Startseite Altertumswissenschaften & Ägyptologie Underneath the Arachnean and Minervan Veil of Ambiguity: Cultural and Political Simulatio in Ovidian Ecphrasis
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Underneath the Arachnean and Minervan Veil of Ambiguity: Cultural and Political Simulatio in Ovidian Ecphrasis

  • Stella Alekou
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Strategies of Ambiguity in Ancient Literature
Ein Kapitel aus dem Buch Strategies of Ambiguity in Ancient Literature

Abstract

This article examines the tale of Arachne and Minerva in Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 6 and argues that the ecphrastic interlude in the given account reveals contrasting conceptions of simulatio that engender ambiguity. It is shown that the certamen results in an ambivalent victory for the propagandistic compositional order, but also in a questionable silencing of artistic expressions of resistance; ecphrasis emerges in both Arachne’s wordless story-telling and Ovid’s verbal tapestry as a powerful and polyphonic device that acts as a veiled platform of sociopolitical criticism. With focus on the ambiguities of cultural and political simulatio in the episode in question, this discussion discloses a variety of conflictual perspectives and multiple layers of violated clarity, which may, paradoxically, elucidate the reader’s perception of one of the most famous stories in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

Abstract

This article examines the tale of Arachne and Minerva in Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 6 and argues that the ecphrastic interlude in the given account reveals contrasting conceptions of simulatio that engender ambiguity. It is shown that the certamen results in an ambivalent victory for the propagandistic compositional order, but also in a questionable silencing of artistic expressions of resistance; ecphrasis emerges in both Arachne’s wordless story-telling and Ovid’s verbal tapestry as a powerful and polyphonic device that acts as a veiled platform of sociopolitical criticism. With focus on the ambiguities of cultural and political simulatio in the episode in question, this discussion discloses a variety of conflictual perspectives and multiple layers of violated clarity, which may, paradoxically, elucidate the reader’s perception of one of the most famous stories in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface V
  3. Contents VII
  4. List of Figures XI
  5. Part I: Concepts and Aesthetics of Ambiguity
  6. Modern and Ancient Concepts of Ambiguity 1
  7. Aristotle on Ambiguity 11
  8. Intended Ambiguity in Plato’s Phaedo 29
  9. The Ambiguity of the Unambiguous: Figures of Death in Late Medieval Literature 43
  10. The Modern Perspective: Ambiguity, Artistic Self-Reference, and the Autonomy of Art 61
  11. Part II: Playing with Linguistic Ambiguity
  12. Traversing No-Man’s Land 81
  13. The Ambiguity of Wisdom: Mētis in the Odyssey 91
  14. Borges in Alexandria? Modes of Ambiguity in Hellenistic Poetry 101
  15. Sympotic Sexuality: The Ambiguity of Seafood in Middle Comedy (Nausicrates fr. 1 K.-A.) 123
  16. Liber esto – Wordplay and Ambiguity in Petronius’ Satyrica 141
  17. Part III: Ambiguous Narratives
  18. Half Heroes? Ambiguity in Ovid’s Metamorphoses 157
  19. Underneath the Arachnean and Minervan Veil of Ambiguity: Cultural and Political Simulatio in Ovidian Ecphrasis 175
  20. Ambigua Verba, Hidden Desire and Auctorial Intentionality in Some Ovidian Speeches (Met. 3.279−92; 7.810−23; 10.364−6, 440−1) 193
  21. The Pleasures of Ambiguity: Aristomenes’ Tale of Socrates in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses 207
  22. Legens. Ambiguity, Syllepsis and Allegory in Claudian’s De Raptu Proserpinae 219
  23. Part IV: Ambiguity as Argument
  24. Between Conversion and Madness: Sophisticated Ambiguity in Lucian’s Nigrinus 237
  25. Catullan Ambiguity 251
  26. Prophetic, Poetic and Political Ambiguity in Vergil Eclogue 4 273
  27. Vitae aut vocis ambigua: Seneca the Younger and Ambiguity 285
  28. Who speaks? – Ambiguity and Vagueness in the Design of Cicero’s Dialogue Speakers 297
  29. Unsettling Effects and Disconcertment — Strategies of Enacting Interpretations in Tacitusʼ Annals 315
  30. The Latin Commentary Tradition on ‘Inclusive’ Intended Ambiguity 331
  31. Part V: Ambiguous Receptions
  32. Ambivalent Allegories: Giovan Battista Marino’s Adone (1623) between Censorship and Hermeneutic Freedom 351
  33. Multipliers of Ambiguity: The Use of Quotations in Cavafy’s Poems Concerning the Emperor Julian 365
  34. Seven Perspectives of Ambiguity and the Problem of Intentionality 381
  35. List of Contributors 405
  36. General Index 411
  37. Index of Passages 417
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110715811-012

Kapitel in diesem Buch

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface V
  3. Contents VII
  4. List of Figures XI
  5. Part I: Concepts and Aesthetics of Ambiguity
  6. Modern and Ancient Concepts of Ambiguity 1
  7. Aristotle on Ambiguity 11
  8. Intended Ambiguity in Plato’s Phaedo 29
  9. The Ambiguity of the Unambiguous: Figures of Death in Late Medieval Literature 43
  10. The Modern Perspective: Ambiguity, Artistic Self-Reference, and the Autonomy of Art 61
  11. Part II: Playing with Linguistic Ambiguity
  12. Traversing No-Man’s Land 81
  13. The Ambiguity of Wisdom: Mētis in the Odyssey 91
  14. Borges in Alexandria? Modes of Ambiguity in Hellenistic Poetry 101
  15. Sympotic Sexuality: The Ambiguity of Seafood in Middle Comedy (Nausicrates fr. 1 K.-A.) 123
  16. Liber esto – Wordplay and Ambiguity in Petronius’ Satyrica 141
  17. Part III: Ambiguous Narratives
  18. Half Heroes? Ambiguity in Ovid’s Metamorphoses 157
  19. Underneath the Arachnean and Minervan Veil of Ambiguity: Cultural and Political Simulatio in Ovidian Ecphrasis 175
  20. Ambigua Verba, Hidden Desire and Auctorial Intentionality in Some Ovidian Speeches (Met. 3.279−92; 7.810−23; 10.364−6, 440−1) 193
  21. The Pleasures of Ambiguity: Aristomenes’ Tale of Socrates in Apuleius’ Metamorphoses 207
  22. Legens. Ambiguity, Syllepsis and Allegory in Claudian’s De Raptu Proserpinae 219
  23. Part IV: Ambiguity as Argument
  24. Between Conversion and Madness: Sophisticated Ambiguity in Lucian’s Nigrinus 237
  25. Catullan Ambiguity 251
  26. Prophetic, Poetic and Political Ambiguity in Vergil Eclogue 4 273
  27. Vitae aut vocis ambigua: Seneca the Younger and Ambiguity 285
  28. Who speaks? – Ambiguity and Vagueness in the Design of Cicero’s Dialogue Speakers 297
  29. Unsettling Effects and Disconcertment — Strategies of Enacting Interpretations in Tacitusʼ Annals 315
  30. The Latin Commentary Tradition on ‘Inclusive’ Intended Ambiguity 331
  31. Part V: Ambiguous Receptions
  32. Ambivalent Allegories: Giovan Battista Marino’s Adone (1623) between Censorship and Hermeneutic Freedom 351
  33. Multipliers of Ambiguity: The Use of Quotations in Cavafy’s Poems Concerning the Emperor Julian 365
  34. Seven Perspectives of Ambiguity and the Problem of Intentionality 381
  35. List of Contributors 405
  36. General Index 411
  37. Index of Passages 417
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