Antagonizing Fathers or Literary Choices? Tragedy as a Poetic Legacy in Ovid's Met . 13.22–34, 140–58

Abstract: This paper argues that Ajax's and Ulysses' discussions of their family histories ( Met . 13.22–34, 140–58) echo crucial scenes of Sophocles' Ajax and Philoctetes . The allusions to the Sophoclean plays are instrumental to Ovid's metaliterary goals: the tragic insistence on father-son bonds (Telamon and Ajax, Ajax and Eurysaces, Neoptolemus and Achilles, Odysseus and Sisyphus) allows Ovid to establish himself as the recipient of a poetic legacy in his own right. While the two heroes digress on their ancestors, tragedy metamorphosizes into a meta-poetic medium that continues engaging with heirs (as it did with the Athenian war orphans attending the Great Dionysia).