Monstrous Metamorphoses: Ovid and the art of making and unmaking monsters

Ovid’s Metamorphoses represents a virtual bestiary of narratives about ancient monsters, hybrids, and uncanny creatures of all kinds. Indeed, the poem itself is a monstrous chimera, fusing different genres and confusing different aesthetics—in direct transgression of the poetic precepts set out in the Ars Poetica of Ovid’s Augustan near contemporary, Horace. As this chapter sets out to explore, Ovid is particularly interested in the making of monsters—not only in their backstories but also in their transformations and deformations. Focusing upon the metamorphoses of some of Ovid’s most memorable monsters—Scylla, Glaucus, and Lycaon—this chapter examines the troubling mixture of narrative bathos and pathos employed in his reworking of these myths. Drawing upon some of the insights of both ancient and modern narratology, it shows how the Ovidian transformations of these stories are carefully plotted so as to elicit not only pity and fear but also horror and humour.