Pseudo-Ovid
Pseudo-Ovid or Pseudo-Ovidius is the name conventionally used to designate any author of a work falsely attributed to the Latin poet Ovid (43 BC – AD 17/18). The term first appears in the second edition of the Lexicon Latinae Linguae Antibarbarum Quadripartitum of Johann Friedrich Nolte in 1744.[1] The collective term for such texts is Pseudo-Ovidiana, which may be defined simply as "works not authored by Ovid that circulated under his name".[2]
Classification[edit]
There are several types of pseudo-Ovidian text. Some texts were intentionally written in Ovid's name in order to deceive (forgery). In other instances, anonymous texts attracted an Ovidian attribution.[3] Many of these strongly imitate Ovid, but the motivations and expectations of their actual authors are largely unknown.[4] Another class of pseudo-Ovidian text are interpolations in other authentic works of Ovid.[5]
Some works were only "intermittently Ovidian", that is, they were only occasionally ascribed to Ovid, like the Conflictus veris et hiemis, which was also attributed to Vergil, and the Birria, which was in fact by Vitalis of Blois.[3] According to Ralph Hexter, Wilken Engelbrecht suggests that "when teachers and students relied for their study of the auctores increasingly on florilegia and excerpts, imitations of Ovid crafted only two centuries earlier could more readily be mistaken as ancient productions".[6] Hexter has suggested the term "para-Ovidian" as an alternative, since the prefix "pseudo-" is often taken to imply deception.[4]
Mere imitation of Ovid, popular throughout antiquity and the Middle Ages, does not constitute Pseudo-Ovidiana.[7]
Questionable works[edit]
The authenticity of several of the 21 letters found in Ovid's Heroides has been questioned. The same is true of the couplets that introduce each letter.[8] Any inauthentic material would, by definition, be pseudo-Ovidian, although "the Heroides themselves pose a challenge to any stable concept of authenticity, since Ovid the author prides himself on masquerading in turn as Penelope, Phyllis, Briseis, Dido, Oenone et al."[9] In the fifteenth century, Juan Rodríguez del Padrón passed off three letters of his own—Carta de Madreselua a Manseol, Troylos a Brecayda and Brecayda a Troylo—as Ovid's in his Bursario, otherwise a Castilian translation of Heroides.[10]
Two poems datable to the first century have been ascribed to Ovid, but are suspect. Halieutica was accepted as Ovid's by Pliny the Elder, but has been doubted on grounds of style. Nux, on the other hand, is one of the best Ovidian imitations if it isn't authentic. It was treated as Ovid's by Conrad of Hirsau, who included it in his accessus ad auctores, and Desiderius Erasmus, who published a commentary on it.[11]
List of pseudo-Ovidian works[edit]
- Consolatio ad Liviam de morte Drusi[12]
- De cuculo[13]
- De fallaciis fortune[13]
- De Jano[13]
- De Lombardo et lumaca[13]
- De medicamine aurium[13]
- De medicamine surdi[13]
- De mirabilibus mundi[13]
- De pediculo[13]
- De philomela[14]
- De pulice[13]
- De quattuor humoribus[13]
- De sompnio[13]
- De vetula[13]
- De ventre[13]
- Elegiae in Maecenatem[12]
- Epistula Sapphus[14]
References[edit]
- ^ Hexter 2011, p. 286.
- ^ Hexter 2011, p. 284.
- ^ a b Hexter 2011, p. 285.
- ^ a b Hexter 2011, p. 291.
- ^ Hexter 2011, p. 292.
- ^ Hexter 2011, p. 290.
- ^ Hexter 2011, pp. 293–294.
- ^ Hexter 2011, pp. 292–293.
- ^ Hexter 2011, p. 293 n31.
- ^ Hexter 2011, p. 293 n32.
- ^ Hexter 2011, pp. 294–295.
- ^ a b Hexter 2011, p. 295 n43.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Clark, Coulson & McKinley 2011, p. 366.
- ^ a b Hexter 2011.
Works cited[edit]
- Clark, James G.; Coulson, Frank T.; McKinley, Kathryn L., eds. (2011). Ovid in the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107002050.
- Hexter, Ralph J. (2011). "Shades of Ovid: Pseudo- (and Para-) Ovidiana in the Middle Ages". In James G. Clark; Frank T. Coulson; Kathryn L. McKinley (eds.). Ovid in the Middle Ages. Cambridge University Press. pp. 284–309. ISBN 9781107002050.