Academic literature on the topic 'Heroides (Ovid)'

Abstract Some letters in Ovid's Heroides include stories which the heroines imagine their lovers narrating. Thus, in some letters Ovid has constructed both a heroine's and a hero's narrative (the latter probably mediated by the former). This paper argues that there are similarities in the narrative strategies of the stories that Ovid attributes to the heroine and the hero in Heroides 9 (Deianira and Hercules) and 13 (Laodamia and Protesilaus), and then analyzes the interpretative possibilities that arise from this type of narrative assimilation. Through the use of intertextuality and relative mythological chronology, it also explores whether Ovid's heroines model their husbands after themselves as narrators, or whether their narratives are influenced by those of the heroes instead.

It is a characteristic of Ovid's Heroides for each epistle implicitly to establish the dramatic time, context and motive for its composition by the particular heroine to whom it is attributed. In this way the poet is able to exploit the tension between the heroine's inevitably circumscribed awareness of the development of her story and the superior information which can be deployed by a reader acquainted with the mythical tradition or master-text which dictates what is actually going to follow: Penelope hands over a letter to a man whom the reader familiar with Homer can identify as Ulysses even if she cannot, Ariadne wonders whether Naxos is infested with tigers at a moment shortly before Dionysus and his tiger-driven chariot will arrive.

For Homer's Circe the story of Argo's voyage was already well known. Although we cannot be sure that the Odyssey's first audience was aware of Medea's role in Jason's story, we do know that by the time that Ovid came to write Heroides, she had already appeared in numerous Greek and Latin texts, in epic and lyric poetry and on the tragic stage. Given her complex textual and dramatic history, it seems hardly likely that any Ovidian Medea could actually be ‘a simple girl'. And yet precisely this charge of ‘simplicity’ has been levelled against Heroides 12 and its Active author. I propose to argue that the Medea of Heroides 12 is complex, not simple, and that her complexity derives from the fact that Ovid has positioned his elegiac heroine between past and future, guilt and innocence, epic and tragedy.Like all of Ovid's heroines, Medea writes at a critical juncture in her mythic life. But Medea's myth differs significantly from those of her fellow authors, for it requires her to play five distinct roles in four separate locations. Thus while Penelope, for example, plays only the part of Ulysses' loyal wife on Ithaca immediately before and during her husband's return, Medea plays the ‘simple girl’ in Colchis, the murderous wife in Iolcus, the abandoned mother in Corinth, the poisonous stepmother in Athens and the potential filicide back in Colchis. She is a heroine with a well-known and extensive history and so it is not surprising that the first line of Heroides 12 invokes the concept of memory: memini (‘I remember’).

The search of scientists of the XXI century is increasingly focused on a sphere that is not available for direct observation – the sphere of emotions. Therefore, the issue of the emotive component of a literary text at different levels relates to priority areas not only of modern linguistics. Emotions represent the linguistic picture of the artistic universe of the poet, reveal the inner world of his characters. The existential-sensual sphere is a manifestation of the subjective attitude of a person to the surrounding reality and himself in the mental space of the artist. Ovid subtly reproduces the spiritual world of a loving woman in the inexhaustible wealth of emotional manifestations and unique individual identities. The main object of unfortunate love in Heroides is a married woman or hetaera. Ovid is a vivid representative of the sensually-earthly Eros. The ancient man, for whom the idea of sin was extraneous, was not embarrassed by the sensual nature of his love in various forms, focusing all his interest in earthly existence, adored desires. However, the sensual Eros of Heroides with not the happy ending is aesthetically beautiful. Having refused from the usual August poetry themes related to the historical past of Rome or the events of his personal life, Ovid in Heroids turns exclusively to mythological themes, popular in Neo-Téric poetry or Hellenistic poetry, depicting the heroines of Greek mythology and Sappho herself by the psychology of contemporary Roman women. Ovid's Heroides reflects the fact that the psychology of a loving woman has not changed much since the time of the Roman Empire.

In his influential reading of Heroides 1, Duncan Kennedy argues that successful fictional letters can be felt to arise naturally from or be motivated by the depicted events and, ideally, be seen as agents in the forward movement of those events. Building on Kennedy's arguments, Peter Knox asserts that Ovid reconfigures his heroines in the Heroides to develop serious issues raised by his literary models from a new perspective. In this paper, I shall follow Kennedy's and Knox's suggestions to propose a new reading of Heroides 3. I shall first discuss how Briseis' letter can be felt to be both naturally motivated by and seriously engaged with Achilles' arguments in Iliad 9. More importantly, I shall argue that Ovid implicates Patroclus' aid in the composition and delivery of Heroides 3. The result is that one can view the fictional letter as having some influence upon Patroclus' fateful appeal to Achilles, thus providing an Ovidian reinterpretation of Iliad 16. Imagining this fictional role for Heroides 3 ultimately provokes comparison of Briseis, Patroclus and their relationships with Achilles. Such a reading uses Kennedy's and Knox's suggestions as a point of departure for making Heroides 3 a more successful and provocative fictional letter.

My dissertation explores several topics recurring throughout Ovid’s single Heroides. When, how, and why does Ovid restructure tragic, epic, or pastoral stories into elegy? How do his heroines deal with their lovers starting relationships with new women, and what method of coping with abandonment is the most effective? What is the role of magic in the Heroides, what rules does it follow, and who uses it successfully? How does Ovid capitalize on the connection between elegy and lament, and which heroines does he use to do so? Finally, what is the role of writing in the Heroides, how does Ovid use the character of Sappho in the collection, and how does the Sappho epistle help readers interpret the rest of the Heroides? The letters of Briseis (3), Phaedra (4), Hermione (8), and Oenone (5) transform previously epic, tragic, and pastoral worlds and inhabitants into elegiac contexts to show how they wish their men to accept the role of the elegiac lover. Ovid uses these reclassifications to explore the boundaries of elegy and show how thorough knowledge of audience and the genre are necessary for success. Oenone (5), Hypsipyle (6), Deianira (9), and Medea (12) each see their lovers replace them with another woman; Ovid uses their different methods—emulating the new woman’s qualities, attempting to regain the lover’s affection, and seeking revenge—to discover which approach will achieve its desired purpose. Ovid’s construction of magic as a practical tool is established in the letter of Medea (12), and can be applied to the epistles of Deianira (9), Hypsipyle (6), and Laodamia (13) to interpret the magical practices in those epistles. Ovid explores a different facet of the elegiac genre by using the traditional link between elegy and epitaph in the letters of Phyllis (2), Dido (7), and Hypermnestra (14), but alludes to it in the epistles of Canace (11), Ariadne (10), and Deianira (9) to bridge the gap between literary characters and his readers’ reality. Finally, the Sappho epistle (15) provides a tool for interpreting both the individual letters of the Heroides and Ovid’s own concerns. By using the famous poetess as one of his heroines, Ovid connects himself and his reputation to hers. His character Sappho provides a lens through which we can examine all of the heroines who are at a crisis point, a metaphorical cliff’s edge, as they write.

O trabalho analisa as possíveis relações intratextuais entre as primeiras quatorze epístolas que formam o corpus das Heroides de Ovídio. Estas relações permitem ao leitor entendêlas não apenas como um mero conjunto de monólogos travestidos em um formato epistolar (Auhagen, 1999, p. 90), mas como peças que ganham significado à luz de outras. As relações surgem em função do caráter exemplar das heroínas, paradigmático de um determinado tipo de comportamento. No diálogo intratextual, a exemplaridade permite a configuração mútua destas mulheres e suas epístolas. Considerando que o próprio Ovídio, no livro 3 da Ars amatoria, recomenda a suas discípulas ler sua coleção de epístolas e que ele se refere a essas mulheres em diferentes ocasiões como exempla do fracasso na ars amandi, o corpus pode ser entendido como uma série de exempla para o leitor, complementares ao propósito didático da Ars amatoria. Em razão da falta de uma ars amandi, a maioria das heroínas fracassam ao tentar convencer seus amantes a voltar. Portanto, o leitor recebe as epístolas como um grande exemplum daquilo que não deve ser feito e como justificativa da necessidade de um praeceptor. A confluência dos gêneros elegíaco e epistolar possibilita que as epístolas sejam um meio apropriado para transmitir um exemplum, por causa do caráter didático de ambos os gêneros.
This research analyses the possible intratextual relation between the first fourteen epistles of Ovids Heroides. These relations allow the reader to understand them not only as unconnected monologues brought together under the form of epistles (Auhagen, 1999, p. 90), but also as collection of poems that have meaning when read in the light of the others. The relations emerge because of the heroines exemplary character, paradigmatic of a certain behavior. In the intratextual dialogue, the exemplarity enables the mutual configuration of the women and their epistles. Considering that Ovid himself, in the third book of his Ars, recommends to read his collection of epistles and that he also refers to these women as exempla of failure in the art of love, the whole collection can be understood as a series of exempla that complement the didactic purpose of the Ars amatoria. Because of their lack of ars amandi, most of the heroines fail in trying to convince their lovers to come back to them. Therefore, the reader receives the epistles as an exemplum of what should not be done and as a justification for the need of a praeceptor. The overlapping of the elegiac and the epistolary genres enables the letter to be an appropriate mean to convey an exemplum, due to the didactic features of both genres.

A poesia de João Rodriguez de Sá de Meneses e João Rodriguez de Lucena preservadas no Cancioneiro Geral de Garcia de Resende colocou em evidência a presença da cultura clássica tão constante no imaginário quinhentista português. Esses poetas fizeram traduções de algumas das famosas epístolas de heroínas míticas como Penélope, Enone, Laudâmia e Dido , aos seus amados ausentes. Esse conjunto de cartas é conhecido como Heroides, do poeta romano Ovídio, poeta elegíaco que foi responsável, entre outras coisas, por ter servido de modelo para muito do que se produziu depois na Idade Média e Renascimento. A Imitação e a Tradução eram mecanismos frequentes naquela época e foram usadas com maestria nas traduções desses poetas do Cancioneiro. O porquê da escolha de determinadas cartas e não de todas também é relevante, já que se tratava do momento das navegações e, portanto, necessitava-se acalmar o coração das damas que permaneceram em terras lusitanas à espera de seus amados ausentes. E ainda, propor a elas um modelo de comportamento.
The poetry of João Rodriguez de Sá de Meneses and João Rodriguez de Lucena preserved in Garcia de Resendes Cancioneiro Geral puts in evidence the presence of the classical culture so constant at the cinquecentist Portuguese imaginary. These poets translated some of the famous epistles of mythical heroines - like Penelope, Oenone, Dido and Laodomia -, to their loved missing ones. This set of epistles are known as Heroides, from Ovid, the elegiac Roman poet who was responsible, among other things, to have served as a model for much of what was produced after in the Middle Age and Renaissance. Imitation and Translation were recurrent mechanisms at that time and were employed with propriety at the translations of those poets of the Cancioneiro. The reason why those determinate epistles were chosen and not all of them is also relevant, because it was the moment of navigation so, therefore, was necessary pacify the hearts of the ladies that stayed in Portuguese lands waiting for their lovers. And still, propose a model of conduct to those ladies.

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Públio Ovídio Nasão (43 a. C. - 17 d. C) foi um dos autores mais versáteis e prolíficos do período augustano da Literatura Latina, deixando-nos como legado uma obra que abarca desde elegias que cantam aventuras e decepções amorosas ou lamentam o exílio, a poemas didáticos ou de caráter etiológico. Em meio aos primeiros escritos do autor encontram-se as Heroides, coleção de 21 elegias epistolares, tradicionalmente dividida em duas séries: a primeira formada por correspondências nas quais heroínas lendárias remetem súplicas ou lamentos aos amados distantes; a segunda, por trocas de cartas entre célebres casais do mito. Escrito provavelmente entre 20 e 16 a.C., o conjunto de poemas destaca-se pela forma com que foi composta, na qual se juntam ao gênero epistolar, elementos e metro próprios da elegia amorosa romana e uma escrita que revela traços da retórica cultuada na época. E, se por um lado, não se pode afirmar categoricamente que Ovídio seja o pioneiro a valer-se de tal mescla de gêneros, uma vez que Propércio já havia utilizado o modo epistolar anteriormente no terceiro poema a integrar o livro IV de sua obra elegíaca, por outro lado, sabe-se que é pela arte ovidiana que o formato é largamente desenvolvido e ganha status de coleção, inovando, ainda, ao buscar na tradição literária a voz presente em cada uma das correspondências. Ao se levar em consideração a singularidade proporcionada por esse entrecruzamento de gêneros e estilo de escrita, tem-se um produtivo foco de estudo, uma vez que a forma possibilita a identificação de conceitos ligados tanto às poéticas e como aos estudos retóricos desenvolvidos na Antiguidade, e os respectivos efeitos que causam na tessitura poética das epístolas. Nesse sentido, o presente trabalho tem por objetivo, além de reunir informações sobre as Heroides e dos componentes de sua arquitetura literária, analisar os recursos retórico-poéticos que participam da construção da primeira epístola que integra a obra, “De Penélope a Ulisses”, a fim de entender, por meio do próprio poema, a peculiaridade da construção da coleção de cartas e destacar a expressividade poética do texto.
Publius Ovidius Naso, more commonly known as Ovid (43 BCE–17 CE), was one of the most versatile and prolific writers of the Augustan period of Latin literature. His legacy ranges from elegies that talk about love adventures and disisllusions or lament exile to didatic or etiological poems. Among the first works of this writer are the Heroides, a collection of twenty-one poems in epistle form, traditionally divided into two series. The first consists of letters in which legendary heroines send their entreaties and laments to their distant loved ones, and the second of letters exchanged between famous mythical couples. Possibly written between 20 and 16 BCE, this collection of poems stands out for its composition, which combines the epistle form, elements and metrics characteristic of Roman love elegies, and a writing style that shows traces of the rhetoric celebrated at the time. And, if on one hand, it cannot be categorically said that Ovid is a pioneer in using this mix of genres, since Propertius had already used the epistle form in the third poem in Book IV of his elegiac work, on the other hand, it is widely known that it was through the art of Ovidius that the genre developed and gained a collection status. Ovid also brought new innovation to the epistolary genre by seeking in the literary tradition the voice present in each letter. A productive study can be made of the uniqueness of this crossing of writing genres and styles, since the form allows for the identification of concepts associated both with the poetics and with the rhetorical studies developed in antiquity, and the respective effects that they have on the poetic process of the epistles. Therefore, in addition to gathering information on the Heroides and the components of their literary architecture, this study aims to analyze the rhetorical-poetic resources that aided in writing the first epistle, “Penelope to Ulysses,” in order to understand, through the poem itself, the peculiarity of the construction of this collection of letters, and to highlight the poetic expressiveness of the text.

Le présent travail propose une étude diachronique des tragédies d’argument ovidien parues en France entre la moitié du XVIe et la fin du XVIIe siècle, ainsi qu’une étude ciblée des tragédies dont le sujet est tiré du recueil des Héroïdes.La littérature française de ces époques, on le sait, est liée intimement à l’œuvre d’Ovide : non seulement les écrits du poète connaissent une diffusion extraordinaire, mais leurs traductions, réécritures et imitations, leurs adaptations théâtrales et leurs transpositions figuratives sont légion. La diffusion et l’appropriation des œuvres d’Ovide ont contribué à la naissance de nouveaux genres littéraires et ont donné lieu à l’émergence de phénomènes d’émulation qui ont nourri notamment l’élaboration de l’esthétique galante et élégiaque dans la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle, ainsi que Marie-Claire Chatelain l’a montré. Le caractère extrêmement capillaire et stratifié de la présence d’Ovide dans la culture française, par conséquent, impose la plus grande prudence.L’étude des tragédies d’argument ovidien montre, tout d’abord, que les auteurs ont la tendance à ne pas afficher leurs dettes envers Ovide dans leurs textes liminaires, en préférant mentionner des auteurs anciens considérés comme plus prestigieux. Pourtant, surtout dans la première moitié du XVIIe siècle, les cas d’imitation proche du modèle sont nombreux. Certes, l’étendue généralement modeste des morceaux poétiques qu’Ovide accorde aux mythes qu’il développe dans ses œuvres implique un travail d’amplificatio imposant, dans lequel l’intertexte ovidien peut finir par se délayer. Par ailleurs, les contraintes que le passage de genre impose aux dramaturges entraînent des changements non seulement aux niveaux de l’elocutio et de la dispositio mais aussi de l’inventio : tout n’est pas représentable sur la scène tragique française et, inversement, certains éléments qui peuvent manquer dans une épître ou un récit d’Ovide ne peuvent pas faire défaut dans une pièce théâtrale de certaines époques. La production de pièces de sujet ovidien est considérable dans les années 1620-1630 ; elle connaît une baisse remarquable dans les années 1640-1660, pour remonter à partir des années 1670 : l’essor de la tragédie lyrique, souvent de sujet métamorphique, entraîne la production de tragédies du même sujet par une dynamique d’émulation.Si l’influence des Héroïdes sur le théâtre tragique français est souvent tenue pour certaine, aucune étude systématique n’avait été menée pour le vérifier jusqu’à présent. Nous avons retenu, dans notre corpus, seulement les pièces traitant des héroïnes et des héros du recueil. Dans la première partie du XVIIe siècle on assiste généralement à des pratiques d’imitation proche du modèle ; au fil du siècle, en revanche, les auteurs prennent de plus en plus les distances du texte ovidien, en s’inspirant davantage des pièces de leurs prédécesseurs français. Environ la moitié des Héroïdes ne connaît pas de transposition théâtrale, et dans le cas de plusieurs personnages (Phèdre, Didon, Médée) les auteurs de théâtre négligent les relectures élégiaques proposées par Ovide en privilégiant les sources anciennes tragiques et épiques.Sans avoir la prétention de fournir des réponses exhaustives sur la question du rayonnement d’Ovide dans le théâtre tragique français des XVIe et XVIIe siècles, cette thèse ne constitue que la première étape d’un travail plus vaste. Cette première étape, néanmoins, aura permis de relever que les liens entre l’œuvre d’Ovide (notamment les Héroïdes) et le théâtre tragique français sont plus complexes que ce que l’on croit
This thesis is a diachronic study of Ovidian tragedies published in France between the middle of the sixteenth century and the end of the seventeenth century, as well as a more focused study on those tragedies based on the Heroides.It is well known that French literature of this period is intimately linked to the Ovidian corpus: the poet’s writings were widely circulated and there was a proliferation of translations, rewritings and imitations, as well as theatrical adaptations and figurative transpositions. This diffusion and appropriation of Ovid’s works contributed to the birth of new literary genres and gave rise to the emergence of the phenomena of emulation which, as Marie-Claire Chatelain has shown, notably fostered the elaboration of the gallant and elegiac aesthetic in the second half of the seventeenth century. The extremely extensive and stratified nature of Ovid’s presence in French culture thus necessitates the utmost caution in this study.The study of these Ovidian tragedies firstly shows that the authors tended not to reveal their debt to Ovid in their liminary texts, preferring to cite classical authors that were considered more prestigious. Yet, especially in the first half of the seventeenth century, there are numerous cases of imitation that closely resemble the Ovidian model. Admittedly, the generally modest length of the poetic passages that Ovid grants to the myths he develops in his writings thus requires an impressive amount of amplificato, in which the Ovidian intertext is inevitably diluted. Moreover, the change in genre imposes certain constraints for the dramatist, inevitably leading to modifications not only at the level of elecutio and dispositio, but also inventio. While not everything can be represented on the French tragic stage, certain elements that may not feature in an Ovidian epistle or narrative inversely cannot be absent in a French tragedy of this period. The production of Ovidian tragedies was considerable in 1620 – 1630; it underwent a remarkable decline from 1640 – 1660 and then experienced a revival in the 1670s. The rise of lyrical tragedy, often on the subject of metamorphosis, led to the production of tragedies on this subject by a dynamic of emulation. If the influence of the Heroides on French tragic theatre is often held as certain, no systematic study had previously been carried out to verify this. The corpus of plays referenced here are those that deal with the heroines and the heroes of the collection. In the first half of the seventeenth century, one generally observes practices of imitation close to the model. Over the course of the century, however, authors increasingly distanced themselves from the Ovidian text, drawing more on the works of their French predecessors. Around half of the Heroides do not undergo a theatrical transposition and, in the case of several characters (Phèdre, Dido and Medea), the dramatists abandon the elegiac re-readings proposed by Ovid and instead draw from ancient tragic and epic sources.Without claiming to provide exhaustive answers to the question of Ovid’s influence on French tragedy of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, this thesis constitutes the first stage of a more extensive piece of work. This first step, however, reveals that the links between Ovid's work, with particular focus on the Heroides, and French tragedy are more complex than has been believed

The purpose of this thesis is to uncover the meaning of the difference between original versions and translations of two texts from Publius Ovidius Naso's Heroides, "Phyllis to Demophoon" and "Phaedra to Hippolytus." The first chapter describes John Dryden's system of translational practices and some theoretical issues surrounding literary translation and its critical interpretation. Even though translations have connections to the source text to some degree, each product of translation is a literary artifact on its own. The second chapter uses three translations of "Phyllis to Demophoon" by respectively Wye Saltonstall, Edward Pooley, and Edward Floyd as case studies demonstrating the variety of literary works that can originate from a single source text. The third chapter interprets Thomas Otway's translation of "Phaedra to Hippolytus" against Ovid's original in order to reveal the extensive presence of a certain characteristic irony in Otway's text. Otway also effectively translates Ovid's witty subtext.