Homer’s Gods in Rome

Chapter 9 follows Venus, Mars, and Vulcan to Rome and examines Ovid’s reception of these Homeric divinities as the divine ancestors of the Roman people. Ovid’s internalization of Homeric repetition is complemented by distinctively Roman variations on the theme; the chapter therefore closes with a consideration of several other instances of Homeric resonance in Ovid that cluster around these gods. Two episodes in Fasti Book 3 are the focus, as Ovid figures Mars as an elegiac lover, whose repetitious desires reflect both his Homeric origins and his generative role in Roman tradition: the rape of Silvia, an instance of revisionist mythmaking in action; and the would-be seduction of Minerva, thwarted by the subversive Anna Perenna. Venus, meanwhile, although now transformed as genetrix, remains ever mindful of her Homeric wound (uulnus).