The Anachronism in Ovid's Metamorphoses as a literary technique

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Dennis Pausch
• Subject Area: Greek and Latin Philology
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 329307823

"Verständnis für die moderne Kunst findet man nur in der City" - thus a debate on art is concluded by a Roman of the Late Republic in Brecht's "Die Geschäfte des Herrn Julius Caesar". Both the idea of modern art and the term 'City' are unsettling: They reveal a temporal inconsistency, an anachronism. Phenomena like this are quite common and they appear in literature since the begin-ning of its Western times: The Bronze Age heroes of Homer for example fight with iron weapons, ancient heroes in chivalric romance behave like medieval knights and Schiller's Buttler talks about a lightning rod, although it hasn't even been invented yet (Picc. I,2). This project intends to illustrate that in Ovid's "Metamorphoses" anachronism is a very productive form of the poetic art. The poem is especially suitable for this objective not only because Ovid describes Greek myths in Latin language and addresses them to his Roman audience but also because it was written during massive political and cultural changes that took place at the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of Augustus' reign. After his victory in the civil war Augustus proclaimed the dawn of a new golden age and introduced a way of interpreting history, in which events in the past are considered necessary steps towards the current perfect era. While this is a constitutive picture in Horace's and Virgil's poetry, Ovid, born a generation later, can take the achievements of his peaceful lifetime for granted and can, due to that, question this ideology and develop his own point of view. As goals of this project are: (1) the methodical investigation and analysis of the numerous anachronisms using a (2) theoretically optimized definition of an anachronism and lastly (3) interpreting the findings both as an essential part of the poem's narrative structure and as a substantial component in the epic as a whole The methodical basis of this study is to improve the oftentimes unclear terminology regarding anachronisms using the analytical categories developed by narratology. This approach, however, has to complemented by taking into account theories of fictionality and temporality as well. This nuanced analysis aims at an unambiguous identification within the given narrative situations. In doing so, the anachronisms that have often been noticed individually can be organized by distributing them to specific categories. Although an interpretation of the overall findings as an aesthetic technique will conclude the study, it is meant to start of a differentiated discussion on the topic. Due to the diversity of this subject it seems necessary to cooperate with partners beyond disciplinary boundaries. Important stimuli will arise from the 'Kleine Mommsentagung' which takes place at Dresden from 14 to 15 October 2016 and covers the subject of Anachronism by contributions from all disciplines dealing with Classical antiquity. Furthermore, a cooperation with the local art collection in Dresden is being considered.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants