Auson. 'Epigr.' 72 Green: i 'Nasonis carmina' e il modello ovidiano / Ausonius, 'Epigr.' 72 Green: "Naso's poems" ('Nasonis carmina') and the Ovidian model

Auson. 'Epigr.' 72 Green is, in fact, the only text of Ausonius’ Epigrams in which the poet clearly mentions Ovid’s name (Nasonis); it is also an epigram in which the references to Ovid’s Metamorphoses are manifold and built on multiple interpretative levels. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the poem’s programmatic role—pointing to Ausonius’ source of inspiration—within a specific group of epigrams with a mythological subject, a group that has been plainly influenced by Ovid’s hexametric poem. My paper shows how Ausonius takes up from Ovid’s epic not only aesthetic aspects such as the representation of the body and the relationship between truth and fictionality but also poetic strategies through which the text conveys the authorial meaning to the reader and emphasizes the otherness of the speaker.