Ovid Heroides 16 and 17.
Introduction, Text and Commentary
Andreas N. Michalopoulos
ARCA 47. 978-0-905205-44-1. x+409 pp. 2006
Ovid’s Heroides, letters in elegiac verse supposedly penned by famous mythological lovers, have attracted renewed scholarly attention over the past twenty or so years. Heroides 16 and 17, the letters exchanged by Paris and Helen, are the subject of this volume. It consists of an Introduction, the Latin text of Heroides 16 and 17 with apparatus criticus, and a detailed commentary followed by bibliography and indexes.
Dr Michalopoulos elucidates the content, structure and background of Heroides 16 and 17 and brings new light to bear on the interpretation of the poems, supplementing Palmer’s (1898) old but still useful commentary on the single and double Heroides and Kenney’s (1996) valuable commentary on the double Heroides.
The Introduction discusses Ovid’s treatment of his literary sources and models — mainly his own Amores, Ars Amatoria, and Heroides 5 and 7, and Vergil’s Aeneid — and surveys Ovid’s language, style and wit. The commentary deals in detail with these same areas and covers relevant aspects of myth, intertextuality, metre and text.
Ovid Heroides 16 and 17: Introduction, Text and Commentary is intended primarily for scholars and university students, but will also be of value to anyone interested in Latin poetry in general and Ovid in particular.
Dr. Andreas N. Michalopoulos was born in Kavala, Greece. He studied Classics at the Universities of Thessaloniki and Leeds. He is the author of Ancient Etymologies in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. A Commented Lexicon (Arca 40, Leeds 2001) and of articles on Greek and Latin literature. His research interests include Roman elegy, Augustan epic, Roman lyric poetry, ancient etymology, and the Roman novel. He is currently a Lecturer in Latin in the Classics Department of the University of Athens, Greece.
Reviews
Latomus 67 (2008) 1099 (Bernard Stenuit).
L’Antiquité classique 77 (2008) 447-8 (Pol Tordeur).
Gnomon 81 (2009) 76-7 (Peter E. Knox).