THE EMOTIONS OF MEDEA THE LETTER-WRITER (OVID, HEROIDES 12). (April 2021) - Michalopoulos, Andreas N.
Abstract : Medea fascinated Ovid more than any other female mythical figure. She features in the Ars Amatoria (1.336; 2.381–2), the Heroides (6.75, 127–8, 151; 12 passim ; 17.229, 233), the Metamorphoses (7.1–424), and the Tristia (3.9). Ovid also composed a tragedy called Medea ( Am . 2.18.13–16; Tr . 2.553–4), which unfortunately has not survived. 1 In the Remedia amoris Medea is mentioned in a list of mythical men and women who would have been cured of their torturing love passion, if Ovid had been their praeceptor. Medea is not named, but the identification is obvious ( Rem. am. 59–60): nec dolor armasset contra sua viscera matrem, / quae socii damno sanguinis ulta virum est ('Nor would a mother's vengeance on her husband / have steeled her heart to slay their progeny').