Ovidio, "Metamorfosi". Volume II. Libri IIIâIV (Scrittori Greci e Latini) by Alessandro Barchiesi, Gianpiero Rosati, Ludovica Koch

412 PHOENIX This book probablyrespondsto issues Harrison met inhis teaching,and therangeof trans-generic featuresin the Aeneid isgood to think with: the scenarioof tragedy adapted from Antigone inAeneid 1, the echo of Odes 1.7 inAen. 1.198-207, details from the Homeric hymn to Aphrodite inAeneas' encounter with his disguised mother, adaptations of epigramandmultiple echoes ofCatullus 101 throughout Aeneas' journeyto seekout his fatherin Aeneid 6. But theseand otherechoesgathered in thefinalchapterare surely intertextual allusions rather than conscious setting up of a secondary genre within the heroicnarrative. Are theyjust applique like sculpturalspolia,or are theysoblended into theircontextthatthereaderthinks not of a guestgenrebut of the specific models in their emotional context? I disagree with Harrison's diagnosis because I find itmore fruitful to ask two separate questions from opposite points of departure: what is the author's strategy (Conte's formulation) when he changes theme and tone in each of these passages or poems? And what, other than formal metrics and function (narrative, didactic, etc.), alerts a reader to a change of genre? My unhappiness with this study comes from my resistance to any attempt to merge these divergent approaches. But I doubt that I could have handled Harrison's thesis as coherendy as he has done, and would encourage lovers of Augustan poetry to test it out for themselves. University of Toronto/Princeton University Elaine Fantham Ovidio, Metamorfosi. Volume II. Libri III-IV. Edited by Alessandro Barchiesi and Gianpiero Rosati, with translation by Ludovica KocHf. Rome: Fondazione Lorenzo Valla; Milano: A. Mondadori (Scrittori Greci e Latini). 2007. Pp. xxxi, 354. With the timely appearance of this, the second in the six-volume commentary on the whole ofOvid's Metamorphoses for the Lorenzo Valla series, the reader has good reason to hope thatthe completionof theproject is inview and thisexceptionalresource will soon be available in full. For a complete commentary on the poem readers hitherto have had to relyprimarily on theeccentricand (alas) indispensible morass of notes compiled byFranz Bomer (Heidelberg 1969-86). But with therecentpublicationof theextensive commentaryin ItalianbyLuigi Galasso (Turin2000), awork thatdeserves tobe better known in anglophone circles, students of the poem have had access to a commentary more attuned to the literary qualities of Ovid's masterpiece. The commentary being overseen by Alessandro Barchiesihasmany of the samequalities tobe found inGalasso's work,while the more ample confines of this series allow for greater depth and exposition on points of detail. The volume under review contains notes by Barchiesi on Book 3, while Gianpiero Rosati takesup the threadinBook 4, thusoffering a glimpseofhis approach in thenext volume, containing Books 5 and 6, for which hewill have sole responsibility. Within the limitsof thisreview,thereisno scope fordetailed criticism of the sortthatan important commentarysuchas this will inevitably stimulate, and soherewe will be limitedto a few notes of applause, quibbling, and exhortation. The textof the Metamorphosesis takenfromtheOxford ClassicalText byR. J.Tarrant (Oxford2004), from which Barchiesi andRosati diverge inonlynine instanceslisted in the introduction (xxxvi), which amount to restoring five lines athetized by Tarrant and a few inconsequential differences in choosing among variants. Since exegesis, not textual criticism,is theprimary focusof theproject,thisapproach isentirely appropriate. There BOOKREVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 413 is no general introduction, so readers will want to acquire the first volume in the series as well, which imposes no great burden, given the modest pricing of the series, even from the impoverished perspectiveof thosepaying in US dollars.A fresh bibliographyis included in the prefatory material, making reference convenient for users of this volume without immediateaccess to thefirst. The facingItalian translation by thelateLudovica Koch isa pleasure to readand constitutes a richlysuggestive work of exegesisin itsownright:itisa shamethatthisisthelastofherwork that will appear intheproject. Barchiesi's commentary on the thirdbook bears all thedistinguishingfeaturesofhis notes on the first two books: clever exposition of the text with copious reference to contemporary scholarship, much of itoriginal, much of itskilfully digestingthe work of others. His treatment of the central narrative ofNarcissus (Met. 3.339-510) is particularly illustrative of his approach to the poem. In reviewing the first volume of Bomer's commentary(CR 22 [1972] 41), E. J.Kenney,who will himselfcontributethe fourth volume of this project, noted that it "misses much that, in as objective a sense as is ever possible in this field, is...

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