Narratives of amor, arma and armenta in Ovid’s Metamorphoses

Abstract Ovid frequently organizes individual “narratives” on the basis of semantic relations (including etymology) that link together basic concepts and themes. This web of semantic relations creates a second level of text or subtext that deepens our understanding of the composition of the poem and adds meaning(s) to each particular narrative. One such subtext concerns the semantics of erotic violence or of “love” (amor) and “arms” (arma), the study of which can enrich our understanding of Ovid’s narrative skills. The pair amor and arma is sometimes expanded to include armenta in the sense of “cattle,” “oxen,” or any animal less commonly or uniquely assigned to this species. The addition of armenta to the semantic cluster is due to the fact that they are often included in Ovid’s mythological narratives, either as real animals or as transformed human beings or as disguised divinities.