Ovidius Mythistoricus: Legendary Time in the Metamorphoses

by Thomas Cole

The Metamorphoses is rarely read as history, but its immediate models were both the Chronica of Castor of Rhodes and the De Gente Populi Romani of Marcus Terentius Varro. They determined the poem’s chronological ordering of episodes and anticipated the way it views dynastic history in the «mythical» era of Greece and Italy as both a prelude to, and a source of precedents for, Roman imperium and Roman ruler cult. Ovid’s myth-historical poem is true to the «facts» of fabularis historia transmitted in Varro and Castor in the same way realistic historical novels are true to those of vera historia , but it combines fact with fictional supplements to create its own interpretation of the period dealt with. The result is a collective Bildungsroman taking mankind from its beginnings under divine patria potestas (books 1-5) past the erotic and military adventurism of 6-13 into a period of maturity (14-15) during which a series of leaders culminating in Augustus join or supplant the gods as guarantors of the universal rule of reason and law.

222 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2008

About the author

Thomas Cole was an English-born American artist and the founder of the Hudson River School art movement. Cole is widely regarded as the first significant American landscape painter. He was known for his romantic landscape and history paintings. Influenced by European painters, but with a strong American sensibility, he was prolific throughout his career and worked primarily with oil on canvas. His paintings are typically allegoric and often depict small figures or structures set against moody and evocative natural landscapes. They are usually escapist, framing the New World as a natural eden contrasting with the smog-filled cityscapes of Industrial Revolution-era Britain, in which he grew up. His works, often seen as conservative, criticize the contemporary trends of industrialism, urbanism, and westward expansion.