhold, S. D. (1997), ‘Ovid's Tereus: Fire, Birds, and the Reification of Figurative LanguageCPh 92, 6671.Google Scholar
Kearns, E. (1982), ‘The Return of Odysseus: A Homeric Theoxeny’, CQ 32, 28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keith, A. M. (1994), ‘Corpus Eroticum: Elegiac Poetics and Elegiac puellae in Ovid's Amores’, CW 88, 2740.Google Scholar
Keith, A. M. (1999), ‘Slender Verse: Roman Elegy and Ancient Rhetorical Theory’, Mnemosyne 52, 4162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keith, A. M. (2000), Engendering Rome: Women in Latin Epic (Cambridge).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keith, A. M. (2009), ‘The Lay of the Land in Ovid's “Perseid” (Met. 4.610–5.249)’, CW 102, 259–72.Google Scholar
Kennedy, D. F. (1993), The Arts of Love: Five Studies in the Discourse of Roman Love Elegy. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Kerkhecker, A. (1993), ‘Theseus im Regen: Zu Kallimachos, Hekale fr. 74,1 Hollis’, MH 40, 119.Google Scholar
Lateiner, D. (1984), ‘Mythic and Non-Mythic Artists in Ovid's Metamorphoses’, Ramus 13, 130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leach, E. W. (1974), ‘Ekphrasis and the Theme of Artistic Failure in Ovid's Metamorphoses’, Ramus 3, 102–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leigh, M. (1997), ‘Varius Rufus, Thyestes and the Appetites of Antony’, PCPS 42, 171–97.Google Scholar
Lieberg, G. (1980), ‘Ovide et les Muses’, LEC 48, 322.Google Scholar
Marg, W. (1949), Review of Ovid: A Poet Between Two Worlds by H. Fraenkel, Gnomon 21, 4457.Google Scholar
Marks, R. (2020) ‘Searching for Ovid at Cannae: A Contribution to the Reception of Ovid in Silius Italicus’ Punica’, in Coffee, N. et al. (eds), Intertextuality in Flavian Epic Poetry: Contemporary Approaches. Berlin, 87106.Google Scholar
McGill, S. (2012), Plagiarism in Latin Literature. Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McPhee, B. D. (2019), ‘(Adhuc) uirgineusque Helicon: A Subtextual Rape in Ovid's Catalogue of Mountains (Met. 2.219)’, CQ 69, 769–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, Ll. (2003), ‘Child's Play: Ovid and his Critics’, JRS 93, 6691.Google Scholar
Nagle, B. R. (1989), ‘Ovid's Metamorphoses: A Narratological Catalogue’, SyllClass 1, 97125.Google Scholar
Nisbet, G. (2020), ‘Martial's Poetics of Plagiarism’, AJPh 141, 5581.Google Scholar
Nugent, S. G. (1994) ‘Mater Matters: The Female in Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura’, ColbyQ 30, 179205.Google Scholar
Nünlist, R. (1998), Poetologische Bildersprache in der frühgriechischen Dichtung. Stuttgart/Leipzig.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Bryhim, S. (2014), ‘Arachne's Victory: (Ovid, Met. 6, 70–102)’, NECJ 41, 288302.Google Scholar
Oliensis, E. (2004), ‘The Power of Image-Makers: Representation and Revenge in Ovid Metamorphoses 6 and Tristia 4’, ClAnt 23, 285321.Google Scholar
Pavlock, B. (1991), ‘The Tyrant and Boundary Violations in Ovid's Tereus Episode’, Helios 18, 3448.Google Scholar
Pavlock, B. (2009), The Image of the Poet in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Madison WI.Google Scholar
Pavlock, B. (2013), ‘Mentula in Catullus 114 and 115’, CW 106, 595607.Google Scholar
Pelen, M. M. (1988–91), ‘Contradictions and Self-Contradictions in Chaucer's Poetic Strategy’, Florilegium 10, 107–25.Google Scholar
Peirano, I. (2013), ‘Non subripiendi causa sed palam mutuandi: Intertextuality and Literary Deviancy between Law, Rhetoric, and Literature in Roman Imperial Culture’, AJPh 134, 83100.Google Scholar
Pintabone, D. T. (1998), Women and the Unspeakable: Rape in Ovid's Metamorphoses. PhD thesis. University of Southern California.Google Scholar
Pöhlmann, E. (2011), ‘Twelve Chordai and the Strobilos of Phrynis in the Chiron of Pherecrates (PCG fr. 155)’, QUCC 99, 117–33.Google Scholar
Richlin, A. (1992), ‘Reading Ovid's Rapes’, in ead. (ed.), Pornography and Representation in Greece and Rome. Oxford, 158–79.Google Scholar
Rosati, G. (1983), Narciso e Pigmalione: illusione e spettacolo nelle Metamorfosi di Ovidio. Firenze.Google Scholar
Rosati, G. (1999), ‘Form in Motion: Weaving the Text in the Metamorphoses’, in Hardie, P., Barchiesi, A. and Hinds, S. (eds.), Ovidian Transformations: Essays on the Metamorphoses and Its Reception. Cambridge, 240–53.Google Scholar
Rosati, G. (ed.) (2009), Ovidio, Metamorfosi, Volume III, Libri V–VI. Milano.Google Scholar
Salzman-Mitchell, P. (2005), A Web of Fantasies: Gaze, Image, and Gender in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Columbus OH.Google Scholar
Schmitzer, U. (1990), Zeitgeschichte in Ovids Metamorphosen: mythologische Dichtung unter politischem Anspruch. Stuttgart.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seo, J. M. (2009), ‘Plagiarism and Poetic Identity in Martial’, AJPh 130, 567–93.Google Scholar
Sharrock, A. (1994), Seduction and Repetition in Ovid's Ars Amatoria II. Oxford.Google Scholar
Sharrock, A. (2002), ‘An A-musing Tale: Gender, Genre, and Ovid's Battles with Inspiration in the Metamorphoses’, in Spentzou, E. and Fowler, D. (eds.), Cultivating the Muse: Struggles for Power and Inspiration in Classical Literature. Oxford, 207–27.Google Scholar
Skinner, M. B. (2003), Catullus in Verona: A Reading of the Elegiac Libellus, Poems 65–116. Columbus, OH.Google Scholar
Spahlinger, L. (1996), Ars latet arte sua: Untersuchungen zur Poetologie in den Metamorphosen Ovids. Stuttgart und Leipzig.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steiner, D. T. (1994), The Tyrant's Writ: Myths and Images of Writing in Ancient Greece. Princeton.Google Scholar
Stirrup, B. E. (1977), ‘Techniques of Rape: Variety of Wit in Ovid's Metamorphoses’, G&R 24, 170–84.Google Scholar
Strohschneider, P. (2011), ‘Sängeragone: eine Problemskizze’, in Heil, A., Kornand, M. and Sauer, J. (eds.), Noctes Sinenses: Festschrift für Fritz-Heiner Mutschler zum 65. Geburtstag. Heidelberg, 133–40.Google Scholar
Tarrant, R. J. (ed.) (2004), P. Ovidi Nasonis Metamorphoses. Oxford.Google Scholar
Tarrant, R. J. (2005), ‘Roads Not Taken: Untold Stories in Ovid's Metamorphoses’, MD 54, 6589.Google Scholar
Tissol, G. (1997), The Face of Nature: Wit, Narrative, and Cosmic Origins in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Princeton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Viarre, S. (1964), L'image et la pensée dans les Métamorphoses d'Ovide. Paris.Google Scholar
Williams, C. (2002), ‘Sit nequior omnibus libellis: Text, Poet, and Reader in the Epigrams of Martial’, Philologus 146, 150–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, P. (2006/7), ‘Thamyris of Thrace and the Muses of Messenia’, MedArch 19/20, 207–12.Google Scholar
Wilson, P. (2009), ‘Thamyris the Thracian: The Archetypical Wandering Poet?’ in Hunter, R. and Rutherford, I. (eds.), Wandering Poets in Ancient Greek Culture: Travel, Locality and Pan-Hellenism. Cambridge, 4679.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wise, V. M. (1977), ‘Flight Myths in Ovid's Metamorphoses: An Interpretation of Phaethon and Daedalus’, Ramus 6, 4459.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, M. (2012), The Comedian as Critic: Greek Old Comedy and Poetics. London.Google Scholar