At peccant aliae matronaque rara pudica est: to what extent is Ovid’s Helen Roman in Heroides?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17851/1983-3636.12.1.131-140Keywords:
Ovid, Roman erotic elegy, HeroidesAbstract
The main purpose of the present paper is analyzing the exchange of letters between Paris and Helen in Ovid’s Heroides (letter 16 from Paris to Helen, letter 17 – from Helen to Paris). The starting point taken here is the idea that Ovid processes a remaking of the mythological characters of Paris and Helen, printing on them some specific traces that characterizes them as members of the Roman society as portrayed in Ovidian poetry, highlighting their Roman way of living: starring him as an elegiac lover, who goes after his puella; her as an authentic Roman matron, ready to answer to her lover’s appeal.
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