Metamorfosi e Fasti : un dittico ovidiano

In my dissertation I argue that Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Fasti should be read together as twin poems forming a diptych. Building on the work of Hinds, Barchiesi, Feeney, and Myers among others, I claim that Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Fasti should be appreciated as a cohesive, interdependent system. The reader of Metamorphoses and Fasti experiences the same range of dynamics that characterizes the enjoyment of diptychs, that is contrast and parallelism, complementarity and supplementarity, overlapping and convergence, continuity and contiguity. The understanding of each poem is thus constantly renegotiated through the lens of the other. The pairing/duplication is a crucial feature of Ovid’s aesthetics and informs the organization of his corpus: the planning, writing, and revision of Metamorphoses and Fasti is constructed in close parallelism with each other (Chapter 1). The diptych connection is also grounded in both texts: clear programmatic connections underpin a joint reading both in series and in parallel. The relationship between the two poems shows a distinctly bidirectional character and the doublets work as Letizitate (Chapter 2). The core of the dissertation explores the dialogue between Metamorphoses and Fasti on three levels. Firstly, in addition to doublets the two poems share stories and characters in many other ways: such a constant dialogue proves the cohesiveness of the whole (Chapter 3). Secondly, the thematic level spotlights a double dialectic inspiring the diptych. The analysis of etiology and catasterism/divinization in both poems reveals both mirroring complementarity and mutual assimilation (Chapter 4). Thirdly, the narrative articulation of both poems works in a synergic way. The comparison foregrounds the same tensions underlying both works: starting from the same challenges, Metamorphoses and Fasti arrive to different solutions, but the diptych approach undermines any clear-cut opposition and spots cross-fertilization (Chapter 5). The point of view of the diptych provides fresh insights into additional aspects of the poems. On the one hand, considering the Metamorphoses and the Fasti as parts of a coherent whole can shed new light on their literary models, namely the Hesiodic corpusand Vergil’s Aeneid (Chapter 6). Finally, the diptych approach enriches the interpretation of time and space in the two poems: Metamorphoses and Fasti together form a Weltgedicht or ‘opera-mondo’ (Chapter 7).