Actaeon in the Wilderness: Ovid and Christine de Pizan

Abstract

Abstract:In this paper I explore the contribution of the medieval French writer Christine de Pizan (1365–c. 1431) to Ovidian reception studies in her early illustrated work, Epistle of Othéa (1399–1400). Along with the Ovide Moralisé, the Othéa stands at the start of a rich visual tradition of Ovidian illustration. Christine's written and pictorial response to the narrative of Diana and Actaeon demonstrates how Ovidian myth provided her with a powerful aesthetic and cultural discourse that evaded the phallocentric, exclusive domain of the male writer and validated the co-emergence of genders and identities.