Jupiter, the orator: divine rhetoric in Ovid's Metamorphoses

Abstract

Analyzing verses 163 to 252 of Book I of Ovid's Metamorphoses, we verify the rhetorical effects in the persuasive speech of Jupiter, who convinces the gods to vote for the Flood, against the cruel humanity. In this passage, Ovid poetically places Jupiter, the supreme god, in the role of an orator endowed with all qualities, including an unquestionable éthos. In this episode, one possible  theme is the metamorphosis of affections, since opinions were transformed by the efficient rhetoric of the god-orator. It also narrates the metamorphosis of Lycaon into a wolf, a figure that symbolizes  the nature of the human race: ferocious and bloodthirsty. The theoretical scope is based on the thoughts          of Aristotle on Rhetoric, as well as on some pertinent comments from modern thinkers, either on  Ovidian poetics, as Anderson, or on rhetorical studies, as Meyer. In addition, a translation of the excerpt         with explanatory notes is included in order to elucidate the Latin text for a wide audience. It also presents the excerpt in Latin translated to Portuguese by the neoclassical poet, Bocage, in order to provide the reader with a poetic reading experience, in literary equivalence with the Ovidian verses.