Amor y pasión en los Fastos de Ovidio: formas de expresión

Abstract

This paper studies how Ovid makes use of the rhetorical figure of the simile in his Fasti in order to describe three different kinds of love: passionate desire, motherly love and love affairs with a humorous ending. The analysis is carried out bearing in mind the theoretical foundations of the simile in Classical rhetoric, from the Rhetorica ad Herennium to Quintilian. The purpose of the analysis is to show which types of similitudines are most frequently used by Ovid. The paper also aims to trace both the tematic pattems followed by the sirniles, which are mostly epic in nature, and the joumey these similes have made to become the means by which love is described in this aetiological poem. Finally, the paper also foreground the fundamental role played by Ovid's love poetry in marking these epic similes suitable for the description of love and amatory passion.