Black Humour in Ovid's Metamorphoses

Abstract

Ovidians today agree that humour is central to understanding the Metamorphoses ; but much disagreement exists about what passages are funny; what type of humour is used; and what response it is intended to elicit. Since his own time Ovid's humour has provoked criticism: Quintilian and the two Senecas criticise him for introducing to the Metamorphoses an inappropriate tone. The Romantics found Ovid's humour in bad taste. For much of the 19th and 20th centuries it was taken to be light and on the surface. More recently scholars identify his humour as either deep and humane or hateful and misogynistic. This division is caused, in my opinion, by Ovid's black humour, which by its very nature is easily misunderstood or missed, especially by those inclined to see the tragic in things, disinclined to see comedy mixed into a scene of death or rape, inclined to think the tragic, serious and universal more worthy, profound and significant than the comic, base and particular.