Ovid's Terence - (Trends in Classics - Supplementary Volumes) by Iris Brecke

About the Book

This book deals with Roman love elegist Ovid (43 BCE-17 CE) and his reception of Roman comic playwright Terence (195/185-159 BCE). Treating a number of central passages and topics in the love elegies, it confirms the influence of Terence in Ovid

Book Synopsis

This book investigates the complex reception of Terence in Ovid and a number of allusions to the Terentian comedies in the love elegies and the exilic elegiac epistle Tristia 2. The genres of Latin love elegy and New Comedy are often seen as closely connected in research, and one leading view is that Latin love elegy to a large degree springs out of the comic genre. However, though both genres are strongly rooted in social practise and presents interpersonal relationships in a non-mythological, everyday setting, there are also major differences between them. Marriage, for instance, is the conventional goal for the young lover withing the comic genre, whereas the elegiac lover should avoid it. Taking into account both the similarities and the crucial differences between the comic genre and Latin love elegy, and key elegiac topoi such as seruitium amoris and militia amoris, this book demonstrates an intricate connection between Ovid and Terence, and a complex nexus of allusions that goes straight to the core of Ovid's elegiac authorship. Winner of the Trends in Classics Book Prize 2023

About the Author

Iris Brecke, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway.