Ovid's Lovers: Desire, Difference, and the Poetic Imagination

Lindheim, Sara H.

doi:10.1215/-60-2-186

Comparative Literature

2008

DOI: 10.1215/-60-2-186

|View full text |Cite

Ovid's Lovers: Desire, Difference, and the Poetic Imagination

Sara H. Lindheim¹

Help me understand this report

Search citation statements

Order By: Relevance

Paper Sections

Select...

Citation Types

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Year Published

2023

Publication Types

Select...

Book1

Relationship

Self Cite0

Independent1

Authors

Journals

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Rimell 2006, 113 links the passage with Narcissus' fantasizing about unity in death.Florence Klein -9789004528871 Downloaded from Brill.com 05/28/2024 05:50:27AM via Open Access. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Duo moriemur: Death and Doubling in Ovid’s Metamorphoses

Klein

2023

Ovid, Death and Transfiguration

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

It is common for a lover who is either about to die himself or to lose his or her beloved to fantasize about a shared death. The Metamorphoses offer a few examples of such a wish (with the stories of Pyramus and Thisbe,1 Philemon and Baucis,2 and Ceyx and Alcyone3), but only two characters actually get to reunite after death with the object of their desire: Narcissus and Orpheus. In fact, both episodes end with the deceased lovers engaging in the very activity that was previously prohibited or deadly: looking intensely (though now safely) at the loved one. On the one hand, as Narcissus fades away, consumed by his vain love for his own reflection, he takes comfort in the idea that they will both pass away at once: "but as it is, we two shall die together in one breath" (nunc duo concordes anima moriemur in una, 3.473). And indeed, after his death, we see him admiring himself forever in the waters of the Styx (3.504-505): tum quoque se, postquam est inferna sede receptus, in Stygia spectabat aqua.And even when he had been received into the infernal abodes, he kept on gazing on his image in the Stygian pool.1 As is well known, Pyramus first kills himself (because he mistakenly thinks that Thisbe has been killed by a lioness), crying "One night shall bring two lovers to death" (una duos nox perdet amantes, 4.108; throughout this chapter I cite the translation of F.J. Miller 1977, rev. G.P. Goold). Then Thisbe kills herself as well, asking again for unity in death (156-167). After their deaths, the remains from both funeral pyres rest in a single urn (quod … rogis superest, una requiescit in urna, 166). 2 "[S]ince we have spent our lives in constant company, we pray that the same hour may bring death to both of us" (et quoniam concordes egimus annos, / auferat hora duos eadem, 8.708-709). They will actually be changed simultaneously into "two trees standing close together, and growing from one double trunk" (716-720). 3 Alcyone attempts to follow her deceased husband in death: "Now at least I shall come to be your companion; and if not the entombed urn, at least the lettered stone shall join us" (et tibi nunc saltem veniam comes, inque sepulcro / si non urna, tamen iunget nos littera, 11.705-706). They are then both metamorphosed into birds.

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Duo moriemur: Death and Doubling in Ovid’s Metamorphoses

Klein

2023

Ovid, Death and Transfiguration

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.

Contact Info

hi@scite.ai

10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614

Henderson, NV 89052, USA

Blog Terms and Conditions API Terms Privacy Policy Contact Cookie Preferences Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

Made with 💙 for researchers

Part of the Research Solutions Family.

Ovid's Lovers: Desire, Difference, and the Poetic Imagination

Cited by 1 publication

References 0 publications

Duo moriemur: Death and Doubling in Ovid’s Metamorphoses

Duo moriemur: Death and Doubling in Ovid’s Metamorphoses

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About