Modeling Reception in Metamorphoses Ovid's Epic Cyclops

Ovid's epic poem stands at the start of his reception history not only because it transmits a vast repertory of material for imitation but also because it explores the capacities of literary reception to perpetuate an individual poetic voice. The transformations Ovid narrates link the most distinctive feature of his treatment of myth with its literary transformation. One of the most explicitly imitative passages in that work, the refashioning of material from the Odyssey and Aeneid in Books 13 and 14, simultaneously highlights the reconfiguration of early texts as a vehicle for authorial presence and exposes the limitations on language's ability to transcend reality.