Abstract

 
 
 
 Ovid’s writing is infused with the retelling of known myths and the portrayal of heroes and heroines, whose figurae held a central role in Greek and Roman literature. This article argues in favour of reading Ariadne’s story at Ars am. 1.527-64 as a rape narrative. The exploration of the passage in question and its comparative reading with other poems (such as Prop. 1.3 and the Ovidian version of the rape of the Sabine women), illustrates and explains why Ovid reimagines Ariadne as a victim of erotic violence.
 
 
 
 
Highlights
This article diverges from other scholarly readings by discussing and focusing primarily on the second Ovidian version of Ariadne – as it is narrated in the Ars Amatoria – aiming to illustrate its major narrative variation
CLASSICA ET MEDIAEVALIA 67 · 2019 vious representations of Ariadne. In support of this argument, previous treatments of the story will be taken into consideration, and two rape narratives involving other elegiac heroines, namely the Propertian Cynthia (1.3) and the Ovidian Sabine women (Ars am. 1.89-134),[4] as well as scholarly approaches of Ovidian rape narratives, addressing how and why Ovid introduces this novelty to his second treatment of Ariadne
Previous treatments of the heroine’s myth do not include the rape theme explicitly. This re-interpretation of the digression as a rape narrative was initially triggered by an argument made by Wiseman who, in his discussion of the Catullan ecphrasis, suggests that the Neoteric poet is alluding to a version of the story that indicated Bacchus’ intention as being not marriage but rape at Catullus 64.253: te quaerens, Ariadna, tuoque incensus amore (‘looking for you, Ariadne, and on fire with passion for you’).[11]
Summary
It is generally acknowledged that Ovid’s work is characterised by different types of repetition, especially in his earlier works such as the Heroides and the Ars Amatoria.[1] this re-introduction of heroines and mythological narratives is not limited to mere repetition. On the contrary, it often takes the form of re-interpretation and re-imagination of wellknown stories. One of the most well-known examples of Ovidian repetition and – as this article suggests – of re-imagination is that of Ariadne,
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