Trapped between Scylla and Ciris: Some Thoughts on Poetic Structure1

Abstract

This chapter treats the relationship between the pseudo-Vergilian Ciris and Ovid’s Scylla-episode in Book 8 of the Metamorphoses. It does not, however, make any claims about who wrote the Ciris, or even about which text influenced which: studies of Prioritatsbestimmung are legion, dating back for a century, and in large part unconvincing, not least because they disagree about the criteria to be used in determining priority. Instead, I offer a readerly treatment of Ovidian intertextuality vis a vis pseudepigraphic poetry. In particular, I will be exploring the mutually reinforcing gaps in the two narratives. These gaps have usually been seen as clues to which author is derivative; I suggest that they instead offer insights into the different poetic goals of the two authors.