Simile and Identity in Ovid's Metamorphoses [Paperback]

The first monograph on Ovid's epic simile, offering fresh perspectives on central episodes of this important work.Similes are a particular feature of epic, and those of Homer and Virgil's Aeneid have received considerable attention. This is the first book to examine the more numerous similes in Ovid's Metamorphoses and the ways in which they touch on the most profound issues of the poem.Similes are a particular feature of epic, and those of Homer and Virgil's Aeneid have received considerable attention. This is the first book to examine the more numerous similes in Ovid's Metamorphoses and the ways in which they touch on the most profound issues of the poem.Nulli sua forma manebat. The world of Ovid's Metamorphoses is marked by constant flux in which nothing keeps its original form. This book argues that Ovid uses the epic simile to capture states of unresolved identity  in the transition between human, animal and divine identity, as well as in the poem's textual ambivalence between genres and the negotiation of fiction and reality. In conjuring up a likeness, the mental image of the simile enters a dialectic of appearances in a visually complex and treacherous universe. Original and subtle close readings, from Narcissus to Adonis, from Diana's blush to the freeform dreams in the House of Sleep, trace the simile's potential for exploiting indeterminacy and immateriality. In its protean permutations the simile touches on the most profound issues of the poem  the nature of humanity and divinity and the essence of poetic creation.Introduction; 1. Metamorphosis and simile; 2. The gods and the simile; 3. The simile and genre; 4. Simile and fictionality; Conclusion: the protean nature of simile. [This book] is accessible to readers at all levels of expertise, including undergraduates, and would also make ideal reading for all people who like fiction and literary experiments.
Alessandro Barchiesi, Classical World