Two Rivers and the Reader in Ovid, Metamophoses 8

This paper examines the experience of the reader as she negotiates Ovid's Metamorphoses, reflecting and responding to the complexity of the narrative in the process. The central book of the poem is the perfect point at which to explore the interrelationship of narrative and reader: both are in the ideal position to look forward and back. Where has this story (as well as the reader) come from? Where is it (as well as she) going? Both by its placement and by the narrative repetitions it enacts, Metamorphoses 8 invites the reader to make meaning from and so to navigate the labyrinth of the text.