The Ovidian Oenone: a Parthenian Character?

peer reviewedBased on a sharp comparative analysis of diverse preserved stories of the myth of Oenone, this article provides new elements to the study of the sources of Ovid’s Heroides V, Oenone. Lycophron’s, Parthenius of Nicaea’s, Conon’s and Apollodorus’s Greek works are compared to their Latin counterparts. Special interest is devoted to Parthenius’s Ἐρωτικὸν Πάθημα 4, Oenone – regarded by the specialists as one of the models of the augustan poet. The role this note (EP4) played in the composition of epistle V of the Heroides is re-examined and new arguments favourable to Ovid’s reusing Parthenius’s work are suggested. This research work does not solely tackle the study of the sources of one of Ovid’s poems, but also diverse tightly intertwined processes of literary creation