ABSTRACT
This paper investigates several aspects of the sophisticated deployment of the literary tradition of the locus amoenus (“pleasant place”) and locus horridus (“fearful place”) in the Metamorphoses of the Roman poet Ovid. Ovid draws on a series of poetic conventions associated with such literary landscapes in the work of his Augustan predecessors. Elegiac poets such as Tibullus imagine dallying with their mistresses in peaceful landscapes far away from the strife of war, political competition, or urban disorder. In the Eclogues of Vergil, the locus amoenus may function as a site of poetic power, where the landscape itself both inspires and responds to the singer. In contrast to the pleasure and inspiration associated with these sites elsewhere in Augustan literature, the locus amoenus in Ovid's Metamorphoses often becomes the site of violent rapes and physical transformations. For example, Jupiter's rape of Callisto occurs in such a pleasant spot, as does Narcissus‟ fatal act of self-contemplation. The peace and beauty of these sites are set in deliberate contrast with the violence of the actions that occur within them. The locus horridus in the Metamorphoses is typically inhabited by personifications such as Somnus (Sleep) or Fames (Hunger). Somnus' sleep-inducing castle and the bare crag occupied by Fames show the inseparability of the personifications from their functions. They transform the landscape as well as their human victims into versions of themselves. Both types of Ovidian locus inspire the description of similar allegorical sites in later medieval and Renaissance poetry.
This paper examines how the descriptions of such places in the Metamorphoses form part of the poem's construction of its physical, moral, and literary universe. The vision developed throughout the Metamorphoses of the relationship between human being and natural landscape contrasts sharply with earlier Latin poetry. The metamorphosis of characters into parts of the natural landscape (Daphne into a laurel tree; Cyane into a pool, and so forth) disturbs the stable boundaries that might otherwise be drawn between figure and background. Such descriptions also serve aetiological purposes: the poem points to the features of today's landscape as authority for the events narrated within it. Ovid's descriptions of landscape, finally, are always intertextual and metapoetic. By showing the operations of amor (passion), cupido (desire), furor (madness), and other passions on both character and landscape, they assist the poet in defining the character of a multigeneric work that combines aspects of both epic and elegiac literary tradition.
KEY WORDS: Roman, epic, Ovid, landscape, rape, personification
摘 要
本文探討在《變形記》裡，羅馬詩人奧維德嫻熟地安排 文學傳統中「優勝之地」與「可怖之地」場景的諸多面向。 奧維德採用了古羅馬奧古斯都時代前輩詩人文學作品裡關 於風景描繪的傳統，如輓歌詩人提布魯斯（Tibullus）想像與 情婦們嬉遊於桃花源之中，遠離戰爭煩擾、政治角力、都市 喧囂；或維吉爾《牧歌》裡擁有詩意力量的優勝之地，能激 發且回應歌者。然而相對的，這些奧古斯都時代文學裡原先 與歡愉、靈感相連的優勝之地，竟成了《變形記》裡經常發 生強暴、身體變形的地點。如宙斯強暴卡莉絲托（Callisto）； 如納西色瑟斯（Narcissus）帶有毀滅性質的顧影自憐，皆發 生於風光明媚之所。這些地點的優美與帄靜被作者刻意安排 與發生的暴行做為對比。《變形記》裡的可怖之地則矗滿了 典型的擬人化用法：如睡眠（Somnus）擁有令人昏沉欲眠的 城堡；飢餓（Fames）佔據光禿的峭壁，這些概念的擬人化 與其作用緊密相連。風景與在其中受難者皆是這些概念自身 的變化形式。這兩種奧維德式的「地點」是之後中古詩與文 藝復興詩裡寓言化地點的濫觴。 本文檢驗描述上述地點如何於《變形記》裡建構物質、 道德以及文學等各層面。這種由《變形記》發展出來關於人 類與自然景物的關聯與早期拉丁詩形成強烈對比。詩中角色 變化為自然景物擾亂了景物與人物的穩固界線。（如達芬妮 變為月桂樹，西雅涅化為池水，等等）。此類描述也帶有說 明性的目的：詩裡提及事件地點今日的樣貌，證明了詩中敘 述事件發生過。最後，奧維德詩內的風景永遠帶有互文的、與後設詩文的意涵。藉著描繪激情（amor）、慾望（cupido）、 瘋狂（furor）及其他情感在人物及景物上的作用，作者藉此 確認多文類作品結合史詩與輓歌的文學傳統特色。
關鍵詞：羅馬、史詩、奧維德、風景、強暴、擬人化
 Locus Amoenus and Locus Horridus in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.pdf | [ ] | 610 kB |