Silenced Voices: The Poetics of Speech in Ovid (Wisconsin Studies in Classics)

Examines speech loss across all of Ovid's writings and the ways that motif is explored, developed, and modified in the poet's work after his exile from Rome. Silenced Voices offers a pointed examination of the loss of speech, exile from community, and memory throughout the literary corpus of the Roman poet Ovid. In Metamorphoses, characters are transformed in ways that include losing their power of human speech. In Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto, poems written following Ovid's exile from Rome in 8 CE, he represents himself as also having been transformed, losing his voice. In his unique cross-reading of these works, Bartolo A. Natoli reveals how the motifs and ideas articulated in the book-length Metamorphoses provide the template for the poet's representation of his own exile. He examines the ways Ovid depicts his transformation with an eye toward memory, reformulating how his exile would be perceived by his audience. Thus, argues Natoli, these exilic poems are an attempt to recover his voice and reconnect with the community of Rome. Book jacket Silenced Voices is a pointed examination of the loss of speech, exile from community, and memory throughout the literary corpus of the Roman poet Ovid. In his book-length poem Metamorphoses, characters are transformed in ways that include losing their power of human speech. In Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto, poems written after Ovid's exile from Rome in 8 ce, he represents himself as also having been transformed, losing his voice. Bartolo A. Natoli provides a unique cross-reading of these works. He examines how the motifs and ideas articulated in the Metamorphoses provide the template for the poet's representation of his own exile. Ovid depicts his transformation with an eye toward memory, reformulating how his exile would be perceived by his audience. His exilic poems are an attempt to recover the voice he lost and to reconnect with the community of Rome. Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Introduction 14 1. Speech and Speech Loss in Ancient Rome 28 2. Speech Loss in the Metamorphoses 44 3. Speech Loss in the Exile Literature 91 4. Speech Loss and Memory in the Exile Literature 151 Notes 194 Works Cited 222 Appendix: Instances of Speech Loss in the Metamorphoses 232 Index 234 Index Locorum 236 Speech loss in ancient Rome: a working schema -- Speech loss in the Metamorphoses -- Speech loss in the exile literature -- Speech loss and memory in the exile literature