Madness Transformed

Madness Transformed: A Reading of Ovid's Metamorphoses is a detailed critical examination of a masterpiece of Augustan Latin epic poetry. In the manner of Lee Fratantuono's previous volume, Madness Unchained: A Reading of Virgil's Aeneid, this sequel seeks to explicate Ovid's magnum opus by moving scene by scene through the entire work. Through a close study of Ovid's limpid dactylic hexameters, Fratantuono demonstrates the way in which the Metamorphoses stands forth as a bold answer to the Aeneid as another epic consideration of the enigma that was the Augustan principate, with a vision of Roman history (and literature) that both responds to and challenges Virgil. Much of what Virgil left enigmatic and ambiguous is addressed more directly by Ovid, who, unlike his epic predecessor, suffered rather than prospered under the Augustan regime. Madness Transformed considers each tale of wondrous metamorphosis and ironic commentary as it seeks to provide a coherent reading of what might appear a most incoherent poem. Fratantuono carefully examines and critiques secondary scholarship on the Metamorphoses, but the primary method for this journey through Ovid is a close reading of what Ovid the epic poet (and Roman historian) actually says. Fratantuono pays special attention to the sources for Ovid's myths and the Nachleben of Ovid's great achievement, especially in medieval and Renaissance France. These considerations will prove valuable to any reader of classical literature and Roman history from novice to expert. An annotated bibliography provides a guide to further reading on the poem, while the introduction offers a foundation for this study: Ovid as reader of Virgil, in the aftermath of some of the more momentous turning points of Augustus' reign. The madness that was unchained in Virgil, destined to haunt Rome forever, is now revealed by Ovid to have been transformed, as Rome moves definitively from Republic to Empire.

There is much to recommend this book, especially the many cross references to Vergil, coming as they do from the pen of a first rate Vergilian scholar. Fratantuono’s commentary reminds us of the immense richness of Ovid’s poem and shows us intertextual relations that only a very close reading can reveal. The narrative flows nicely, so much so that it becomes difficult to set the book aside. Indeed, Fratantuono’s prose seems to have captured some of the charm and even humor of Ovid. All in all, this is a wonderful, transformative book., Lee Fratantuono applies his detailed, subtle, and often original analyses of Virgil's Aeneid to Ovid's Metamorphoses, demonstrating along the way their close intertextual relationship. In so doing he offers a fresh perspective on one of the most influential works of Roman literature. Ovid's vision is at once emulation, rival, and extension of his master Virgil's, and his epic of the whole universe rounds out the image of Augustan Rome as the divinely directed plan of a chosen people destined to bring order out of chaos in the cosmic, political, and poetic realms., Fratantuono's careful and sensitive reading of the Metamorphoses is full of illuminating insights into Ovid's 'tissue of allusions' and his reflections on the Augustan era. This study offers the most comprehensive commentary yet on the epic's structure, its relationship to Vergil's Aeneid, and Ovid's play with his literary inheritance., Fratantuono (Ohio Wesleyan Univ.) derives his title from Virgil's Aeneid--words spoken by Jupiter proclaiming an era of peace and prophesying that the "impious rage" and frenzy of war will cease--all gainsaid by the last lines of the poem. Offering a coherent sequel to his Madness Unchained: A Reading of Virgil's Aeneid (CH, Feb'08, 45-3052), the author explicates, scene by scene, Ovid's "perpetual song." Close study reveals the Augustan-era epic as a rich, bold answer to both the Aeneid and the Odes of Horace, one that includes subtle cross-referencing bows to Lucretius and Lucan. It is a work of rivalry, but writ large on a cosmic stage. In Ovid's world of imminent chaos, "madness is the possession of everyone," with no foreseeable redemption. Fratantuono looks at each tale of wondrous transformation and ironic Ovidian commentary in light of the several momentous turning points in the reign of Caesar Augustus. Ovid's lengthy poem of dactylic hexameters (i.e., not elegiac) here enjoys a fresh perspective, rounding out both the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire as the divinely prescribed plan destined to create a "new world order." Dense, challenging, scholarly, the volume is graced with an annotated bibliography and a detailed index., Fratauntuono has many original ideas. He mostly points out parallels between the texts and comments on Ovid's attempts to surpass his predecessor. Several connections between characters in Virgil and Ovid are particularly convincing. The discussion of Virgil's Camilla and Ovid's Atalanta, for instance, is quite compelling....Madness Transformed is a unique book, a hybrid commentary and monograph.

Lee Fratantuono is William Francis Whitlock Professor of Latin at Ohio Wesleyan University.