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THE VISUAL (THE ARCHITECTURAL EKPHRASIS) IN OVID’S POEM “METAMORPHOSES” // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2017. Issue 4 (14). P. 105-115

The article is devoted to the analysis of visual in the ancient literature, which the researchers consider the forerunner of the development of the visuality of the Renaissance and New Times. The purpose of the article is to study the architectural ekphrasis in Ovid’s poem “Metamorphoses”. The object of the study are descriptions of the palace of Phoebus (Regia Solis) and the Philemon and Baucis hut, converted into a temple (Tectum Philemonis et Baucidis). Ekphrasis Regia Solis, being a translation of the visual code into a verbal one, appears in the text of the poem on the border between the world of people and gods, pointing to a mix of real and unreal life. The image of the architectural object appears gradually, as the young Phaethon approaches the place of sunrise (ortus). The semantics of the word ‘ortus’ allows us to assert that the ekphrastic description not only reconstructs the model of the author’s reality, but also is the beginning, the birth of a new reality. Description of the house of Philemon and Baucis is a folded ekphrasis, does not contain a detailed representation, it is used as a motivation, a generalized image, characteristic of the temples of ancient culture. The architectural ekphrasis appears in the process of metamorphosis and also constructs a new reality. The parameters of this new reality, framed by conditional ekphrasis boundaries, are considered in the article.

Keywords: visual, ekphrasis, Ovid, “Metamorphoses”, ancient literature