Ovid: Rhetoric and Poetic Devices
Ovid is considered among the best of Latin writers and because of this when reading through his works there are loads of interesting decisions he made about the phrasing in sections of his writing. For example when he transitions from the myth of Ganymede into the one of Apollo and Hyacinthus, the poet speaks directly to his character, "you too", he also employs foreshadowing in the form of referring to the place where Hyacinthus is buried instead of using his name. In fact the author merely refers to Hyacinthus with phrases like 'the Trojan' or by listing the pace where he died up until the point when Ovid describes the discus coming to hit the boy in the face. At the time when this section is depicted Ovid also returns to talking directly to the young man. One place that has a particularly interesting poetic device is in line 159, when he writes "mendacribus...pennis", translated as 'false feathers'. This is an example of synecdoche, he is describing the eagle's flight by using feathers to stand in for the full wings of his birdlike body. Another poetic device that is used often is Enjambment, when he sticks the final word of a phrase on a separate line which forces you to pause before discovering what happens. This can make the final word feel more dramatic, especially since in Latin Ovid is able to put the words in the order he wants, therefore he can leave the most crucial word in the sentence on a subsequent line, keeping the reader in suspense for longer.