Jessica Seidman
[email protected]
Hum 110
April 6, 2015
Ovid, Metamorphoses 4-6, 15:
“Portrait of the Artist as SPIDER-WOMAN”
Outline of Lecture
Introduction: Ovid as Statue
Close Reading 1: “Arrogant Arachne”
Close Reading 2: “Truth to Power Arachne”
Close Reading 3: “Rival Arachne”
Conclusion: Ovid as Artist
Useful Terms
textus: Latin for “web,” “weaving,” “literary work”
mise en abyme: (a term denoting) self-reflection within the structure of a literary work
(e.g. a play within a play, a painting depicting a smaller version of itself, etc.)
synchesis: an interlocking (ABAB) arrangement of words or phrases
focalization: the presentation of a scene through the subjective perception of a character
aemulus/a: Latin for “rival”
Introduction: Ovid as Statue
1.
I, who lie here, one who played with tender loves,
I, the poet Naso, perished by my own talent.
But you who pass by, you, whoever have loved, may it not be burdensome for you
to say: May the bones of Naso lie in peace. (Tristia 3.3.73-76, trans. Seidman)
Close Reading 1: “Arrogant Arachne”
2. Pierides: “This pack of sisters, puffed with pride / In being nine…” (Met., Melville, 108)
“Those nine girls / Laughed and despised my threats…” (Met., Melville, 119)
3. Niobe: She stopped, and in her full height cast her gaze / her haughty gaze [superbos
oculos] around. (Met., Melville, 126)
“Now ask yourselves the reason for my pride [nostra superbia]…”
(Met., Melville, 127)
She [Niobe] took no warning from the punishment of her compatriot [Arachne] to
give the gods their proper place and moderate her tongue. (Met., Melville, 125)
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Jessica Seidman
[email protected]
Hum 110
April 6, 2015
4. Arachne: A teacher so distinguished hurt her pride. (Melville, 121)
“But yield the goddess place, and humbly ask / Pardon for those rash words of
yours.” (Met., Melville, 122)
She stood by her resolve, setting her heart, / her stupid heart, on victory…
(Met., Melville, 122)
Close Reading 2: “Truth to Power Arachne”
5.
Twelve great gods,
Jove in their midst, sit there on lofty thrones,
Grave and august, each pictured with his own
Familiar features.
Bis sex caelestes medio Iove sedibus altis
augusta gravitate sedent; sua quemquem deorum
inscribit facies.
(Met.6.72-74; Melville, 123)
6.
A narrow band of flowers she designed,
Flowers and clinging ivy intertwined. (Met.6.127-128; Melville, 125)
it had flowers interwoven with entwined ivy.
nexilibus flores hederis habet intertextos
entwined flowers ivy
has
interwoven
A
B
A
B
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Jessica Seidman
[email protected]
Hum 110
April 6, 2015
7. Now stands my task accomplished, such a work
As not the wrath of Jove, nor fire nor sword
Nor the devouring ages can destroy.
Let, when it will, that day, that has no claim
But to my mortal body, end the span
Of my uncertain years. Yet I’ll be borne,
The finer part of me, above the stars,
Immortal, and my name shall never die.
Wherever through the lands beneath her sway
The might of Rome extends, my words shall be
Upon the lips of men. If truth at all
Is stablished by poetic prophecy,
My fame shall live to all eternity. (Met., Melville, 379)
Close Reading 3: “Rival Arachne”
8. In all that work of hers Pallas could find,
Envy could find, no fault. Incensed at such
Success the warrior goddess, golden-haired,
Tore up the tapestry, those crimes of heaven [caelestia crimina]… (Met., Melville, 125)
9. Arachne shows Europa cheated by
The bull’s disguise, a real bull you’d think,
And real sea. The girl was gazing at
The shore she’d left and calling to her friends,
Seeming to dread the leaping billows’ touch,
Shrinking and drawing up her feet in fear. (Met., Melville, 124)
10. Yet to provide examples to instruct
Her rival [aemula] what reward she should expect
For her insensate daring… (Met., Melville, 123)
Conclusion: Ovid as Artist
11. Should I be surprised, then, that under this weight of such important affairs
you have never read my silly work?
But if, as I would have liked, you had chanced to have the free time,
you would have found no crime [crimen] in my Art. (Tr. 2.237-240, trans. Seidman)
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Jessica Seidman
[email protected]
12.
Hum 110
April 6, 2015
Whoever thinks that vice has arisen from my works is in error [errat]
and attributes too much to my writings.
Even if I should admit this, the games also offer the opportunity for
misbehavior: order all the theaters shut down!....
Shut down the Circus! The freedom of the Circus isn’t safe:
a girl might sit next to a man she doesn’t know there.
Since certain women hang out in porticoes, intent on meeting their lovers there,
why does any portico stand open?
What place is more august [augustior] than the temples? But a woman should
also avoid these, if she has any tendency toward fault.
When she stands in the temple of Jupiter, in the very temple of Jupiter
it could occur to her just how many women that god made mothers….
If she should come into the temple of mighty Mars, your own gift,
Venus, in the guise of a man, stands before the door, bound to the Avenger.
(Tr.2.277-280, 283-290, 295-296, trans. Seidman)
Select Bibliography
General Introductions to Ovid
Feldherr, A. “Metamorphosis in the Metamorphoses.” In The Cambridge Companion to Ovid, edited
by Philip Hardie, 163-179. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. (available
online!)
Galinsky, K. Ovid’s Metamorphoses: An Introduction to the Basic Aspects. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1975.
Rosati, G. “Narrative Techniques and Narrative Structures in the Metamorphoses.” In Brill’s
Companion to Ovid, edited by Barbara Weiden Boyd, 271-304. Leiden: Brill, 2002. (available
online!)
White, P. Promised Verse: Poets in the Society of Augustan Rome. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1993. (see especially pp. 152-155)
Latin Commentaries (if that’s your thing)
Anderson, W.S. Ovid’s Metamorphoses: Books 1-5. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
1998.
————. Ovid’s Metamorphoses: Books 6-10. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1978.
Ingleheart, J. A Commentary on Ovid, Tristia, Book 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Arachne and Other Artists
Harries, B. “The Spinner and the Poet: Arachne in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.” Proceedings of the
Cambridge Philological Society 36 (1990): 64-82.
Heffernan, James A. “Weaving Rape: Ekphrastic Metamorphoses of the Philomela Myth from
Ovid to Shakespeare.” In Museum of Words: The Poetics of Ekphrasis from Homer to Ashbery.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
Lateiner, D. “Mythic and Non-mythic Artists in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.” Ramus 13 (1984): 1-30.
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Jessica Seidman
[email protected]
Hum 110
April 6, 2015
Leach, E. “Ecphrasis and the Theme of Artistic Failure in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.” Ramus 3 (1974):
102-142.
Oliensis, Ellen. “The Power of Imager-Makers: Representation and Revenge in Ovid
Metamorphoses 6 and Tristia 4.” Classical Antiquity 23.2 (October 2004): 285-321.
Segal, C. “Philomela’s Web and the Pleasures of the Text.” In Modern Critical Theory and Classical
Literature, edited by Irene J. F. De Jong and J. John Patrick Sullivan, 257-280. Leiden: Brill,
1994.
Weird Recent Experimental Fiction Based on Ovid’s Poetry (if THAT’S your thing)
Alison, Jane. The Love Artist: A Novel. New York: Picador, 2002.
Malouf, David. An Imaginary Life: A Novel. London: Vintage, 1978.
Ransmayr, Christoph. The Last World: With an Ovidian Repertory. Translated by John Wood.
New York: Grove Press, 1990.
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