Alessandro Barchiesi

Gianpiero Rosati

The first complete commentary in English on Ovid's Metamorphoses, covering textual interpretation, poetics, imagination, and ideology.

A Commentary on Ovid's Metamorphoses

Jörg Rüpke

Susan A. Stephens

In order to reconstruct ancient rituals we must rely on ancient texts. That is the premise of these eight papers which are taken from a conference held at Stanford University in 2002 which brought together scholars of Roman religion and scholars of Roman literature to debate the `textuality of ritual'. The papers are followed by six brief essays which discuss the themes of the and consider the problems of retrieving ritual from texts written by such complex authors as Virgil, Ovid and Livy. The essays themselves focus on: the theme of sacrificial ritual in Roman poetry; religious communication in Rome; professional poets and the 2nd-century BC temple of Hercules of the muses; Livy; the Aeneid ; Ovid's use of hymns in the Metamorphoses ; Ovid's depiction of a triumph in Tristia ; the secret name of Rome. The numerous extracts are presented in Latin verse and English prose translation.

A Conference on Religion and Literary Production in Ancient Rome Held at Stanford University in February 2002

Rituals in Ink

The study of Homeric imitations in Vergil has one of the longest traditions in Western culture, starting from the very moment the Aeneid was circulated. Homeric Effects in Vergil's Narrative is the first English translation of one of the most important and influential modern studies in this tradition. In this revised and expanded edition, Alessandro Barchiesi advances innovative approaches even as he recuperates significant earlier interpretations, from Servius to G. N. Knauer. Approaching Homeric allusions in the Aeneid as "narrative effects" rather than glimpses of the creative mind of the author at work, Homeric Effects in Vergil's Narrative demonstrates how these allusions generate hesitations and questions, as well as insights and guidance, and how they participate in the creation of narrative meaning. The book also examines how layers of competing interpretations in Homer are relevant to the Aeneid, revealing again the richness of the Homeric tradition as a component of meaning in the Aeneid. Finally, Homeric Effects in Vergil's Narrative goes beyond previous studies of the Aeneid by distinguishing between two forms of Homeric intertextuality: reusing a text as an individual model or as a generic matrix. For this edition, a new chapter has been added, and in a new afterword the author puts the book in the context of changes in the study of Latin literature and intertextuality. A masterful work of classical scholarship, Homeric Effects in Vergil's Narrative also has valuable insights for the wider study of imitation, allusion, intertextuality, epic, and literary theory.

Updated Edition

Homeric Effects in Vergil's Narrative

Stephen Hinds

Philip Hardie

An important collection of essays on Ovid's Metamorphoses and its reception.

Essays on Ovid's Metamorphoses and its Reception

Ovidian Transformations

In this fresh assessment of Ovid's fascinating poem Fasti, Alessandro Barchiesi provides a new vision of the interaction between Ovid and the renowned ruler Augustus. Fasti, a poem about the holidays and feast days of the Roman calendar, was written while Ovid was in Rome and revised while he was in exile on the barbarian frontier, banished by Augustus from the cultured society of Rome. Ovid's work in exile evinces complicated motives; he addresses Augustus and begs him to lift the despised exile, but at the same time covertly critiques Augustus's "New Rome." Although recent scholarship has concentrated on the oppositions between poet and ruler revealed in Ovid's work, Barchiesi's analysis transcends the opposition of pro-Augustan or anti-Augustan readings. In a lively, vigorous narrative that relies on close textual analysis, Barchiesi underscores the important poetic choices as well as the political considerations made by Ovid in Fasti. Ultimately, his analysis leads us to a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between patrons and poets. Both scholars and general readers will find a newly meaningful and interesting Ovid in these pages. Translated with revisions from Il poeta e il principe: Ovido e il discorso Augusteo (1994).

Alessandro Barchiesi

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