Rome’s Other Twins: Ovid’s Gemini in Fasti V.
Rachel Dzugan
The head of Roma on the front and the two Dioscuri riding horses on the back. Münzkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
The legendary she-wolf suckles Romulus and Remus. Musei Capitolini.
Thursday, February 1, 5:15pm
Eaton Humanities #250
Free and open to the public
Download the poster
ABSTRACT
This talk offers a nuanced analysis of Ovid’s Gemini story in Fasti 5.693-720 in three complementary interpretative layers: firstly, by examining the poem’s generic and programmatic considerations; secondly, by reading through a metapoetical lens; and thirdly, by drawing parallels with the other twins in the Fasti, namely Romulus and Remus. My exploration of the Gemini narrative not only explores the challenges faced by Ovid’s poetry but also illustrates Ovid’s inventive strategies as he grapples with and adapts to the challenges of past and present history and politics. The Gemini story in Book 5, though only 28 lines of text, represents a microcosm of the complexity of Ovid’s poetry and the difficulty of any definitive interpretation of it.