Meter, Maternity and the Birth of Rome in Fasti 3

Abstract

While the generic tensions of Ovid’s Fasti are now well recognised, there is one important theme which has not yet been considered in explorations of Ovid’s generic play — namely, reproduction. This paper therefore seeks to refresh the classic scholarly discourse on genre by examining the Fasti’s generic tensions anew through the lens of pregnancy, birth and motherhood. Surveying first how Ovid emphasises the generic liminality of motherhood in the Amores, Ars Amatoria and Tristia, I argue that he explicitly elevates elegy over epic and entangles chaste epic mothers in the countercultural, promiscuous sexuality of elegy — a particularly pointed political statement in the context of Augustus’ marriage laws. I then explore how this politically fraught generic tension around reproduction informs, and even comes to embody, the generic tension of the Fasti, with close readings of Ilia and the Sabine women in Fasti 3.