Rival Praises: Ovid and the Metamorphosis of the Hymnic Tradition

The Metamorphoses, written by the Roman poet Ovid, has fascinated readers ever since it was written in the first century CE, and here Celia M. Campbell offers a bold new interpretive approach. Reasserting the significance of the ancient hymnic tradition, she argues that the first pentad of Ovid’s Metamorphoses draws a programmatic strain of influence from hymns to the gods, in particular conversation-and competition-with the work of the Alexandrian poet Callimachus, a favored source of inspiration to Augustan writers. She suggests that Ovid read Callimachus’ six hymns as a self-conscious set-and reading the first five books of the Metamorphoses through Callimachus’ hymnic collection allows us to pierce the occasionally opaque and seemingly idiosyncratic mythology Ovid constructs. Through careful, innovative close readings, Campbell illustrates that Callimachus and the hymnic tradition provide a kind of interpretative key to unlocking the dynamic landscape of divine power in Ovid’s poetic cosmos.

Celia M. Campbell is an assistant professor of classics at Emory University.