Skip navigation
  • Home
  • Browse
    • Communities
      & Collections
    • Browse Items by:
    • Publication Date
    • Author
    • Title
    • Subject
    • Department
  • Sign on to:
    • My MacSphere
    • Receive email
      updates
    • Edit Profile


McMaster University Home Page
  1. MacSphere
  2. Open Access Dissertations and Theses Community
  3. Open Access Dissertations and Theses
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/20503
Title: Humour in the Underworld of Ovid's Metamorphoses
Authors: Sumpter, Emily
Advisor: Murgatroyd, Paul
Department: Classics
Publication Date: 2016
Abstract: The Underworld, a realm of misery, pain, and both literal and figurative darkness, is perhaps an unlikely place for humour and levity, yet in the Metamorphoses, not even it is exempt from Ovid’s characteristic wit. While scholars have explored Ovid’s use of humour in the poem overall, little focus has been given to the Underworld itself. The introduction will serve as an overview of Ovid’s Underworld, providing a catalog of the flora and fauna (both mortal and immortal, human and beast) present there, as well as its geography (the location of the entrance to the Underworld, the regions and the structures within it). Each subsequent chapter will explore a specific passage, presenting a detailed critical appreciation that examines the tone, structure, style, plot, language, sound, and narrative techniques (such as irony, imagery, allusion, similes, etc.), and also compare each episode with its corresponding literary model. Relevant passages include the descent of Aeneas and the Sibyl into the Underworld (Met. 14.101-157), the retrieval of Cerberus by Hercules (Met. 7.404-424), the destruction of Athamas and Ino at the hands of Juno and Tisiphone (Met. 4.432-511), the abduction and rape of Proserpina by Pluto (Met. 5.356-571), and the descent of Orpheus into the Underworld to revive Eurydice (Met. 10.1-11.66). This thesis will demonstrate that Ovid’s Underworld is depicted as dark and dismal – perhaps as expected – but it is also erudite, cleverly crafted, complex in tonality, and often a source of humour. Ovid consistently lightens the mood of traditionally serious myths and pokes fun at his predecessors, often achieved at the expense of the Underworld’s inhabitants, by diminishing their dangerous and fearsome nature to exaggerate their ineffectuality and absurdity. Ultimately, the Underworld of the Metamorphoses effectively exhibits Ovid’s wit and ingenuity.
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/20503
Appears in Collections:Open Access Dissertations and Theses

Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormat 
Sumpter_Emily_J_201608_MA.pdf
Open Access
611.42 kBAdobe PDFView/Open
Show full item record Statistics


Items in MacSphere are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship     McMaster University Libraries
©2022 McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4L8 | 905-525-9140 | Contact Us | Terms of Use & Privacy Policy | Feedback

Report Accessibility Issue