Credita res auctore suo est: narrative authority in the poetry of Ovid

Despite the prevailing interest in authority in Ovidian studies, studies have often focussed on Ovid's response to political authority in his individual works rather than narrative authority, the means by which the poet claims authority to narrate and constructs a persona that his audience will find persuasive and believable. Evidence of Ovid's interest in authority can be found throughout his body of work, but it is particularly explicit in the Metamorphoses, Fasti, Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto, whose contrasting genres, content and mood allow Ovid to entertain an exceptionally broad range of different perspectives on authority. The primary bases of narrative authority in Ovid’s poetry are age and memory, references to tradition, the prophetic/poetic status of vates, and sight, all of which had acquired a strong cultural and literary currency in Augustan Rome. Ovid challenges his readers not to believe things simply because of the authority of their narrator, encouraging them instead to engage with narratives and to critically evaluate their authority. He thereby undermines the traditional perception of authority as monumental and unchanging. Ovidian authority is a far more fluid concept, which acknowledges the inherent flaws in narrative as a transmitted medium. Narrative authority can be undermined, destroyed, or transformed, and is always open to being questioned. As such, it is in a constant state of change, and the reader is an active participant in its negotiation.