Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article draws attention to the presence of a previously unnoticed transliterated telestich (SOMATA) in the transformation of stones into bodies in the episode of Deucalion and Pyrrha in Ovid's Metamorphoses (1.406–11). Detection of the Greek intext, which befits the episode's amplified bilingual atmosphere, is encouraged by a number of textual cues. The article also suggests a ludic connection to Aratus’ Phaenomena.

Highlights

  • This article draws attention to the presence of a previously unnoticed transliterated telestich (SOMATA) in the transformation of stones into bodies in the episode of Deucalion and Pyrrha in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (1.406–11)

  • The episode’s last two lines disclose an aetiological allusion to the Greek etymology behind λαός ‘people’ and λᾶας ‘stones’ (1.414–15 inde genus durum sumus experiensque laborum, | et documenta damus qua simus origine nati ‘from there we are a hard race, accustomed to difficulties, and we give proof of the origin from which we are born’).[2]

  • I seek to highlight the presence of an intext in the lines that describe the metamorphosis of stones into bodies, a transliterated telestich that spells SOMATA, which complements, on the margins, this transformation.[3]

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Summary

Introduction

LITERAL BODIES (SOMATA): A TELESTICH IN OVID (METAMORPHOSES 1.406–11)*

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