Ovid’s Labyrinthine Ars: Pasiphae and the Dangers of Poetic Memory in the Metamorphoses
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Hannah Burke-Tomlinson
Abstract
Allusions to Pasiphae and her infamous, bestial lust for the Cretan bull are scattered throughout Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Yet the Cretan queen and her man-made ‘metamorphosis’ into a wooden heifer by Daedalus is strikingly denied explicit narrative exploration in Ovid’s epic. Ovid’s fragmentary presentation of Pasiphae in the Metamorphoses in various mythical narratives, via the memories of internal narrators, invites metapoetic interpretation concerning the established scholarly reading of Ovid’s epic as a labyrinthine text. By extending this metapoetic reading and mobilising Conte’s critical concept ‘poetic memory’, it can be discerned that the Metamorphoses is not only akin to the Cretan labyrinth with regards to its bewildering narrative structure but also, like the mythical structure crafted by Daedalus, contains dangerous monuments to female, sexual furor. Analysis of instances in which the dangerous paradigm of Pasiphae pervades Ovid’s epic reveals that Pasiphae’s legacy of erotic furor elucidates anxieties concerning the presentation of mythical Cretan women in Roman epic. This chapter argues that the anxieties excited by poetic commemorations and the memory of Pasiphae’s grotesque sexuality necessitate the figure’s artistic confinement. This artistic confinement is provided by Ovid’s labyrinthine epic ars, which allows for a controlled display of the spectacle of the Cretan queen’s sexual furor by way of small-scale allusions.
Abstract
Allusions to Pasiphae and her infamous, bestial lust for the Cretan bull are scattered throughout Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Yet the Cretan queen and her man-made ‘metamorphosis’ into a wooden heifer by Daedalus is strikingly denied explicit narrative exploration in Ovid’s epic. Ovid’s fragmentary presentation of Pasiphae in the Metamorphoses in various mythical narratives, via the memories of internal narrators, invites metapoetic interpretation concerning the established scholarly reading of Ovid’s epic as a labyrinthine text. By extending this metapoetic reading and mobilising Conte’s critical concept ‘poetic memory’, it can be discerned that the Metamorphoses is not only akin to the Cretan labyrinth with regards to its bewildering narrative structure but also, like the mythical structure crafted by Daedalus, contains dangerous monuments to female, sexual furor. Analysis of instances in which the dangerous paradigm of Pasiphae pervades Ovid’s epic reveals that Pasiphae’s legacy of erotic furor elucidates anxieties concerning the presentation of mythical Cretan women in Roman epic. This chapter argues that the anxieties excited by poetic commemorations and the memory of Pasiphae’s grotesque sexuality necessitate the figure’s artistic confinement. This artistic confinement is provided by Ovid’s labyrinthine epic ars, which allows for a controlled display of the spectacle of the Cretan queen’s sexual furor by way of small-scale allusions.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents VII
- Acknowledgements IX
- Introduction 1
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Part I: The Mechanics of Memory
- Taking a Walk through Rome…: Comedic Itineraries and Early Republican Spatial Memory 19
- Quoting from Memory? Shared Knowledge in Cicero’s Book Fragments of Accius’ Atreus 41
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Part II: Collective Memory
- Memories of Glory: Poetry, Prose, and Commemoration in the Heraclidae 71
- Ovid’s Poetics of Memory and Oblivion in his Exilic Poetry 89
- The Memory of Marcus Regulus and Cannae in Plautus’ Captivi 103
- Divine Memories and the Shaping of Olympus in the Iliad 123
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Part III: Female Memory
- The Manipulation of Memory in Apollonius’ Argonautica 145
- Bound to Break Boundaries: Memory and Identity in Seneca’s Medea 165
- Audita mente notaui: (Meta)memory, Gender, and Pastoral Impersonation in the Speech of Ovid’s Galatea 193
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Part IV: Oblivion
- Ovid’s Labyrinthine Ars: Pasiphae and the Dangers of Poetic Memory in the Metamorphoses 219
- Divine Memory, Mortal Forgetfulness and Human Misfortune 247
- Forgetfulness as a Narrative Device in Herodotus’ Histories 267
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Part V: Further Thoughts
- Memory and its Discontents in Ancient Literature 293
- List of Contributors 309
- Index Rerum et Nominum 313
- Index Locorum 315
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents VII
- Acknowledgements IX
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: The Mechanics of Memory
- Taking a Walk through Rome…: Comedic Itineraries and Early Republican Spatial Memory 19
- Quoting from Memory? Shared Knowledge in Cicero’s Book Fragments of Accius’ Atreus 41
-
Part II: Collective Memory
- Memories of Glory: Poetry, Prose, and Commemoration in the Heraclidae 71
- Ovid’s Poetics of Memory and Oblivion in his Exilic Poetry 89
- The Memory of Marcus Regulus and Cannae in Plautus’ Captivi 103
- Divine Memories and the Shaping of Olympus in the Iliad 123
-
Part III: Female Memory
- The Manipulation of Memory in Apollonius’ Argonautica 145
- Bound to Break Boundaries: Memory and Identity in Seneca’s Medea 165
- Audita mente notaui: (Meta)memory, Gender, and Pastoral Impersonation in the Speech of Ovid’s Galatea 193
-
Part IV: Oblivion
- Ovid’s Labyrinthine Ars: Pasiphae and the Dangers of Poetic Memory in the Metamorphoses 219
- Divine Memory, Mortal Forgetfulness and Human Misfortune 247
- Forgetfulness as a Narrative Device in Herodotus’ Histories 267
-
Part V: Further Thoughts
- Memory and its Discontents in Ancient Literature 293
- List of Contributors 309
- Index Rerum et Nominum 313
- Index Locorum 315
