Ethics and Poetics: Literary and Personal Memory in Representations of Cretan Women

Abstract This chapter serves both as an examination of the importance of remembrance in the myths and as an explicit experiment with the theories of allusion and intertextuality which underlie the entire study. An essential characteristic of Latin poetry is its consciousness of literary history and of the endless possibilities for subtlety in reminiscence of and engagement with earlier works. In this self-aware literary world, the Cretan women, and Ariadne in particular, come to play an important role as indicators of poets' attitudes to the anxiety and the inspiration of influence. By tracing the story of Ariadne from Apollonius to Catullus and Ovid, the chapter sets forth an account of some of the tricks of memory that the poets use. It also shows the way in which Ariadne remains an instantly recognizable individual, yet simultaneously becomes a composite figure, made up of layers of her own and others' previous poetic appearances. It is this tension between the necessity of retaining certain stock, essential features of a mythological character and the poet's desire to leave his own stamp upon the poetic clay that makes the investigation so fascinating.