The Expression longus Hellespontus in Ovid

Abstract

The article reconstructs the origins of Ovid’s expression longus Hellespontus (Met. 13. 407; Fast. 4. 567; 6. 341 where the toponym invariably stands at the end of the hexameter, while the epithet is placed separately in a hyperbaton; cf. Fast. 4. 278 and Trist. 1. 10. 15–18). The epithet longus is accurate in that it corresponds to the long and narrow form of the strait; however, it does seem somewhat trivial to be repeated many times, and moreover, Ovid is the only Roman poet to use it. It is suggested that the expression longus Hellespontus was originally inspired by the scholarly discussion of the Homeric formula πλατὺς Ἑλλήσποντος (Il. 7. 86; 17. 432; Od. 24. 81 placed invariably at the end of the hexameter in the accusative or dative) where the epithet πλατύς, if taken to mean “broad, i.e. wide and flat”, is a strange description of a notoriously narrow strait. After an overview of solutions proffered by ancient scholars, it is shown that Ovid had probably devised the expression longus Hellespontus as another solution to the problematic formula in Homer: Ovid modified the epithet πλατύς to longus, displacing the focus of perception from the width of the strait to the extension of its coastline.