Divine Poetics: Representation of Genre in Ovid's Metamorphoses 6.70-128
In my thesis, I explore the generic allusion of two ekphrases in the textile competition between Minerva and Arachne. While various scholars have approached the story of Arachne based on Ovids critique of the Augustan regime, I focus more on the poetic representation of the two ekphrases in the context of their intertextual relationship with other Greek and Roman literary traditions. Minerva's tapestry is the embodiment of the heroic epic tradition similar to Homeric and Vergilian narrative, and Arachne's tapestry represents the archetype of the Hellenistic poetic tradition. While Ovid perceives the heroic epic tradition as the embodiment of Minerva's divine power, he portrays the poetics of the Hellenistic tradition as the personification of Bacchus' divinity. Ovid illuminates his understanding of the two poetic traditions through Minerva's and Arachne's tapestries; while at the same time Ovid demonstrates his mastery of the two traditions by interweaving them into the Metamorphoses.
Ovid, Genre, Minerva, Arachne, Epic, Hellenistic
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