BMCR 2008.10.02, Niklas Holzberg, Ovids Metamorphosen

Niklas Holzberg, Ovids Metamorphosen. C.H. Beck Wissen.  Muenchen:
C.H. Beck, 2007.  Pp. 128.  ISBN 978-3-406-53621-2.  EUR 7.90 (pb).


Reviewed by John Jacobs, [email protected]
Word count:  1628 words
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In this charming little book, Niklas Holzberg offers a strikingly
original (and yet, still very balanced) introduction to that most
charming of big books, Ovid's Metamorphoses. The volume appears to be
the first dedicated to a piece of classical literature in a series
published by C. H. Beck, appropriately entitled "Wissen", with various
offerings in no fewer than a dozen different categories. "Wissen" is
the German equivalent of the "Very Short Introductions" published by
Oxford University Press and the "Que sais-je?" series published by the
Presses Universitaires de France: indeed, it appears that each and
every "Wissen" covers its material in exactly 128 pages, just as the
"Que sais-je?" titles do.[[1]] Holzberg is well known to all
Classicists for his work on a wide variety of subjects, including
recent introductions to the life and works of Catullus, Vergil, and, of
course, Ovid (e.g., the third edition of Ovid: Leben und Werk [2006],
also published by Beck). Ovids Metamorphosen will take its rightful
place among these gems as yet another informed and informative vade
mecum.

The title under review consists of four major parts: "Vorwort";
"Werkuebergreifende Aspekte"; "Werkanalyse"; and "Ueberlieferung und
Nachleben". At the end of the book, there is also a helpful short
bibliography of "Weiterfuehrende Literatur" and a similarly brief but
useful "Register".

In the "Vorwort", Holzberg charts the remarkable resurgence of Ovidian
studies over the past half-century, argues for the need for a good
"Einfuehrung" to the Metamorphoses, and fondly dedicates the work to
his son. An introduction to the "Werkuebergreifende Aspekte" follows,
with a focus on the basic historical and literary contextualization
necessary for understanding Ovid and, more specifically, his very
difficult and challenging perpetuum...carmen (Met. 1.4). First, in
"Ovids Werdegang bis zu den Metamorphosen, Holzberg undertakes a
comparatio between Ovid's career leading up to the great epic and
Vergil's leading up to the Aeneid, with an analysis punctuated by
several insightful remarks on the self-referential nature of their
(and, of course, all other) poetic endeavors. Next, in "Der
augusteische Kontext", he considers the larger literary and historical
contexts (Vergil, Horace, Tibullus, and Propertius, as well as Caesar
and Augustus), including the poet's exile, the result of the famous(ly
obscure) carmen et error (Trist. 2.207). Then, in "Die literarische
Tradition", Holzberg outlines the place of the Metamorphoses in these
larger contexts, with observations on a whole host of topics ranging
from the carmen perpetuum and the carmen deductum, and Callimachus and
"Kleinpoesie", to the cosmogonic material in Met. 1.5-88 and the
Augustan building program, and the relationship between Ovid's
masterpiece and the similar works by Nicander of Colophon and Antoninus
Liberalis. Finally, in "Die Werkstruktur", he explores how Ovid deftly
complicates the overall pentadic arrangement of the poem via other
structural effects, such as the manipulation of closure at book-ends
and the elision of narrative boundaries between individual episodes.
Altogether, this introductory section covers just the right material in
just the right way.

The "Werkanalyse" constitutes the core of the book, in which Holzberg
presents a detailed exposition of the Metamorphoses according to the
triadic arrangement endorsed at the end of the introduction. Each book
receives individual treatment in terms of structure and theme, and, in
addition, Holzberg selects an episode from each pentad for a more
extended discussion. Thus, in "Die erste Pentade", he concentrates on
"Apollo und Daphne" from book 1; in "Die zweite Pentade", "Daedalus und
Ikarus" from book 8; and, in "Die dritte Pentade", "Caesar, Augustus
und Ovid" from book 15. Holzberg himself succinctly characterizes the
three phases of the epic: "Die drei Pentaden unterscheiden sich dadurch
voneinander, dass in der ersten Goettermythen dominieren, der zweiten
die Sagen ueber Heroen der Zeit vor dem Trojanischen Krieg ein
wesentliches Gepraege geben und von der dritten die mit diesem Krieg
beginnende und bis zur Verstirnung Caesars im Juli 44 v. Chr. reichende
'historische' Zeit umfasst wird" (p. 24).

"Die erste Pentade" covers the material from Ovid's short proem and the
cosmogony in 1.1-88 to the rape of Proserpina in 5.250-678. As in his
treatment of the other two pentads, Holzberg begins with a short
overview of the five books under discussion and then turns to the
book-by-book analysis. Also as in his treatment of the other two
pentads, he opens the analysis of each book with a structural outline
(e.g., p. 30) and then examines each of the major episodes in order,
with literary and historical observations of varying depth, importance,
and quality. Thus, while Holzberg's remarks on the influence of Ovid's
erotic poetry will certainly help the reader to understand the
atmosphere of the story of Apollo and Daphne, the same cannot be said
either for his proposed connections between the story and the Augustan
marriage legislation or for his passing observation on the intertextual
link between Daphne's plea in 1.486-487 and the similar plea uttered by
Artemis in Call. Dian. 6. (Indeed, such intertextual material appears
throughout the book, although it is of only questionable significance
for the presumed audience of newcomers to Ovid and Classical literature
in general.) Amid the many illuminating readings of individual
episodes, it is unfortunate that, in his treatment of Pyramus and
Thisbe, Holzberg has little to say about the thematic importance of the
couple's collective suicide as a paradigm both for the self-destructive
suicide of civil war (e.g., Vulteius in Lucan) and for the melodramatic
plot of the novel. Consideration of these larger issues (admittedly,
intertextual) would have been far more useful for understanding the
story than the favorable citation of Carole Newlands' remark on the
potential sexual connotations of eiaculari in 4.124: "'Pyramus' manner
of dying suggests a gigantic orgasm'" (p. 50).

"Die zweite Pentade" continues this book-by-book analysis, from Arachne
in 6.1-145 to the "Orphei+s" in book 10. In this middle section of the
poem, Holzberg well emphasizes the self-reflexive and metaliterary
aspects of the narrative (especially in the Arachne and Orpheus stories
at the beginning and the end of the pentad). Moreover, the detailed
treatment of Daedalus and Icarus well illustrates how an intertextual
analysis can be useful for understanding Ovid, as Holzberg elegantly
links patriae tremuere manus in 8.211 with patriae cecidere manus in
Verg. Aen. 6.33, both referring to Daedalus (pp. 71-74). In his outline
of the intricate structure of books 7-9, Holzberg helpfully explains
how Ovid nests a "Kephalis" (7.490-8.5) within a "Minoi+s" (7.453-266)
within a "Thesei+s" (7.404-9.97): this "Thesei+s", in turn, overlaps
with a "Herculei+s" (9.1-438), as Theseus and Hercules contend both for
the title of "hero" and for control over the narrative. The pentad ends
with an "Orphei+s" and more "musings" on the nature of the poet, but
the "Orphei+s" itself does not end with the pentad.

"Die dritte Pentade" brings the book-by-book analysis to a conclusion,
covering the material from the death of Orpheus and the end of the
"Orphei+s" (11.1-84) to Ovid's own grand proclamations of immortality
in the epilogue (15.871-879, especially exegi in 871 = Hor. carm.
3.30.1). This final section of the poem develops a reworking of many of
the major themes and motifs from the previous two pentads: the Midas
story playfully recalls the "Golden Age", and Troy and Rome function as
twin narrative poles, with the first city's fall marking the beginning
of historical time and the second city's fall, its end. In the midst of
a discussion of the relationship between Ovid's Trojan material and his
Homeric and Vergilian antecedents, Holzberg does not sufficiently
acknowledge the presence of subversive elements in Ovid's "panegyric"
of Julius Caesar and Augustus, though he does nicely link the
apotheoses of Hercules (book 9), Aeneas (14), and Romulus (14) with
those of Julius Caesar (15) and, of course, Ovid himself (15). Thus, in
15.622-744, I read the narrative of the pestis as an historical
metaphor for the "disease" of civil war, and the importation of
Aesculapius in the form of a serpent as another historical metaphor,
for the rise of Augustus and his efforts to "cure" that "disease". The
legend that Apollo appeared to Atia in the form of a serpent and
fathered (the future) Augustus on her underpins the identification of
the emperor with the serpent, another son of Apollo, here in Ovid
(Suet. Aug. 94.4 and D. C. 45.1.2, cf. Sid. carm. 2.121-126). And yet,
any story about a serpent entering a city cannot but remind the reader
of Aeneid 2.201-249, where the two serpents from Tenedos destroy
Laocoon and his sons, before entering the city of Troy and seeking out
the temple of Minerva. Here, the two serpents function as part of a
larger complex of images and motifs, including the Trojan Horse and
Pyrrhus Neoptolemus: indeed, they may even represent Agamemnon and
Menelaus themselves, returning to the plains of Troy after their
feigned retreat to Tenedos.[[2]] Read in this light, the Aesculapius
serpent (and, by implication, Augustus) comes to Rome to bring not
relief for the city but only total destruction, and the "panegyric" of
Julius Caesar and Augustus correspondingly falls flat, dead on arrival.

Following the "Werkanalyse", Holzberg briefly outlines the
"Ueberlieferung und Nachleben" of Ovid and the Metamorphoses. After an
initial aetas Ovidiana from the eleventh to the thirteenth century and
a second flourishing during the Renaissance, the poet and his epic are
back and more popular than ever. The book concludes with a brief list
of suggestions for "Weiterfuehrende Literatur") and a stream-lined
"Register". Both serve their purpose, although the lack of either an
alphabetical or a chronological arrangement in the list of "Ausgaben,
Kommentare, Uebersetzungen" is simply odd.

Ovids Metamorphosen is an excellent introduction to the world of the
poet and his poem, and readers will put the book down having acquired a
solid grasp of the structure and themes of the epic. One can only hope
that Holzberg will produce a similar volume on the Aeneid.


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Notes:


1.   For more on the "Que sais-je?" series, see the recent review of
Jean-Baptiste Gourinat's "opuscule" on Stoicism by Andreas U.
Schmidhauser in BMCR 2008.08.48.

2.   See Bernard M. W. Knox, "The serpent and the flame: The imagery of
the second book of the Aeneid," AJPh 71.4: 379-400.