Power in Nature, Human Relations and Myth: Abduction and Rape in Ovid’s Landscape

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15517/tk99q806

Keywords:

Metamorphosis, kidnapping, rape, myth, landscape

Abstract

The article develops an approach to Ovid’s Metamorphoses based on the study of landscape, the power of nature, human experience, and myth. It explores three specific lines of analysis through a mythic-symbolic interpretation in relation to nature, the mythical landscape, and the human relationships involved in abduction/rape narratives. Regarding the treatment of landscape, the study draws on the proposals of Guettel (2000), Berenstein (2011), and Behm (2020). Concerning gender dynamics, power, and the punitive nature of violence against the female body, it employs the approaches of Deschard (2009), Beek (2015), Block (2014), and Maturano (2017). Through the examination of various artistic and literary representations of the natural world, the work addresses the transformative power of nature and the theme of violence in mythical accounts of abductions and rapes as found in the poem. These narratives in the Metamorphoses reveal the lasting impact of Ovid’s landscape imagery on literature and art.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Beek, A. (2015). Always look on the bright side of death: violence, death, and supernatural transformation in Ovid's Fasti. University of Minnesota. https://n9.cl/3s2wl

Berenstein, N. (2011). Locus amenus and locus horridus in Ovid´s Metamorphoses. Wenshan Review of Literature and Culture, 5.1, 67-98. https://n9.cl/0bgyw

Behm, T. (2020). En C. Reitz y S. Finkmann (Eds.), Structures of Epic Poetry: Vol. I: Foundations. Vol. II.1/II.2: Configuration. Vol. III: Continuity (pp. 325-360). De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110492590-050

Block, N. (2014). Patterns of Rape in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. University of Colorado Boulder. https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/m039k530v

Buxton, R. (1994). Imaginary Greece: The contexts of Mythology. Cambridge University Press.

Carroll, J. (2011). Landscape in Children´s Literature. Routledge.

Cosgrove, D. y Daniels, S. (1988). The iconography of landscape: Essays on the symbolic representation, design and use of past environments. Cambridge University Press.

Curtius, E. (1998). Literatura Europea y la Edad Media. Fondo de Cultura Económica.

Deschard (2009). «Ni tout à fait la même ni tout à fait une autre». Métamorphoses et identités déjeunes filles chez Ovide. University of Heidelberg Press. https://pedagogie.ac-strasbourg.fr/fileadmin/pedagogie/lettres/Images_pour_le_site/Vial_Metamorphoses.pdf

Fernández-Christlieb, F. (2014). El nacimiento del concepto paisaje y su contraste en dos ámbitos culturales: el viejo y el nuevo mundo. En: Barrera, S. y Monroy, J. (Eds.), Perspectivas sobre el paisaje. Editorial Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Guettel, S. (2000). Landscapes, Gender and Ritual Space. University of California Press.

Marturano, M. (2017) Vim Parat: Patterns of Sexualized Violence, Victim-Blaming, and Sororophobia in Ovid. CUNY. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2303

McCarter, S. (2022). Reading the Power Dynamics of Gender in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Penguin Classics.

McInerney, J., y Sluiter, I. (2016). General Introduction. En McInerney, J., & Sluiter, I. (eds.),

Valuing Landscape in Classical Antiquity. Natural Enviroment and Cultural Imagination. Brill.

Ovidio. (1983). Metamorfosis (A. Pérez, trad.). Bruguera.

Richlin, A. (1992). “Reading Ovid´s Rapes”. Pornography and Representation in Greece and Rome, Oxford University Press.

Roger, A. 1997. Court traité du paysage. Paris: Gallimard.

Sauer, C. (2006). La morfología del paisaje. Polis, 15(5).

Segal, Ch. (1969). Landscape in Ovid´s Metamorphoses. A Study in the transformation of a a Literatry symbol. Steiner Verlag.

Spencer, D. (2011). Roman Landscape: Culture and Identity. Cambridge.

Downloads

Published

2025-12-15

Issue

Section

El paisaje en la Antigüedad india, griega y romana