Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-183) and index.

Preliminary Material / Kathryn L. Mckinley -- THE OVIDIAN HEROINE IN CONTEXT: CLASSICAL REPRESENTATIONS OF FEMININE DISCOURSE / Kathryn L. Mckinley -- OVID'S HEROINES AND FEMININE DISCOURSE: METAMORPHOSES 7 AND 10 / Kathryn L. Mckinley -- REPRESENTATIONS OF THE FEMININE IN MEDIEVAL COMMENTARIES ON METAMORPHOSES 7 AND 10 (1100-1328) / Kathryn L. Mckinley -- LATE MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN READINGS OF THE FEMININE IN METAMORPHOSES 7 AND lO / Kathryn L. Mckinley -- CONCLUSION / Kathryn L. Mckinley -- SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY / Kathryn L. Mckinley -- INDEX / Kathryn L. Mckinley.

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This study investigates the reception of Ovid's heroines in Metamorphoses commentaries written between 1100 and 1618. The Ovidian heroine offers a telling window onto medieval and early modern clerical constructions of gender and selfhood. In the context of classical representations of the feminine, the book examines Ovid's engagement of the heroine to explore problems of intentionality. The second part of the study presents commentaries by such clerics as William of Orléans, the \'Vulgate\' commentator, Thomas Walsingham, and Raphael Regius, illustrating the reception of the Ovidian heroine in medieval France and England as well as in Renaissance Italy and Germany. The works analyzed here show that clerical readings of the feminine in Ovid reflect greater heterogeneity than is commonly alleged. Both moralizing summaries and Latin editions used as schooltexts are discussed.