The Cambridge Companion to Ovid

Accessible but exciting critical handbook on one of the greatest writers of classical antiquity.

Ovid was one of the greatest writers of classical antiquity, and arguably the single most influential ancient poet for post-classical literature and culture. In this Cambridge Companion, chapters by leading authorities from Europe and North America discuss the backgrounds and contexts for Ovid, the individual works, and his influence on later literature and art. Coverage of essential information is combined with exciting critical approaches. This Companion is designed both as an accessible handbook for the general reader who wishes to learn about Ovid, and as a series of stimulating essays for students of Latin poetry and of the classical tradition.

List of illustrations; List of contributors; Preface; Introduction Philip Hardie; Part I. Contexts and History: 1. Ovid and ancient literary history Richard Tarrant; 2. Ovid and early imperial literature Philip Hardie; 3. Ovid and empire Thomas Habinek; 4. Ovid and the professional discourses of scholarship, religion, rhetoric Alessandro Schiesaro; Part II. Themes and Works: 5. Ovid and genre: evolutions of an elegist Stephen Harrison; 6. Gender and sexuality Alison Sharrock; 7. Myth in Ovid Fritz Graf; 8. Landscape with figures: aesthetics of place in the Metamorphoses and its tradition Stephen Hinds; 9. Ovid and the discourses of love: the amatory works Alison Sharrock; 10. Metamorphosis in the Metamorphoses Andrew Feldherr; 11. Narrative technique and narratology in the Metamorphoses Alessandro Barchiesi; 12. Mandati memores: political and poetic authority in the Fasti Carole Newlands; 13. Epistolarity: the Heroides Duncan F. Kennedy; 14. Ovid's exile poetry: Tristia, Epistulae ex Ponto and Ibis Gareth Williams; Part III. Reception: 15. Ovid in English translation Raphael Lyne; 16. Ovid in the Middle Ages: authority and poetry Jeremy Dimmick; 17. Love and exile after Ovid Raphael Lyne; 18. Re-embodying Ovid: Renaissance afterlives Colin Burrow; 19. Recent receptions of Ovid Duncan F. Kennedy; 20. Ovid and art Christopher Allen; Dateline; Works cited; Index.

In this Companion to one of the greatest writers of classical antiquity - and arguably the single most influential ancient poet for post-classical literature and culture - leading authorities provide essential information about Ovid, his individual works and his influence on later literature and art, together with exciting critical approaches.