Abstract

In telling the story of Tereus, Procne, and Philomela, Ovid transformed tragedy—the Tereus of Sophocles1—into epic. The result was a narrative that followed the tragic plot but with a very different presentation. For example, Ovid incorporated into his episode events from the play's prologue, such as the marriage of Procne and Tereus, the birth of Itys, and the voyage of Tereus to Athens. In addition, he brought offstage action into the limelight, including the violation of Philomela, the slaughter of Itys, and the metamorphoses of Tereus and the sisters. Finally, he explicated innermost thoughts, like the lust of Tereus and the rage of Procne — emotions whose external manifestations would have been clear in performance, but whose effects the reader perceives from the inside out. So sequential and immediate a treatment owes much to the shift from one genre to the other.