What question did this study set out to answer?

The aim is to analyze how discussions of family histories in Ovid echo those in Sophocles' plays.

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March 27, 2026

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

Key Points

The aim is to analyze how discussions of family histories in Ovid echo those in Sophocles' plays.
Analyzed scenes from Ovid's Metamorphoses, focusing on Ajax and Ulysses' dialogue.
Compared allusions to Sophocles' Ajax and Philoctetes.
Investigated the implications of father-son relationships in the context of tragedy.
Identified significant parallels between Ovid and Sophocles regarding family themes.
Highlighted how these themes contribute to Ovid's self-positioning in literary tradition.
Demonstrated how tragedy serves as a metapoetic medium engaging with heirs.

Abstract

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).

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