The Haunting Voice of Rabidity and Captivity: Sources and Inventions in Ovid's Hecuba Narrative

This paper is interested in the animalistic, specifically canine, force of Hecuba in the Metamorphoses and the gendered and generic significance it takes on. Unpacking the nuances of Ovid's emphasis on the canine aspects of Hecuba's epic ira and his epicisation of her canine metamorphosis will elucidate the generic motivation behind Ovid's aesthetic and locational departures from literary tradition that shape his particular version of this well-known myth. This paper concludes that Ovid engages with epic features in his retelling so as to recuperate Hecuba as an epic figure rather than a tragic one.