A. presents an interesting and original interpretation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, with the main focus on Books 14 and 15. Particular emphasis is given to three episodes: first, the monograph focuses on the episode of Circe, Picus and Canens (14.312–434), it then examines that of Pomona and Vertumnus (14.623–771) and finally analyses the myth of Hippolytus and Egeria in Book 15 (482–551). In three well-balanced chapters A. addresses the problematic interaction between ‘Greekness’ and ‘Romanness’ and subtly suggests an alternative reading with regard to the much-discussed dialogue between Greece and Rome in the Metamorphoses, through a convincing, text-based argumentation.
The introduction provides the theoretical framework of the study and acknowledges the importance of the existing literature on matters of both vertical and horizontal intertextuality in Ovid's work (p. 13). From the very first pages, A. makes excellent observations, in remarking that, in the Greco-Roman cultural conflict, Ovid's position between dependence and independence cannot be exhausted in readings of allusion (p. 17: ‘Tale limite non riguarda né la validità del metodo né gli ottimi risultati finora raggiunti, ma la convinzione che l'ambizione poetica di Ovidio possa dirsi esaurita nell'arte dell'allusione, dell'intrusione, della deviazione, come se in ciò “soltanto” egli potesse esprimere la propria autonomia’). The playful relationship that the poet establishes with the mythological encyclopedia of the literary tradition is discussed with reference to the various spatio-temporal parameters that emerge with regard, in particular, to the space of Rome and the Greek mythical past (p. 16).
Intertextuality is the principal methodological tool of Chapter 1, ‘Circe, Pico e Canente: un triangolo amoroso con il proprio doppio’. In 96 pages, A. analyses an episode situated in the ‘little Odyssey’, therefore placed within the Metamorphoses’ ‘little Aeneid’, and presents the poet's – often skilfully implicit and strategically allusive – intertextual dialogue with his sources. In examining the complex representation of the three characters, A. addresses the ambiguous cause of Picus’ transformation and underlines both its polysemy and polyphony in the Ovidian version of the myth. As argued quite justly, the poet's attempt to correct the Virgilian account of the story becomes evident in the poet's choice of Picus’ bride (p. 46). Interestingly, in discussing the imago of brides and lovers ‘chasing each other’, A. points to a typically Ovidian and, indeed, quite playful mirroring of both allusions and divergences (p. 117). A. explains that the text not only overshadows the Homeric illustration of the famous characters, but also untangles the knots of an ambivalent mythological tradition by cleverly evoking multiple hypothetical scenarios and thus insinuating alternative destinies for the heroes (p. 124).
Chapter 2, ‘Pomona e Vertumno: l'Italia come luogo di storie inedite’, invites the reader to study the myth of Pomona and Vertumnus in line with the historical context in which it is placed: in the heart of Book 14, the episode follows the reference to the various generations of kings after Aeneas and is set during the reign of king Proca. In the examination of Ovidian representation of these characters, A. puts forward the claim that the poet gradually distances his text from its Greek setting and explores various intertextual links focusing on the works of Propertius and Pliny. A. does not fail to identify dialogical threads between this myth and that of Circe and Picus, previously discussed, and focuses on Ovid's independence as a sign of maturity, also evident in the unexpected ending of the myth under examination (p. 208). A. underlines that the two Italian characters of a myth never written about before, namely Pomona and Vertumnus, may be read without the risk of referential pre-assumptions; they do not have the need of a mythical spatio-temporal setting as a refuge, and their stories may thus take place in the ‘historical’ age, under the reign of Proca, ‘proprio alle porte di Roma’ (p. 217). A. subtly proves that Italy is, as pointed out in the title of this chapter, a place for untold stories.
The third and final chapter, ‘Ippolito ed Egeria: dalla tragedia greca al lieto fine italico’, introduces an episode placed, once more, within a historical context. After the long section on Pythagoras’ discourse, the poet makes a digression from Rome's historical past by inserting the account of an encounter between the nymph Egeria, king Numa's wife, who grieves for her husband's death, and Virbius, who narrates the – well-known to the Ovidian public – account of Phaedra and Hippolytus. The unrequited love story is therefore taken from a Greek mythological repertoire which Ovid had already employed in the fourth letter of his Heroides. What surprises the reader is that Phaedra's representation in the Ovidian epic remains stereotypical and traditional: her sketching, as opposed to that of Circe or the Ovidian Phaedra as a letter-writer, shows no evidence of an alternative construction of her portrayal (p. 224). Virbius, on the other hand, the Italian divinity into which Hippolytus is transformed, is presented as a very complex figure, associated with both Greece and Rome. The process of identification between Hippolytus and Virbius, argues A., reveals a transition between past myths (Phaedra) and those waiting to be written (Egeria) (p. 237). In light of Virbius’ depiction, A. points to the Virgilian treatment of the hero's future, silenced in Ovid (p. 278), and claims that it is only with Numa and Egeria that the mythological path leading up to the heart of Romanitas can be said to have been concluded in the Metamorphoses (‘È soltanto con Numa ed Egeria, perciò, che il percorso mitologico tracciato da Ovidio fino al cuore della romanità si potrà dire concluso’, p. 298).
The conclusion of the work is not limited to the recapitulation of the three aforementioned chapters. It further relates the proposed interpretation to fundamental problems that concern Ovidian studies and underlines, finally, ‘la natura genuinamente “augustea” dell'opera ovidiana’ (p. 320).
Many qualities of this monograph deserve to be highlighted. Detailed and lucid analysis of arguments, coherent structure and stimulating concluding remarks are only some of its virtues. A. might have found A. Videau's La poétique d'Ovide, de l’élégie à l’épopée des «Métamorphoses». Essai sur un style dans l'Histoire (2010) enlightening. However, the bibliography is undeniably very rich and extended, followed by two indexes, which complete a work that has been expertly redacted.
Specific highlights include the discussion of the metaphor of the disastrous eye contact as a vehicle for unleashing passion, through a comparison with a passage from Ovid's Her. 12 (31–6) and the Anaxarete and Iphis story (pp. 211–12). Furthermore, A.’s argumentation does not lack critical evaluation of the existing scholarship: in acknowledging, for example, the significance of contributions that identify similarities in the representations of Dido and Circe, she rejects the parallel reading between the couples Circe – Picus and Dido – Aeneas, and provides evidence in support of this position based on the interpretation of specific terminology (p. 110).
A.’s literary analysis demonstrates the Metamorphoses’ textual and extratextual background; it discusses the boundaries and the crossing of boundaries in the intersection between myth and reality, text and culture; it shows the fluidity of generic conventions, the richness of intertextual allusions; it points, finally, towards the Ovidian limits of the ‘garden of Pomona’ (‘il poeta sceglie sapientemente quelle a cui consegnare la chiave d'accesso al “giardino di Pomona” e quelle che, invece, resteranno al margine’, p. 308). This is a work that deserves to be read as a serious, scholarly contribution to Ovidian studies and should be recommended to Classicists.
