Looking Edgeways. Pursuing Acrostics in Ovid and Virgil

Abstract

What follows is an experiment in reading practice. I propose that we read some key passages of the Aeneid and the Metamorphoses in the active pursuit of acrostics and telestics, just as we have been accustomed to read them in the active pursuit of allusions and intertexts; and that we do so with the same willingness to make sense of what we find. The measure of success of this reading practice will be the extent to which our understanding of these familiar and well-studied texts can be usefully enriched by our interpretation of our discoveries (or rediscoveries). These will include an undiscovered authorial signature NASO in the ‘second proem’ of the Metamorphoses; an unnoticed self-referential response to Horace with NITIDO at the centre of Ovid's epic and a similarly self-referential AVSVM at the centre of Virgil's epic; in the Aeneid we will also find glances to Aratus with LEPTE and an Aratean anagram on Aeneas’ shield; and two new acrostics connecting Dido, Ajax and Lavinia.

The Literary Artistry of Terentianus Maurus

“… 43 For recent surveys of Latin acrostics, see Robinson 2019a (with extensive bibliography in n. 2 and p. 308); 2019b (with theoretical discussion); and Mitchell 2020; for acrostics and other wordplay in didactic texts, in which they seem particularly frequent, see Gale 2019. For a Latin poet introducing a Greek word with Latin letters, see esp.…”

¿un Acróstico (Más) en Virgilio? (Eneida 10, 693-697)

“… Cf. KATZ (2013, p. 6) yROBINSON (2019aROBINSON ( , 2019b; tampoco HILBERG (1899, 1900) lo incluye en sus listados.10 Río de Tracia, mencionado también en Verg.A. 1, 317; cf.…”

Acrostics and Telestichs in Augustan Poetry: Ovid's Edgy and Subversive Sideswipes

“…24Robinson (2019a) sees it as a signature at the beginning of love ( primus amor , 452), but metamorphosis would represent a new and unique genre (which Ovid explicitly believed that he was writing) and love would not (although Robinson ingeniously argues that amor is in the title, Met amor phoses ). Furthermore, the love theme may seem less important here if the laurel episode at which Ovid introduces his correct signature acrostic is seen as critical of Augustus.…”