Abstract

The two versions of the myth of Ceres and Proserpina produced by Ovid at Fasti 4.417‒618 and Metamorphoses 5.341–661 have played an exceptionally important role for the knowledge and transmission of this episode in Western culture, from an anthropological and religious point of view but above all from an artistic and literary one. Nonetheless, the complexity of the two texts still confronts modern readers with questions and points to investigate. The present article, devoted specifically to the episode of the divine hospitality of Celeus at Fast. 4.503–62, examines Ovid’s use of the narrative pattern of θεοξενία with particular reference to its models, lexicon, literary paradigms, intertextuality and the author’s self-referentiality. The starting-point and premise of the study is a re-examination of Ovid’s sources, which is followed by an analysis of the modes of rewriting the myth; finally, some singular details will be highlighted that are present in the text of the Fasti, which could be assigned an intent that is defamiliarising and ironic, if not downright parodistic.