Ovid's Elegiac Festivals

Until recently, Ovid's Fasti has been the most neglected of his major poems. The present study aims to contribute to the rehabilitation of the Fasti as a work of art by analyzing Ovid's depictions of religious ceremonial in the light of the elegiac tradition, especially the tradition of Ovid's own earlier elegies. After introductory studies of the Fasti's poetics and of sacred rites in the Amores, the author explicates eleven of the poetic calendar's versions of festivals. Special attention is devoted to the poem's polytonality and shifting personae.