"Ovidian Renovations And Renaissances"

"Metamorphosis and/as *renouatio*

"In noua fert": the first three words of Ovid's *Metamorphoses* identify novelty as a central theme of the poem on changes. This talk focuses on a particular kind of change-as-novelty, the making new of re-novation. A survey of the uses of renovation in the *Metamorphoses* is followed by, firstly, consideration of Ovidian renovation as a response to Virgilian themes of renewal and rebirth, and, secondly, an examination of Ovidian renovations in late antique Latin poetry on both imperial and Christian subject-matters.