BOOK REVIEWS 371 of minority rule on the Eastern empire (or indeed vice-versa), which, after all, saw the accession of the six-month-old Arcadius in 383 and the two-month-old Theodosius IIin 402. The book is very well produced, with few typographical errors, e.g. p.v n.5 should read ‘Szidat(2010)’ not 2011; in the bibliography the entry ‘Barnes, N.H.’ at the top of 340 should read ‘Baynes, N.H.’. The text cited of the Panegyrici Latini is in fact Mynor’s 1964 OCT (which Nixon and Rodgers reprinted in their 1994 translation and commentary,rather than offeringa new edition,asissuggested by the bibliography, 335). ALAN J.ROSS Howard College,UKZN.South Africa, alan.ross@wolfson.ox.ac.uk * * * Milton and the Metamorphosis of Ovid. By MAGGIE KILGOUR. Classical Presences. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2012. Pp. xxiii + 373. $135.00. ISBN 978-0-19-958943-2. Maggie Kilgour’s Milton and the Metamorphosis of Ovid, presented as part of Oxford ’s Classical Presences series, delivers a robust examination of Ovid’s influence on Milton. Kilgour places particular emphasis on the top billing poetic works of Milton’s literary career (Comus, Paradise Lost, and Samson Agonistes) but does not hesitate over treating minor works as well. The study focuses on Milton as a poet reading Ovid within a cultural and historic milieu where Ovid and the received ‘readings’of Ovid were often shifting and disparate. As noted in the preface: “While studying Ovid closely, Milton was equally attentive to the reworkings of his great precursors: Dante, and especially his English ancestors, Shakespeare and Spenser. While noting their individual adaptations , Milton responds also to the fact that Ovid stands for a chain of continuity and metamorphic activity” (xiv). To untie the knots of Ovidian intertexts, knots that Milton himself unties and rebinds, is a bold undertaking. Despite being somewhat discursive, a feature that Kilgour confesses when she cautions that Milton does sometimes drop out of sight (xviii), the work nevertheless promises what it delivers: “an exercise in practical criticism that explores a specific relation between two verydistinct authors” (xviii). 372 BOOK REVIEWS After a preface, which sketches the straits and difficulties of Quellenforschung and surveys the ground to be covered, the introduction offers a collegial review and critique of the scholarly tradition that surrounds Milton’s classical and Ovidian inheritance. The first two chapters treat Milton’s early writings. Kilgour nests these discussions within careful analysis of early modern receptions of Ovid’s work and theiroften-antagonistic redeployment. “Choosing Ovids (1)” leads with Milton’s somewhat grotesque and puerile handling of the rapere motif in “On the Death of a fair Infant dying of a Cough”. She then pursues Comus in light of Milton’s handling of the ways Ovid could be competitively appropriated and re-presented. “Choosing Ovids (2)” revisits the Ovidian rape motif, and builds to an engaging discussion of poetry and politics surrounding Comus. The stress here is on Milton’s burgeoning political interests by way of Ovid’s Fasti. Spenser’s Mutabilitie Cantos and The Shepheardes Calender, as well as Shakespeare’s Rape of Lucrece, embroider the discussion. Here Kilgour also engages the agonistic legacy between libertine elegy and court masques on which Milton cut his teeth. She is, however, reluctant to assign Ovid too prominent a part in shaping Milton’s politics and chooses instead to emphasize the difficulty in disentanglingpoetry from life. Chapters three and four take up Paradise Lost. “Reflections of Narcissus”— probably the jewel in the crown—puts forward an insightful reading of Ovid’s tale of Narcissus as “the locus classicus of artistic self-reflection” (193). Kilgour begins the discussion with Satan’s creativity in the making of Sin, and his own metamorphosis into a serpent, before taking up Adam and Eve to explore the Narcissistic subtexts of their creation/separation, Eve’s gazing at her reflection, and the couple’s later recoupling. “Self-Consuming Artists” continues the discussion of Paradise Lost and looks to career intersections between Ovid and the image of the fallen artist. The concern here is invidia within the creative process. The conclusion, a chapter of its own and likely...