Illo me tutam tempore praestat hiemps (Nux 128): Humour et originalité d'un topos inversé

Whether from Ovid or from an Ouidianus poeta, the Nux elegy has its own qualities and must also be appreciated for these alone. A careful examination of verses 127-130 and verse 128 in particular allows to bring out all the wit and originality of their writer. By putting the excerpt into context and comparing the motifs at play with the Latin poetic tradition that depicted winter as an unproductive and threatening season, this paper shows how the author of the "Walnut Tree" puts into the mouth of the personified tree statements that sound paradoxical, offbeat, absurd even. In this manner, he succeeds in reversing the elements linked to a well-established topos, so as to surprise and entertain the reader.