Cretan Women Pasiphae, Ariadne, and Phaedra in Latin Poetry [Hardcover]

In this detailed study of the representations of Pasiphae, Ariadne, and Phaedra in Latin poetry, Rebecca Armstrong investigates both the literary history of the myths (the Greek roots, the interactions between Roman versions) and their cultural resonance. In addition to close readings of the major treatments of each woman's story (in Catullus, Virgil, Ovid, and Seneca), she offers extended thematic explorations of the importance of memory, wildness, and morality in the myths. By extending the net to encompass three women (all from the same ill-fated family), the book gives a clear picture of the complexity and fascinating interconnectedness of myths and texts in Ancient Rome.

Introduction
I. Themes
1. Ethics and Poetics: Literary and Personal Memory in Representations of Cretan Women
2. The Call of the Wild
3. Vice and Virtue
II. Texts
4. Pasiphae in the Eclogues and Ars Amatoria
5. Ariadne in Catullus 64
6. Ariadne and Ovid
7. Phaedra from Elegiac Lover to Stoic Anti-Exemplum? Heroides 4 and Seneca, Phaedra
Conclusion

Rebecca Armstrongis Fellow and Tutor in Classics, St Hilda's College, and Department of Classics, Oxford University.