“Qui de polp paria que fossen”. A Note on Ovid’s Reception in "Curial e Güelfa"

Abstract

In the context of the reception of Classical authors in the XVth century, the analysis of a new Ovidian source is proposed for a passage of the north-African episode of the Catalan chivalric novel Curial e Güelfa. We suggest the anonymous author reuses the myth of Hermaphroditus from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and we analyse the treatment of the Ovidian hypotext and its fitting in a new narrative context. Besides, we study the possibility of using intermediate sources, such as Boccaccian Genealo­gia, and we offer a comparative analysis of Juan de Mena’s version of Hermaphroditus’ myth. In doing so, we aim to contextualize the Catalan novel in the cultural atmosphere of this period and, more exact­ly, in the reception of Ovidian texts in the Hispanic circles connected to Italian humanism. The analysis confirms the relevance of Classical authors as Ovid in the Anonymous’ writing.