Il racconto di Procri e l’ombra di Lucrezia. Ov. met. 7, 700-865 e fast. 2, 721-856

Abstract

Procris and Lucretia. Ov. met. 7, 700-865 and fast. 2, 721-856 · When Ovid decides to re-write the Greek tale of Cephalus and Procris in the Metamorphoses, he is faced with a “literary vacuum”: he cannot count on any Latin model with which to measure himself, except for a brief quotation in the Aeneid of Virgil (6, 445) – and his own version of Procris in Ars amatoria. In light of this, his only option is to refer to the Greek sources of the myth or to other female archetypes (such as Dido). I argue that, among them, the poet focuses on a female iconic figure of the Ro-man tradition: Lucretia, who is particularly suited to embodying the ethic patterns of pudicitia, fides and castitas, that means the cultural categories he intends to reuse in re-shaping Procris’ character. Therefore, this paper aims at emphasizing the role of Lucretia as ‘hypo-character’ of Procris (i.e. her reference mythic model) through a literary, cultural and intertextual analysis of O v. met. 7, 700-865 and fast. 2, 721-856 in order to show how Ovid carries out a cultural translation of the myth and the main characters involved.