Greetings, members of CANE—I think we all need a bit of levity in our lives, so I’m hoping to write up a little “puzzle” every week or so to introduce you to some cool and usually weird bit of ancient trivia. We’ll start with a little catalog from Ovid’s Ibis.

Written during the period of Ovid’s exile, the Ibis is an extended attack against an unnamed enemy. After an initial 250 lines of general invective, Ovid turns to the mythological world, “so that you’ll also be tortured in the manner of the previous age” (251). Thus begins a nearly 400-line catalog of horrible fates experienced by mythological figures, but all references are made without using the character’s name. The result for both the ancient and modern reader, as one study of the work puts it (Krasne 2012), is “a prolonged exercise of scholarly research and investigative cross-references.” Here is a sample from the beginning of the catalog (253–58):

I hope you suffer as great a wound in your poisoned leg

as did Poeantius, the heir to club-wielding Hercules.

I want your pain to be as much as the man who drank from a deer’s teat,

receiving a wound from an armed man, aid from the unarmed,

or he who fell headlong from his horse in the Aleian field,

and whose beauty nearly brought an end to himself.  

There are three mythological figures alluded to through patronymics (fathers’ names), geography, and other details of the mythical tradition. Can you figure out all three of these figures and what unites them? Send your answers to president@caneweb.org; one of those with the correct answer will be selected for a small prize and the glory of being mentioned in the next puzzle.

Ovid’s Ibis offers a lot of cool mini-catalogs. For instance, lines 259–272 are a catalog of mythical figures who were blinded: Phoenix, Oedipus, Tiresias, Phineus, Polymestor, and Phineus’ own sons. A recent study of the mythographical aspects of the work has outlined the ways in which these catalogs mirror thematic lists found in Hyginus’ Fabulae (Krasne 2013: 71–75). For example, the list of three people eaten by dogs (477–80) corresponds to that at Fab. 247, entitled “People Consumed by Dogs,” with two of of the names overlapping. The catalog of people struck by lightning (769–76) has a matching entry in the table of contents at Fab. 264, although that portion of the Fabulae is unfortunately missing.

Main point: just don’t get on Ovid’s bad side!

By Scott Smith, CANE President