Likeness and identity: The problem of the simile in Ovid's 'Metamorphoses

This dissertation examines the figure of the simile in Ovid's Metamorphoses in order to illuminate the central concern of the poem: the manipulation of shapes. In proposing a likeness that is based on both similarity and contrast, the simile engages with the problem of how identity is construed and determined by surface impression. The simile occupies a unique ontological position in the poem, in that it never substitutes one thing with another but establishes relationships between them. Thus it is ideally suited to illustrate ideas and processes that go beyond the affirmative and to become the medium of the imagination. Stressing the openness of the simile in the lack of congruence between tenor and vehicle, I show the simile's potential for internal reflection on the text.;The study is anchored around four major and interrelated issues in scholarship on the poem, namely the phenomenon of metamorphosis, the status of the divine, the debate on genre and the phenomenon of fictionality. The first and second chapter deal with the constitution of human and divine identity, especially through interaction with the animal other. The third chapter examines the issue of genre that is inherent in the simile itself and becomes accentuated by the generically diverse context of the Metamorphoses. The last chapter shows the simile reflecting on the fictional experience, in responding to and provoking illusion through textual means. Through close reading of the text the impact of the simile is shown to radiate out of its immediate context and becomes a point of departure for re-evaluating the debate on these issues.