Abstract

There has been much discussion of the phrase ‘perpetuum… carmen’ and of its relation to Callimachus' rejection of the . Much less has been written about deducite in line 4. However it is, I believe, equally important for the ‘programme’ of Ovid's poem. Deducere is a metaphor frequently applied to poetry in general with the sense of ‘to write, compose something.’ In certain contexts the reference is much more specific and indicates subtle and polished writing of the kind associated with Callimachus