"…and thus she began": A Look at How Ovid Uses and Fuses Violence and Humour to Sustain the Epic Narrative Style in the tale(s) of "The Daughters of Minyas" in Metamorphoses

“…and thus she began”: A Look at How Ovid Uses and Fuses Violence and Humour to Sustain the Epic Narrative Style in the Tale(s) of “The Daughters of Minyas” in Metamorphoses by Samyukta Chatterjee examines the complex relationship between violence, humour, horror, transformation and epic narration in Book Four of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The paper focuses on “The Daughters of Minyas” and the interconnected tales narrated by the three sisters, including “Pyramus and Thisbe,” “Mars and Venus,” “Leucothoe and Clytie,” and “Salmacis and Hermaphroditus.” It explores how Ovid repeatedly places moments of physical suffering, sexual violence, death and bodily transformation alongside irony, comic imagery and dark humour. The study pays particular attention to the role of the narrator and the reader’s emotional response to violent episodes. It considers how Ovid creates distance from the characters through narrative bias and comic representation, allowing tragic and horrific events to acquire an unsettling comic dimension. The discussion also examines the relationship between violence and metamorphosis, suggesting that violent transformation is central to the narrative structure of Metamorphoses. The paper draws on post-structuralism, psychoanalysis and reader-response theory, with additional engagement with Henri Bergson’s ideas on humour, Freud’s concepts of the psyche, and approaches to horror and the sublime. Through its close reading of Ovid’s narrative techniques, the paper shows how comedy and violence work together to produce a form of dark comedy that challenges conventional distinctions between tragedy and humour. It will be of particular interest to researchers and students working in Classical literature, Ovidian studies, mythology, epic poetry, narratology, humour studies, violence in literature, psychoanalytic criticism, reader-response theory and literary representations of transformation.