Legendary figures in Ovid’s Fasti

Preseka, Diotima (2008) Legendary figures in Ovid’s Fasti. Acta Antiqua, 48 (1-2). pp. 221-236. ISSN 0044-5975

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Abstract

According to the official propaganda Aeneas was one of the most important figures in the mythical-historical past of Rome. However, we hardly meet his figure in the Fasti : he is usually presented as rescuing the gods of Troy, the Penates. As opposed to Aeneas, the Arcadian Euander is presented with the function of even replacing him in many respects. Euander, as Aeneas, appears in few stories, nevertheless, his figure is characterised with such sympathy and the foundation of such significant cults is attributed to him that he becomes superior to Aeneas in the text. Numa Pompilius emerges as an alternative to Romulus in the Fasti . Augustus intended to represent the values symbolised by both Romulus and Numa, however, in the Fasti , his figure is rather connected with the poet and with the ideal ruler of his imagination than with the princeps personally. It is striking that although Augustus tried to present also Numa as his forerunner, we cannot find this idea in the Fasti .

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