Ibis (Ovid)

Identity of Ibis

The object of the poet's curses is left unnamed except for the pseudonym "Ibis", and no scholarly consensus has been reached concerning the figure to whom this pseudonym might refer. Gaius Ateius Capito, Hyginus, Cassius Severus, Titus Labienus, Thrasyllus of Mendes, Caninius Rebilus, Ovid's erstwhile friend Sabinus, and the emperor Augustus have all been proposed, as well as the possibility that "Ibis" might refer to more than one person, to nobody at all, or even to Ovid's own poetry.

It was conjectured by the Belgian scholar Raoul Verdière that Tristia 3.11 and 5.8, which like Ibis (line 40) address an anonymous enemy of Ovid with the word improbe 'shameless', were written in admonishment of the same person, a former friend of Ovid who dropped him when Ovid was relegated. Noting that the final letters of Tristia 5.8.1–4 read Atei, Verdière suggested that the person anonymously mentioned was the jurist Gaius Ateius Capito. Subsequently another Belgian scholar, Lucien Janssens, discovered acrostics and a telestic containing the names Ateius Capito in both Tristia 5.11 and in Ibis, which, if correct, would confirm Verdière's conjecture.

Structure and themes

The 644-line poem, like all Ovid's extant work except the Metamorphoses, is written in elegiac couplets. It is thus an unusual, though not unique, example of invective poetry in antiquity written in elegiac form rather than the more common iambics or hendecasyllabics. the poem has also been seen as a type of devotio.

Drawing on the encyclopedic store of knowledge he demonstrated in the Metamorphoses and his other work — presumably from memory, as he purportedly had few books with him in exile — Ovid threatens his enemy in the second section of the poem (lines 251–638) with a veritable catalogue of "gruesome and mutually incompatible fates" that befell various figures from myth and history, including laming, blinding, cannibalism, and death by pine cone. Ovid also declares in the poem's opening salvo that even if he dies in exile, his ghost will rise and rend Ibis's flesh.

The basic structure of the poem is as follows:

:I. Introduction ::1–66: Proem which lays out Ibis' crime and declares war ::67–126: Prayers to the gods to inflict on Ibis poverty, hunger, and exile ::127–208: The eternity of Ibis' torment, which will outlast both Ovid's death and Ibis' own ::209–250: A biography of Ibis' infancy and a divine mandate given to Ovid to curse him :II. Catalogue ::251–638: Catalogue of mythological and historical torments which Ibis should suffer :III. Coda ::639–644: Promise of an iambic followup should Ibis not cease and desist

Afterlife

The Ibis attracted a large number of scholia and was widely disseminated and referenced in Renaissance literature. In his annotated translation (1577), Thomas Underdowne found in Ibis a reference guide to "all manner of vices punished, all offenses corrected, and all misdeeds revenged."

Online texts and translations

The editio princeps of Ovid's complete works, including the Ibis, was published in Italy in 1471. Full-text versions of the following Latin editions and English translations of the Ibis are available online.

Latin

• R. Ellis, P. Ovidii Nasonis Ibis, Oxford Classical Text, 1881.
• A. Riese, P. Ovidii Nasonis Carmina, vol. 3, 1899.

English translations

• Henry Thomas Riley, "The Invective Against the Ibis," prose, 1885.
• A. S. Kline, "Ovid - Ibis," Poetry in Translation, 2003

References

References

1. [[Hermann Fränkel]], ''Ovid: A Poet between Two Worlds'' (University of California Press, 1956), p. 152.
2. [[Oliver Taplin]], ''Literature in the Greek and Roman Worlds: A New Perspective'' (Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 437 [https://books.google.com/books?id=OLPDHKpYz5MC&dq=%22Ibis%2C+a+stream+of+violent+but+extremely+learned+abuse%22&pg=PA437 online.]
3. Verdière, R. (1971). "Un amour secret d'Ovide". ''L'Antiquité Classique'', 623-648; Janssens, L. (1981): "Deux complexes d'acrostiches délateurs d'Ibis, alias C. Ateius Capito. Le mysticisme du culte d'Abrasax", ''Revue de Philologie'' 55, 57-71.
4. [https://books.google.com/books?id=9mJIAAAAYAAJ&dq=scottish%20editor%20ibis%20ovid&pg=PA406 ''The Athenaeum'', No. 2840, April 1, 1882]
5. A. Schiesaro, "''Ibis Redibis''," ''Materiali e Discussioni'' 67 (2011): 79–150.
6. Martin Helzle, "Ibis," in ''A Companion to Ovid'', edited by Peter E. Knox (Blackwell, 2009) [https://books.google.com/books?id=zMMeWI2xbPkC&dq=%22There+can+be+no+certainty+as+to+who+is+hiding+behind+the+pseudonym+Ibis%22&pg=PT203 online.]
7. A. E. Housman, "The Ibis of Ovid," ''Journal of Philology'' 35 (1920): 287–318
8. G. D. Williams, ''The Curse of Exile: A Study of Ovid's ''Ibis (1996).
9. Krasne, Darcy. (2012-12-01). "The Pedant's Curse: Obscurity and Identity in Ovid's Ibis". Dictynna. Revue de poétique latine.
10. Verdière, R. (1971). "Un amour secret d'Ovide". ''L'Antiquité Classique'', 623-648.
11. Janssens, L. (1981): "Deux complexes d'acrostiches délateurs d'Ibis, alias C. Ateius Capito. Le mysticisme du culte d'Abrasax", ''Revue de Philologie'' 55, 57-71. CA P I T O is found at the beginning of lines 8, 14–15, and 1–2 of ''Ibis'' and AT EI AT EI at the end of lines 3, 8, 13, and 18, with VS in lines 10 and 11. In ''Tristia'' 5.11 all three names CAIVS ATEIVS CAPITO are interleaved as an acrostic in lines 20–29.
12. The ''Metamorphoses'' is written in [[dactylic hexameter]]; the first line of a Latin elegiac couplet is dactylic hexameter, however, so the ''Metamorphoses'' itself is not a metrical exception in Ovid's extant work. His lost tragedy ''Medea'' presumably used other measures.
13. {{rp
14. Andreas Dorschel, "Entwurf einer Theorie des Fluchens", ''Variations'' 23 (2015), § 24, pp. 167-175, p. 173.
15. Ov. ''Tr''. 3.14.37–38
16. (1982-03-18). "The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Volume 2, Latin Literature". Cambridge University Press.
17. Kerrigan, John. (1996-04-18). "Revenge Tragedy : Aeschylus to Armageddon: Aeschylus to Armageddon". Clarendon Press.
18. Krasne, Darcy A.. (2016). "Crippling Nostalgia: Nostos, Poetics, and the Structure of the Ibis". TAPA.
19. R. Ellis, "On the Ibis of Ovid," ''Journal of Philology'' 7 (1877) 244–255, full text [https://books.google.com/books?id=KVwKAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22On+the+Ibis+of+Ovid+In+the+Repertorium+Vocabulorum+Exquisitorum%22&pg=PA244 online.]
20. {{rp. 131 An English translator noted that "a full reference to each of the [[allusion]]s to be found in this poem would suffice to fill a small volume."[[Henry T. Riley]], "The Invective Against the Ibis," in ''The Fasti, Tristia, Pontic Epistles, Ibis, and Halieuticon of Ovid, Literally Translated into English Prose'' (London 1885), pp. 475ff.