The (assumed) 2,000th anniversary of Ovid’s death in 2017 prompted a series of commemorative events, including conferences in Shanghai, Berlin and Rome. The last occasion led to the publication of the highly nuanced volume under review, which gathers a broad spectrum of contributions, most of them originally presented at the Rome conference (see M. Marcucci, Bollettino di Studi Latini 42 [2017], 736–41). Ovid’s ‘death’ thus functions not merely as the impetus for the volume but also as a leitmotif subtly unifying all eighteen essays, which are ‘organized around the motif of death as a metaphor or symbol of some crucial aspect of Ovid’s poetry’ (p. 3). Within this framework, death is explored in relation to the concept of ‘transfiguration’, understood broadly as the metamorphic transformation of both poet and poetry and approached from a variety of critical angles. While not every topic breaks entirely new ground, many of the essays offer fresh perspectives even on familiar material, making the volume a rich and rewarding read, including for those already well-versed in Ovidian studies.
Following the concise but helpful introduction, which outlines the interconnections among the essays, the first of four thematic sections addresses the relationship between ‘Death and the Lover’. A. Walter examines this theme through ‘elegiac etiologies’ – ‘narratives in which past emotions, lament, and tears live on in the present’ (p. 28). In her reading of Phaethon’s death in the Metamorphoses, she identifies a transformative power of mourning: grief not only motivates the Heliades’ transformation; but their tears, which become amber, also preserve emotional resonance by remaining ‘immediately connected with the readers’ present’ (p. 34). F. Klein revisits the tragic love stories of Narcissus and Orpheus, both of which enact a ‘double death’ of lover and beloved. In the ‘rich use of the doubling pattern’ (p. 53), she traces an intratextual link between the two figures, with Orpheus’ death transfiguring that of Narcissus. She also identifies an intertextual ‘echo’ of Virgil’s Georgics, in which Orpheus becomes part of a metapoetic ‘love triangle’ (p. 59) involving both Ovidian characters. In a stimulating paper T. Thorsen begins with the poet’s famous phrase ore legar populi (Met. 15.871–9). Taking it literally, she relates it to ‘the traditional Roman practice of catching up a dying person’s soul in the mouth of someone who is still alive’ (p. 63). Her essay not only explores the metapoetic implications of this idea within Ovid’s exilic poetry but also offers a compelling close reading of the tales of Cephalus and Procris (Ars 3.685–746; Met. 7.670–865). Here, the motif resurfaces, casting Cephalus as an unreliable narrator who – in a metapoetic sense – ‘swallows up’ the spirit of his beloved (p. 85). J. Fabre-Serris turns to the elegiac motif of self-inflicted death, contending that ‘suicide for love is not a motif that Ovid liked’ (p. 91). In her readings of the tragic deaths of Phyllis, Pyramus and Thisbe, she suggests that these scenes are meant to be ‘exemplary’, but in a negative sense, functioning as meta-narrative signals that warn against rash judgement. The section concludes with L. Fulkerson’s article, which examines how love and death intersect through the recurring motif of illness, which widely pervades Ovid’s oeuvre. She argues that Ovid frames his life’s story as marked by successive illnesses, caused by the separation from the puella, and, later, the separation from Rome. While highlighting the growing political dimension of this second rupture, she underscores the thematic continuity between Ovid’s love sickness and his experience of exile. These reflections could be fruitfully brought into dialogue with E. Doblhofer’s influential study (Exil und Emigration [1987]), which identifies illness as a key topos of exile – particularly in the light of the article’s suggested reference to Thomas Mann, who famously described exile as a form of ‘cardiac asthma’.
Part 2, ‘Death and the Artist’, remains broadly situated within the realm of Ovid’s exile poetry. A. Keith explores a connection between the literal coldness of Tomis and the rhetorical concept of frigiditas, interpreting it as ‘a new stylistic “excess” appropriate to the geographical location of its production’ (p. 134). Here, death is metaphorically understood as the demise of the poet’s Latinitas in an alien linguistic and cultural environment. This reading resonates with Fulkerson’s earlier observations and ties in seamlessly with the following chapter by L. Galasso, who conceives of exile as a form of ‘living death’. Galasso argues that the death fantasies found in earlier elegists such as Propertius, Tibullus and Ovid’s Amores are transformed into grim actuality in exile. These contributions provide intriguing new insights into the interpretation of Ovid’s descriptions of Tomis and complement other recent approaches, such as that of S. Myers (‘Ovid against the Elements’, in: G. Williams and K. Volk [edd.], Philosophy in Ovid, Ovid as Philosopher [2022], pp. 251–66).
Extending the scope of ‘the artist’ beyond strictly literary analysis, the subsequent essays engage with visual culture. B. Bergmann investigates how the concepts of ‘seeing’ and ‘knowing’ are represented in Roman wall painting and how they challenge modern readers. Focusing on mythological imagery – among them Actaeon and Pentheus (pp. 189–95) –, this contribution highlights the conceptual relationship of Roman paintings with Ovid’s poetry, reaffirming the longstanding association between Ovid as a ‘visual poet’ (S. Hinds) and the visual arts. A. Betori and E. Calandra offer a discussion of a newly excavated statuary group of the Niobids found in a villa that may have belonged to Ovid’s ‘patron’ Messalla. Regardless of whether Ovid ever saw this sculptural ensemble, the authors argue that his version of the myth diverges from such representations by transforming it into ‘an action protracted over time’ (p. 219). Although both contributions refer to Ovid’s poetry only indirectly, they are well placed within a volume explicitly advocating for the application of new methodologies and perspectives. One might only regret the absence of a visual representation of the statue group, which would have enriched the discussion.
Part 3, ‘Revenants and Undead’, explores two dimensions of ‘afterlife’: one more literal, the other metaphorical. Departing from the oft-cited idea of metamorphosis as a liminal state between life and death, A. Sharrock contends that ‘Ovidian metamorphosis is often a perverted continuation of life, rather than a suspension between life and death’ (p. 240). For Sharrock, metamorphosis in Ovid rarely signals an end; even the poet’s own final transformation (Met. 15.873–9) is better read not as a symbolic death, but as ‘a perverted continuation of life’ (p. 249). A comparably undead quality animates S. Hinds’s contribution. In a ‘kind of thought experiment’ (p. 253), he introduces the notion of the ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ (p. 256) as a metaphorical frame for reading Ovid’s exile poetry, which is full of ‘revenants’ haunting the pages with a grim and bitter tone. Though deliberately experimental in its approach, Hinds’s reading is grounded in a sharp observation: Ovid’s exile poetry, with its ‘limping gait’ (Tr. 3.1.11) and dishevelled appearance (incultus, Tr. 1.1.3), is not merely poetry ‘of transfiguration, not just of refiguration, but of disfiguration’ (pp. 252; 259–62), marked more by estrangement than by continuity with the pre-exilic oeuvre.
The final two contributions in this section shift the focus towards reception studies, considering Ovid’s metaphorical ‘afterlife’ in literary history. F. Ursini, through a case study of C.H. Sisson’s Metamorphoses (1968), illustrates the ‘long tradition of Ovidian reinventions’ (p. 285). His witty and wide-ranging investigation of Sisson’s literary and artistic antecedents underscores Ovid’s enduring capacity to invite creative engagement. E. Buckley explores a particular trajectory of Ovidian reception in early modern England, beginning with Marlowe’s (partial) translations of the Amores, which are later ironically transfigured in Jonson’s Poetaster. In this interplay Buckley discerns a form of ironic ‘revival’ – a mode of reception that even mirrors themes to which Ovid returned in his later years, particularly the problem of interpretation in politically constrained discourses.
Part 4, ‘Immortals and Others’, centres on the theme of (poetic) immortality. F.R. Berno proposes a compelling new reading of the two-faced Janus, who – more than any god – embodies the principle of ‘transfiguration’ in what Berno describes as an ‘ontological’ sense (p. 332). Janus’ mutability is particularly evident in his role as guardian of peace: first confidently keeping war at bay within his temple, then later, in a more sombre and pessimistic portrayal, locking peace away for protection. G. La Bua addresses Ovid’s poetic immortality from an intertextual perspective, situating it ‘in his readers’ continual refashioning and polymorphic manipulation of Ovid’s elegiac (and epic) topics and language’ (p. 353). Using Petronius’ Satyricon as a case in point, he identifies a parodic ‘transfiguration’ of Ovidian elegiac motifs, which bestows upon the poet a form of afterlife – albeit one marked by parody – in the literary imagination of posterity.
The final three contributions return to the metapoetic ending of the Metamorphoses. K. Volk offers a fresh reading of Julius Caesar’s apotheosis (Met. 15.745–851), examining its religious implications through the heuristic lens of Varro’s tripartite theology. She argues that Caesar’s deification engages with all three religious domains – mythological, cultic and metaphysical – although Ovid, in characteristic fashion, takes each of them quite literally, thereby exposing their constructed nature. She concludes that only his own transformation at the very end ‘does involve a true transfiguration’ of sorts (p. 383). S. Casali, in his reading of the same passage, focuses on its dense intertextuality. He argues that the apotheosis of Caesar, stemming from his immutably fated death (15.807–15), revisits epic debates on the tension between divine power and fate. Drawing on Homer, Naevius, Ennius and especially Virgil, Casali suggests that Ovid seeks to clarify the ambiguities in Virgil’s account by ‘aiming for a complete separation between Jupiter and Fate’ (p. 398). This leads to the compelling idea that Ovid may have read Virgil’s text as already requiring interpretation (p. 404). P. Hardie fittingly concludes the volume by examining Ovid’s vision of his poetic afterlife. He situates the poet’s aspiration to ‘achieve divine immortality’ (p. 412) within a lineage including Virgil and Horace, who serve as both models and measures of literary greatness (p. 422). A coda on the reception of poetic apotheoses in literature and the visual arts culminates in the affirmation that ‘his skywards ambition for fame has been realized’ (p. 426).
Overall, the volume offers a rich and rewarding new exploration of Ovid’s poetry, with the titular motif of ‘Death and Transfiguration’ providing a meaningful, if at times metaphorical, unifying thread. The individual contributions largely stand on their own, though this does not preclude the discovery (especially in a linear reading) of thematic and methodological connections even across sections. These links are seldom made explicit within the essays, but they are subtly indicated, inviting readers – in a very Ovidian fashion – to take an active role in tracing these underlying threads. Since the book is partly conceived as a set of conference proceedings and has grown organically from that context, it is best understood as a thematic reappraisal rather than a full conceptual reorientation of Ovidian scholarship. This is also reflected in the deliberately succinct preface by the editors, who note that, while death and transformation are familiar Ovidian themes, the anniversary of his death offers a timely opportunity to revisit established interpretations, fill existing gaps and open up new avenues of research (pp. 2–3). This aim is greatly achieved by the editors and the high-quality contributions assembled, which, as a whole, are likely to provide important new incentives for research on Ovid and his various ‘afterlives’. In this sense, the volume enacts a kind of transfiguration: reviving Ovid, two millennia after his death, within the discourse of modern scholarship.
