La fides e la promessa: forme di reciprocità tra dèi e uomini nella riscrittura di Ovidio

Lavinia Scolari

Abstract:

In the Ovidian reworking of Greek myths, several cases emerge in which the relationships between human beings and gods are rewritten in the light of the Roman notion of fides. If almost all of these myths, in which the god promises to the human actor some pledge, gift or privilege, are justified by a love connection, a parental or a devotional bond, a special case is represented by the story of Numa Pompilius and Jupiter (Fast. 3. 285-392) in which a human agent merits pignora certa from the god and establishes a reciprocal relationship with him. The paper aims to investigate this representation of fides pollicita through comparison with other similar Ovidian tales of fides: specifically, the story of Bacchus and Midas (Met. 11. 85-135) and the myth of Anius' daughters (Met. 13. 640-674).