Abstract

Critical consensus has emerged concerning the significance of the name of Ovid’s elegiac puella. Corinna is: 1) an allusion to the Greek poet that conjures up her beauty and the complexity of her poetry; and 2) a bilingual pun through which the poet slyly admits to the fabrication of his mistress. Only the second of these arguments is supported by a close examination of the evidence. The Tanagrean Corinna was famous for her manipulation of myth. This reputation is supported by her own statements and the analysis of the fragments of her poetry. Ovid’s adoption of Corinna as a symbol of his elegiac poetry suggests a link with the poetess’s particular prowess: his own poetry will view love through the lens of myth.