The fathers and daughters of Ovid’s Metamorphoses mirrored in Augustan society

Augustus was faced with a society and state which was, as he felt it, crumbling from dissipating morals. Therefore, he implemented laws to help rebuild morality within the people and society. In doing so, he believed, he would consequently help to rebuild the Roman state by enacting traditional values which Rome had during some of its most powerful stages. Augustus utilized creative methods to reach the people with his new legislation and values, one of which being writers, such as Ovid. Ovid’s Metamorphoses has an assortment of father-daughter relationships that range from some of the most common-themes of that time period to the most disturbing of both ancient and modern society. This paper focuses on these father-daughter relationships and how they were depicted by Ovid, an Augustan poet, and their reality within traditional moralistic views of Augustan culture and society. It will be argued that Ovid presents these relationships so as to exemplify the proper moral behavior and actions of traditional Roman citizens, which Augustus saw as suitable, and bring back a time of exceptional power and behavior.